The Kings Creek Podcast
Fueled by our love for God’s creation, we spark fresh and funny conversations that unite listeners through shared passions like the outdoors, golf, and music. Although uncharted waters can be frightening, they also tend to yield the greatest rewards. So, grab your life jacket and hop in the creek... it's a journey worth taking.
The Kings Creek Podcast
Embracing Adversity: A Journey Into Gratitude | Daniel Ritchie | Ep. 002
Join us as we unravel what the spirit of gratitude looks like with our guest Daniel Ritchie, an inspiring evangelist and speaker. Daniel's life is a stirring chronicle of challenges, faith, and the transformative power that gratitude wields. He shares his compelling journey of trials and triumph, while painting a vivid picture of how choosing to be thankful shaped his life.
We don't stop there. Daniel, who was born without arms, draws back the curtain to reveal the discrimination he has endured due to his different ability. Yet in this narrative of struggle, Daniel shares how faith in Jesus has enabled him to find gratitude in all circumstances.
The episode draws to a close with a heartwarming discussion on the pivotal role gratitude plays in curating a fulfilling life. We explore the concept of a "blessing list" and how it focuses on the plentiful blessings in our lives, rather than the limitations. We also delve into the idea of journaling "measures of grace" to combat negativity. As we wrap up, we stress the importance of spreading positivity beyond our homes and cherishing every moment with our loved ones. So, are you ready for an episode brimming with inspiration, hope, and a refreshing take on gratitude? Tune in.