AGL Oct AskBT FINAL (00:00.056)
Think it's really sad when someone comes to us says, Hey, I think I I heard God tell me tell me I need to say something to you. Most of us immediately clench our butt cheeks, like, don't go 'cause you know, we're expecting them to say, Well, God told me that you're really doing X, Y, Z wrong. Right. God told me this. What sick twisted view of God do we have that God first and foremost hands out punishments and rebukes? You know

He first and foremost tells us who we are and gives us our identity. We need to be able to hear from other people and we need to use that as one of the ways to to discern and understand the the the voice of God.

AGL Oct AskBT FINAL (00:55.148)
Welcome to Aggressive Life. This is a podcast for you to allow your life to be pushed, to stop being a victim, stop hoping it's all gonna work out, stop just assuming that someone's gonna save you from whatever it is that you know you have you have one life to live. One, it's your life, and you have a responsibility to lead your life, and I just want to help you do that. And the process, I just want to help you any way I can, and we have.

A variety of people who have began, man, I'm I'm curious about this, I'm curious about that. So I got my book good buddy Windex back in the studio with me who's gonna ask me questions. I think it's your question. Is that the is that the plan here today? Yeah, well, so we put a bun we put it out on Instagram, like, hey, ask BT anything. And so we've got a whole bunch of questions. You haven't seen these questions. I have not seen these questions. I have. You have, you got them all highlighted. Yeah, we got some stuff that's like some serious stuff, some light stuff, a little bit of everything in between. So we're just gonna

We're just gonna pepper you with questions. Not to get peppered. Okay. Here we go. And there is a segment, a special news segment. Have you ever been pepper sprayed? No. Have you? I not like in a I accidentally bear sprayed myself one time. How how was that? it was horrible. Horrible. You wouldn't recommend it. Like just trying You want me to tell you story? Yeah, yeah, let's All so it was Hey here's a question. First question. Sorry, sorry. Have you ever been have you ever bear sprayed yourself?

yes. So it was a few years ago we were going up to Alaska. It was couple's camping overlanding trip and we're in the middle of I don't know what the middle of nothing. They had this little rest stop there. Not like a rest stop you'd see on seventy five or someplace else. Just a just a gravel thing and they had a a little potty on the side and it was very barren. I'm going in and on the railing going into this little potty thing is is an unused can of bear spray.

Someone said it there and then they forgot it. And I thought, and it's gone. There's nobody around. It's not like they're coming back. And I thought, this is good because I've had bear's prayer before, but I'm never sure exactly how it's going to work, how it should work. I read the directions, but like in a high pressure situation, I'll just You gotta know it. Yeah. Right, you gotta know. And I'm also thinking, I don't want to waste a can of bear's prayer that I just bought, and I gotta buy another one. So I just somebody else's. Right, perfect. So I looked at the instructions. I know enough to know that.

AGL Oct AskBT FINAL (03:15.234)
The wind, you don't want the wind come back in your face. That's bad, bad, bad, bad news. Mm-hmm. So I checked the wind. Wind was wind was fine. It was actually blowing out to the parking lot that was about I don't know, thirty yards away, thirty yards away probably. Where my friends still were. forty yards away maybe. So I'm like so I just did like a I went I did like a tsh ts.

that's cool. Maybe three short blasts. Wasn't like a three short blast. I said, Okay, I understand. I could went in to do my business, sitting down in there, and all of a sudden I hear my my friends are ha hacking up lungs from thirty yards away. Wow. And then even though the wind was going again, I'm in I'm inside. I'm I'm I'm

The right side of the wind and I'm inside. I sprayed outside and I start hacking. man. Brutal. Did it make it make for a mess in the bathroom at all? Or you're No, I didn't throw up. It was very uncomfortable. Have you heard about the woman who didn't know what bear spray was? Is that a real thing? Did that really happen? Okay. So tell that tell us what Well, you should tell that story. So apparently, a rumor has it that there's a woman who was going into similar kind of thing, like out in the American West somewhere. She got a can of bear spray and she thought that bear spray

worked like bug spray. So she lined up all her kids, her whole family was like, stand here while you all get bear sprayed and then she was like and just destroyed her kids. I don't know if it's true. I sure hope it is. It's great. All right. Let's ask you some questions. What's the last thing you asked Chat GPT? wow. Am I allowed to refer to my phone? I'll out. I don't remember actually Chat GPT doesn't

doesn't keep it keeps the history if you do you pay for it or do you just use the free version? I know I pay for it, but it's surprising that it doesn't it doesn't remember stuff very often. You know, it's gotta go back and recreate stuff. Yeah. last thing cheap chat GPT. the literal last thing was I asked it for all the verses

AGL Oct AskBT FINAL (05:35.446)
in the New Testament that related to dying to self. All right. How do you okay, so using Chat GPT for like Bible stuff. Yeah. 'Cause like AI hallucinates and makes up some things like that. How much do you trust it? this is really good. This is this is a really great question. I got tell I'm I I've read the Bible, who knows a lot of times. I've I've got a seminary degree. I've got all the I got a I got the full code year of of of seminary books and

Best in class languages and a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot. And I gotta tell you, man, I started leaning into Chat GPT as if it was a Bible study partner. Okay. And I'll just ask it, like, wait, what's going wait, what what's going on in verse seven of yada yada yada yada? And it comes back with unbelievable things. Really? Yeah. And

So unbelievable when I say unbelievable, I'm like, are you just pandering to me? Because you know, I'm pretty conservative as far as the Bible thing is concerned. Are you just like, know that I'm one of those guys? And I'll ask it, like, are you just are you just trying to tell me what you know I'll agree with? He says, No, that's actually what the Bible says. And I just I'm a large language model who's able to synthesize and all that stuff. And then I asked it, I asked it, I've got the most expensive, exhaustive Bible software, the kind of the pastor's dreams called logos. Yeah.

And I said, I find that I'm using you more than logos. I just I just ask what's the what's the Greek tense of this word here and you give it to me and you explain it to me. So I said, Why would I not just u use you instead of using logos? And it says, you don't want to use me that way. Huh. Really? Yeah. He says, I'm perfect for I'm perfect for giving you large scale answers in church history and large scale stuff.

And through the Bible because I I understand it all. But when you want to drill down on something, you want to use Logos because that's the books you prefer and their AI draws from those but so I I have that logos. So I have like twelve hundred books on my digital library and so the AI function that Logos has now will actually answer and index against all them all my libraries. So wow. I I find Chat GPT unb unbelievably helpful in everything. It's amazing what it knows.

AGL Oct AskBT FINAL (07:55.03)
You know, like it diagnosed a problem on my truck when like the suddenly the the cruise control went out, like the remote start, all kinds of all random stuff and it was like it's probably this and it turns out that's exactly what it was. Yeah. So it's amazing. Yeah. All right, let's ask a a question here. What's something you're afraid of that people would probably be surprised to hear?

AGL Oct AskBT FINAL (08:22.806)
This is a new one.

AGL Oct AskBT FINAL (08:26.646)
It's a new one. I'm afraid of getting old. Hm. I thought you were gonna say snakes. No, I got over snakes. You did? I did, I got over snakes. What did you do? I forced myself whenever there was a snake or there was a picture or there was a move where a snake I forced myself to just look at it and watch it. Exposure therapy, isn't that what they call that? I don't know what they call it, but I th my theory is that our fear of snakes is one of two two reasons. One

It's related to the curse in the garden and in in Genesis one. There's just something spiritually in us for most of us that snakes freak us out. I think it f traces back to to Satan in the garden. And number two is it's it moves more awkwardly than any other pr creature. It just moves. So I just if I watch it and get used to how it moves and look get used to how it looks, I think we'll get over it and I've gotten over it. Okay. Okay. So but back to you're scared of getting old. Yeah, I'm not I'm not scared of getting older.

I'm scared of like late f scared. I mean I'm not ready to say I'm s I am shocking how frequently I think about end of life matters. okay. You know, I just turned on October first, sixty one. I'm gonna be doing crazy shit for a long time. You know, Alaska stuff and hunting and motorcycles. I'm I'm not backing off of that. But I've got

I've got people I know very well who I've seen the end of their life and dementia and what that looks like. And man, I am I am not looking forward to that. I don't plan on that coming anytime soon, but I am yeah, that's got my mind going down a lot of different rabbit holes on that. It's tough stuff. Yeah. Do you see is that a common thing amongst the fri like you have friends of all ages, but amongst guys that are the same kind of age band?

Do you see is that a common thing that people are starting to ask that question? Or you think you're early to it or late to it or what?

AGL Oct AskBT FINAL (10:25.87)
I think I'm

I think I'm in the median. I think I think I'm right in the middle. If you're if you're my age and you and you waited to have kids until later, then here here's the way my life went, right? I had kids r fairly early. All my kids are late twenties, thirties, seven grandkids, a couple more in the way. And there is this unbelievably thing y y you when you got kids, it just

It's pedal to the metal. Like it's it's it's that's your whole life, it's your whole world. You think about tomorrow, not ten decades from now. Exactly, exactly. And then you become empty nesting and it initially that can be just really freaky, like, wow, life is never gonna be the same again. Like the first one that went to college, Lena, I just boo hooed my eyes out because that was the sign that my life is never gonna be the same again. Our family's never gonna the same again, she's never gonna be around for everything, all that stuff.

And then the ones go to college like I fine. I'm I'm over this. I understand how how how this is. And then there's this sweet, sweet period of, hey, I have no responsibility. Or at least no responsibility that I'm not going to get paid for. Yeah. You know, I don't I don't have to go to a soccer game. I don't have to save money. I don't have to pay for a a wedding. I don't have to like that's handled. It's like and life is.

Freaking great. I mean great. You're you're in your you're in your prime income earning years. You're and you have you have like no financial obligations. Well, you still got mortgages and stuff like But you you're you're and then all of a sudden you've got aging parents. Mm. Yep. And they you know, and you gotta care for them. You're parenting on the other end of it. You're parenting on the other end. You know, once you when you when you get past somebody's told me the other day, I I I agree with it.

AGL Oct AskBT FINAL (12:22.882)
When you get past

I think I think the original the original line came from Gordon McDonald, who is a well known pastor and preacher and author. I I spent a little time with Gordon. I think he's I think he's still around. But actually he was on a podcast when he said this. Friend of mine, Carrie Newhoff on his podcast, and he said

Once you said something that as well, once you get to a certain age, life is about ongoing momentum death. Hm. Everything is dying. Everything. You're f your the family structure you had starts to die. You you're you're no longer climbing the corporate ladder and you're you're dy that your your your business life is is dying. You had a certain level of freedom, but no you don't because now you've got a

You've got you got a hip that's bad and you can't wa and and and that's dying. You you have aging parents who now they're they're taking your time. You have to and that's done. It's like life is the r unrelenting process of dying. Which those of you who are 25 are like, I'm I'm stopping this podcast right now. This is terrible. This is sounds terrible, it's depressing. But you do get to a point in life where you go, you understand that. So yeah, that that process, I am shocked at at the things I've

I think now that I never would have thought before based on that. Yeah. That's good. Well you talked about your kids. So, here's a question that came in. What's something your kids have taught you about yourself that you probably didn't want to learn?

AGL Oct AskBT FINAL (14:03.522)
They're they're regularly trying to teach me this about my selfishness. They love teaching me about that. They're so good at it. Yeah, I think they they point that out, you know. could could watch the grandkids more, could could do this, that. They're very they're have great kids, regular kids, but they they'll they'll bring that up from time to time. They won't say

use those exact words, but but I get it. And I think that's good perspective. Yeah. Well that's great. Yeah. if you weren't a pastor, what do you think you'd be doing for a living?

AGL Oct AskBT FINAL (14:42.202)
As in if I like I wasn't in the whole spiritual career realm at all. If you weren't in official ministry or whatever, vocational ministry, whatever. I would I would start any business that could that would make a lot of jack and I can impact a lot of people. Mm. Wouldn't matter I I don't care what business business is, don't matter. Start a boat building business, home building, software company, a

I was dreaming of one the other day. I'm not I'm not gonna let someone might take the idea. I'm not gonna give them an idea. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna but yeah, I would I I I would do that because I could control my fate and destiny. If it went bankrupt it would be on me and not the company and I'd have a way to build into people and build into the kingdom and

That yeah, that would do Yeah, that's good. I mean to that point and entrepreneurship and AI and all that kind of stuff. People are building apps that don't know a single line of code. Right. If you're gonna build an app, what would it be?

'Cause you could probably do it in about a week with chat GPT.

AGL Oct AskBT FINAL (15:55.506)
I was okay, if I was gonna do a I th I think that the latest AI that Meta came out with can do this. That's what I understand. I haven't I haven't dabbled with that one yet. I would create a life I would create an app that holistically maximizes your life. You know, we have I have chat BT GPT to to answer questions I need. I've got an assistant that helps me with with

scheduling and all that kind of stuff. I've got another guy who will give me some coaching on on on workout stuff. Like it seems like those things need to come together. Like some AI app then that holistically can coach you on all of life. Like

How much should you be seeing your kids? Schedule your kids here, knows my calendars who is fitting in the the the the goals of of what the calendar should be with the kids into my stated goals and the calendar and they're reading my my emails and and helping me filter things through my values and here you should put this and now here's what your week should look. And I could reject it, but like a a whole overarching AI app to help me help me live life live my life. That's what I would Great.

Alright, swinging completely away from computers and and all that stuff. Here's a a question some people asked about God. How do you actually know when it's God speaking versus your own voice?

this is why having reading the Bible is important, because God never contradicts himself. And we know the Bible is the word of God. Even though the Bible comes to us through different persons and different personalities, in different communities and time periods, we know it as being God breathed, Second Timothy three, sixteen to seventeen. All scripture is God breathed, profitable for yada yada yada yada.

AGL Oct AskBT FINAL (17:52.598)
So as those people writing that writing things down, they were they were inspired in their own personality to write things God was putting on them. So if if we're not reading the word of God and have any understanding of it, we're not gonna be able to discern there's things that God is definitely not gonna tell us to do. You know, go over and punch your neighbor. No. God's never gonna tell Go, you know, kill XYZ, you know, start a smear cam about

Whatever, because it it will never contradict the scriptures. So so that that's the foundation. That's why the more you read the Bible, the more you understand it, the more confident you can, not in having the rule book that tells you what to do, but in being able to discern, wait, that's a nudge. Is that God who just gave me that nudge? And when I get that nudge, I know God's spoken when I can say

That's a thought I wouldn't have had on my own and that's a thought that Jesus would have had. Therefore, God just told me that and I need to do it. Yeah. That's one of the metrics that I use. What are all the ways you get those nudges? Like I've heard people say, like in a podcast a dude was saying, like, I'm I'm realizing how much God is speaking to me through different, all different kinds of things. Yeah. I don't know. How do you how do you hear that?

Mark one th Mark one says it says Jesus says the time has come, repent and believe the good news. The time there is the word not there's two couple words for for time in Greek. One is chronos, which is where we get the word chronological. It's you know

Seconds become minutes, become days, become weeks, become months, become years, become it's that measure time. And the other one is kairos, which is a a moment, or as you would say, how would you say moment? Mom moment. That's how you say it. That's how you say it. Where did you get that? Where did you say? I don't know. It's the shape of my mouth. It's I don't feel good to say. Yeah, I know. But kairos is when Jesus says that the times come like

AGL Oct AskBT FINAL (20:03.906)
Bam, there's a thing right here. So God is always sending us these gamma rays. They're coming at us. And when we notice like, ooh, something something just took place here. That's a powerful thing. As as our listeners, you know, may know, I've decided to go undergo a job transition. I'm staying at crossroads, the thing I started. But the the bread and butter necessities of the job just don't turn me on anymore.

And I am standing on crossroads doing some things, but I'm I'm I'm freeing up myself to do some other spiritually entrepreneurial apostolic endeavors and focus on things like camps and I'm still preaching at crossroads, I'm still involved and engaged, but there's just you know, so there's a there's a transition talking about dying, right? So there's a di there's a death. Yeah. Okay? Yeah. The thing I've done for thirty years, there's a death. And I was led to that through the lenses of that's what we do as followers of Christ. We pick up our Christ.

pick up our cross and follow him daily. So as I was thinking about it, and it's not just the now how do I grieve that death, even though I I know God has asked me to do that and I'm doing that, there's still a there's still a grieving there. Death is death is painful. There's also simultaneously that going, how how do I set up Kyle Ranson? This idea came up to me out of nowhere, like BAM. Just wow, okay, there it is. I texted Kyle and said

Hey, I I just had an idea for the transition. You you know, you you have a couple seconds after the meeting today. He said, Yeah, he said, Yeah, yeah, yeah, I did. And I ran this idea by him that was that was how to make this transition so better. So something I wanted to say about him. And he said, Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Now and I had to run that by him, not just 'cause I wanted to concur that that God had spoken to me, because I wasn't s I wasn't sitting in the moment thinking, how can I make life easier for Kyle?

I was thinking about something else and boom, this thing comes out of nowhere. I'm like, wow. That that could be good. And I needed to make sure that he was good with that. I need I need to check off on so when God speaks to me as best I can, I want to check off on it. So when I'm sensing God saying, Hey, I've got a new frontier for you, a new place, time for you to leave the responsibilities and comforts of your old job, I didn't just declare off the mountain. I mean I was talking with close friends about that. Yeah. You know? So

AGL Oct AskBT FINAL (22:30.71)
Read the Bible if you're questioning how to hear from God. Read the Bible. Be attention to things that move you that you think would move Jesus. And especially if you don't like it, then you know. You know. Yeah, there you go. No, I mean it's God does speak to us. I think it's really sad when someone comes to us and says, Hey, I think I I heard God tell me tell me I need to say something to you. Most of us immediately clench our butt cheeks. Like, don't. Because you know, we're expecting them to say,

Well, God told me that you're really doing XYZ wrong. Right. God told me this what sick twisted view of God do we have that God first and foremost hands out punishments and rebukes. Yeah. He first and foremost tells us who we are and gives us our identity. but we need to be able to we need to be able to hear from other people and we need to use that as one of the ways to to discern and understand the the the voice of God. Yeah, that's great.

all right. Here's here's another faith question. What's something you believed about God twenty years ago that you don't believe anymore?

AGL Oct AskBT FINAL (23:40.986)
I've got a number of those things actually. Yeah, I got a number of those things. I would call these things born again experiences where something changed and pff, you know, just just open my eyes. I do not believe any longer that the Holy Spirit is limited in what he does and what he will do through people. I was brought up in a in a tradition where you didn't talk about

The Holy Spirit very often. you were quite frankly a little afraid of the Holy Spirit. You were it was he was a mysterious entity. Because he is. He is he is a mysterious entity. But I grew up around a lot of say, and so therefore, you know, the the gift of apostleship, the office of apostle, that's wrong. In Ephesians 5, there's fivefold office of the fivefold office of the church. There's people who are apostles, there's people

Who are prophets, people who are evangelists, people who are shepherds, and sh people who are teachers. And in seminary, I was telling, well, apostles, they're dead, they're dead. They're they're gone with with with the last of the apostles dying, the original apostles. The prophets, they say, Well, you can be a prophet if I can stone you. Cause that was that used to be the process in the old testament. That's what you're wrong. Yeah, right. Evangelists, maybe I guess of Billy Evang Billy Graham, they would say, not sure what to do with that. And then

Shepherd teacher, that's actually one. It's one and the same. Shepherd teacher. So it's basically the preacher's union saying, the only one that's left is the shepherd teacher, and they're one, and that's me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you know, about 20 years ago, I just started having more experience where I started seeing things in the Bible that didn't fit my previous previous thing. That well, you know, once you go down a path, you also limit things like tongues. Tongues don't exist. You limit things like

You you start praying when you pray for people, you pray these weenie, stupid prayers like, Well God, if it's your will, then heal them. Like 'cause I'm so afraid that I might move in power. Maybe you don't want to heal people. Maybe this is maybe this is this person's destiny. They were to have this sort of sickness. Yeah, like everything you starts getting really passive on all this stuff. And when I had a Holy Spirit reawaken, I was like, No, man, I'm I'm I'm a pray healing. And also

AGL Oct AskBT FINAL (26:05.73)
There's an ongoing filling of the Holy Spirit, which used to intimidate me before that. That the Holy you get filled with the Holy Spirit when you come to know Jesus. Yes, you do. I I don't believe in a second touch of the Holy Spirit that some people believe in, the second touch, unless we're unless we're gonna say, well, there's a baptism of the Holy Spirit, a second touch, a third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh. I'm on my I'm on my eleven thousandth touch 'cause the c the Holy Spirit's constantly filling us for the work of ministry. Yeah.

So I would say it was a it was an overhaul of my understanding of what the Bible teaches about the Holy Spirit. And ma'am, I'm really thankful for it. My life is turned as a result. Yeah, like Jesus said, you'll do greater things than me. Yes. And it's like there's a lot of weird, crazy stuff in the Bible. Why would we get rid of that? Why would it be gone? Yes. Totally. Yeah. All right, shifting without a clutch. Let's ask a whole other question. What is the best meal you've ever eaten in the middle of the

AGL Oct AskBT FINAL (27:05.198)
just 'cause it's most recent memory and I think this is right. I would choose last month the moose that we ate after we after we hauled it up out of out of the woods. It wasn't a fancy meal. We had a Coleman stove. we had a pelican case that operated as our cutting board. And I we took tenderloin and

We had salt and pepper. was all we had for it. We had a little bit of olive oil to put on the pan. And the offitter had dropped off raw cabbage, raw well what was it? Raw cabbage, tomato, and I think radishes or something like that. And we had no salad dressing. So we cut that up, cut that up, and then we did the did the tenderloin and we put it on that plate. And I'll tell you what.

After heating eating dehydrated food, Mountain House for ten days at all your meals to like crunch into a legitimate vegetable that that didn't have any dressing, but to crunch into a legitimate vegetable and to actually have real meat that wasn't dehydrated, my gosh. Look out Loretta. And you worked for it. So we did work. It tastes a little better, right? Right. We work for it and it's it's the process. Well

Did you say did you save all those veggies until you got the moose? Yeah. That's its own little level of discipline. Yeah, we did. We did do that. You know, you asked early about about dying to self. I've been thinking about this a lot.

You know, hunting is the quote unquote circle of life, which I think it's such a cheesy s saying. I wish Disney would stop making songs. It's a good song. It's a great song. Circle of life. I don't know. It just I don't know, for every reason I don't like it. I I I think why I I don't like it is because the way I normally hear that used in culture, it's sort of like the reincarnation. We just keep coming back again. It's this like new age spiritual, pop spirituality of trying to explain away bad things and

AGL Oct AskBT FINAL (29:18.158)
I don't I don't I don't I don't like it. But but it is true that there is a circle of life and that that that thing died so that I could have life. I could get nutrients elsewhere but got through there. Jesus dies on a cross so I can have life. So as I was eating that moose and those those veggies, you know those veggies died. In fact that

Right. worms and frogs and snakes all died for that. You know, when you're a hardcore vegetarian, you're just not making you're not making sense that you're just against cute looking animals being killed. Because there's a lot of death that when when that farmer came and plowed across that ground, he he he killed all kinds of life. Grubs and worms and snakes and moles and ra you know, the rabbits are kinda cute. Yeah, killed them all. So so

The things that we eat, something died for that. And that meal was was an example of it. Yeah. It was great. All right. Here's one. a relationship question. is it possible? Can you completely forgive someone and still decide you don't want them close to you anymore?

I haven't answered that, but I won't realize I also had a good friend a good friend Buddy Wendix who's pretty smart as well. What do you say to that question? I think it's possible. I think you could I think forgiveness is is more about you than the person and whatever. It's like you releasing something and not carrying that, you know, that baggage around and harboring that bitterness. Like you let go of that and you're free from it. There's also people that are just not helpful to be around, you know? And

That's not to say that you could you might never be around but like a little bit of space is all right sometimes. That's what I think. Yeah. I mean, yeah. You can totally forgive somebody and still say, I just still need some space. Yeah. Cause this interaction, this relationship is not healthy right now. Yeah. The Bible says let no root of bitterness grow up. So when we have a root of bitterness, it it weaves throughout our entire spiritual life and chokes out the things that God wants to do in us and say to us.

AGL Oct AskBT FINAL (31:30.86)
So forgiveness is for me more than the other person. I mean I I forgive so that I feel cleansed, so that I I am moving on. I'm getting beyond it. Which is why Jesus is on the cross and he says, Forgive them. they know not what they do. Now.

Would Jesus have come if Jesus happened to live through the cross and says sorry, he lived he lived through the cross. is he going to be in a tight friendship with the people who beat him and spat on him? And would he would he have them in his inner circle? I don't I don't think so. Right. If you forgive somebody who is your CFO of the organization you lead and they were they were embezzling money,

You forgive them, yeah. Okay, would you have them in the same role and risk them with all of your money? Right. no, no, no, no. You you wouldn't do. If your if if your spouse cheated on somebody or cheat if your spouse cheated on you and you and your spouse happened to get things back together and the person who cheated with your spouse was a friend of yours, are you gonna forgive them?

Yes, eventually you need to be able to forgive them. Are they gonna be your friend again? probably not. Yeah. Are they ever are you ever gonna have them around family fun? No, it'd be really stupid. You know, so we can operate forgiveness and be free and and love somebody and be okay with them, but not gain give them the same access to our life. That's right. There's a huge difference between forgiveness and consequences. Right? You know, like yeah. here's one this I like this one. This is no question, but thank you for having Man Camp. It changed my husband's life.

Always like hearing those. That's good. Yeah, that's a good one. here's another kind of man camp related one. You've spent years talking about the five marks of a man. which one of the five is still hardest for you personally? I'd make it a two parter. Which one's hardest and which one's easiest of the five marks of a man?

AGL Oct AskBT FINAL (33:40.866)
Well, right now right now I would say the hardest this is not the way it is is been for me through my whole life, but right now, for sure, the hardest is vision. That's probably been the easiest for me, but right now it's the hardest because my vision has been crossroads centric. I could always pivot crossroads to that vision, my vision been around that. And

You know, and it was it's been a really it was a really tough, you know, seven, eight months, whatever it was. And when when you're really having a hard time, you don't have I don't I don't have time to dream anyway. It you're you're just thinking about how to survive, how to process this, how to you know, how to make sense of everything. You're not blue blue sky dreaming things. So I haven't really been operating with vision over the past many months and now now it's starting to come back.

Because now I've got runway and space and I've got stuff removed. So it's starting to come back. I can see it in your eyes right now. You can't absolutely do it. Yeah. But it's interesting. I would have never thought, I would have never thought that I'd gone through a season where vision would be the would be the hardest. but that's that's been that's that's been the hardest. I think the one that is is always easiest for me is team player. And that probably traces not just my

background in team sports, but also, you know, because there wasn't a lot of emotional warmth in my family, I got emotional warmth from my team and friends. And and that was also one of the difficult things about my last journey. It was so so tough. It was like the team that I was a part of. Right. You know, I just was removed from So I'm a team guy. I when I was I like motorcycles, but I when I was really big into like it that was my thing.

I'd never want to go on trips by myself. Right. A lot of motorcycle guys do. They they they love that. They have their introvert time, but no, I'm I wanna ride with people, I want to be with people and have a team set. So and and you've been on many of those trips. Right. And it y it is the weird thing. Like we go on these trips and then you come across a guy doing a similar thing, but he's by himself. I'm like What a loser. What is he talking about at the campfire all night? Nothing.

AGL Oct AskBT FINAL (36:11.701)
it blows me away. Anyway. I'm sorry if you ride motorcycles by yourself. You're not a loser. It sounds great. Yeah. Sounds great. Just not for Good job. a coup just a couple more questions. What's one thing you're embarrassingly bad?

Planning. Yeah, planning. My oldest daughter plans everything for the family. I just pay for it. That sounds like team player to me, is what it's like. Yeah, yeah, you're right. My you know, my assistant like I I have an assistant and other people around me 'cause man, I I I I can get a vision, I can have a put together talk, but when it comes to organizing an event

or a process, I'm just I'm I'm really, really, really bad at it. So like that's why budgets never worked. Yeah. You know, the only time a budget started working for me is when I when I earned enough money I couldn't spend that much money. Then it worked. You know. you know, just I it was How long did it take you to be self aware of that? 'Cause that's a huge thing to it's it's it's great to be like, you what, I'm bad at this, because then you can play. I was age I was age thirty when I when I realized that. Okay. Gotcha. That's why the very first f full time

position we had a crossroads was a full time assistant for me. Okay. Which is really counterintuitive. You want your worship person to be the first full time person. You want your, you know, children's person, a student person. You want to do something that's gonna grab pe get people in the doors. Yeah. The those staff members. And I said, Well, what we really need is g have somebody who helps me operate a peak epi peak efficiency. Yeah. So I I've known it for a while. That's great. Okay. the the last question, I mentioned the

the special segment we have, the phone of friend. So what we're gonna do with all of these is we're gonna connect you to somebody who you care about or who cares about you. And we have Libby because the the biggest question is pretty special. Yeah, she's good. I would hope she's pretty high on your list, right? Yeah. the the single biggest question that came through here is how's Libby doing? So here on the podcast through the magic of the internet, we have Libby. How's it going? Can you hear us?

AGL Oct AskBT FINAL (38:20.928)
Hi everybody. Yeah, I can hear you. How you doing? I'm doing great. Good. So why don't you answer the question then instead of me answering for you? How are you doing? Not just like right now. You're doing it. How are you doing? Well, I'm I'm doing really well, actually. I'm excited for this new run of yours and I'm trusting that it's part of your story. And I think God is going to use you mightily. So I'm excited.

That sounds like he she's asking how you're doing, but Libby, how are you actually doing? Exactly. I think they're probably curious about, you know, cancer recovery and you know, I don't know what else. Just what what else holistically with you? Well, cancer recovery is good. I feel like I'm back to normal. getting stronger. And that's that's kind of all very good and behind me, I feel like. So

Don't know what else more to ask or more to say about that. But And your hair is getting thicker and longer. Well, it's dark and gray, but yeah. It is what it is. It did come back thicker. People told us it would come back thicker. I I concur. It is thicker. You concur? Yeah, I think so. A little bit. Yeah, you're I don't have any dye in it. Yeah. Yeah. She's still she's still bummed it's not long. That was one of the things like the she she warriored through the the chemo

Off really, really well, but I think it was a just a a a big emotional thing for you. Like, gosh, it's gonna be a long time till I look like my preferred self with my hair and everything. So that's a normal thing. Well, Libby, I'll just say you look great. The last time I saw you, you had a light in your eyes and it just feels like you're back to you. And it's beautiful. It's beautiful to see that. Well, thank you. I'm actually heading to my car right now for going to a workout. Just going to work out.

All right, all right. We'll see ya. All right. what else do you want to know? that's it. I think that's all we need. No, you're not doing on the cut. No, I know how you are with cars. No, let alone pay attention to having a FaceTime thing on the car. No, well that's another episode for another day. All right, love you, sweetie. We'll talk to you later. that's it. That was easy. Okay, bye everybody. That's it. Bye. Love ya. Bye. Love ya. All right. All right, cool. so what'd you think of those questions? Good questions? Yeah. Very good questions. Yeah.

AGL Oct AskBT FINAL (40:46.104)
Those peop those are they all came from X those are from the internet. Yeah, yeah, those good those are good questions. Yeah. Did you how many what percentage of those ones did you get? thirty one percent. Thirty one percent. I'm just gonna get to guess. Yeah. Yeah. Well, thanks for being part of the Gress of Life today. Hey, this this podcast isn't about me, it's about you. I answered a lot of questions here. I didn't answer a lot of questions. I want to hear myself talk. I answered a lot of questions because I want help you any way I can help you. So I hope these questions helped you.

Not again just to have another mental process. Ooh, I have new knowledge. Again, it's called the aggressive life. So we take that knowledge and we put it into practice and we do it. So do that. Live your life. We'll see you next time on the aggressive life.

AGL Oct AskBT FINAL (41:31.022)
Thanks for joining us on this journey toward aggressive living. Find more resources, articles, past episodes, and more at Briantome.com. My new book, a 60-day devotional called The Five Marks for Man: 60 Days to a Powerful Life, along with all the other books in the Five Marks Library, are open right now on Amazon. Be sure to leave us a rating and review wherever you listen to your podcast. Then send an email to Dirt, that's Dirt.

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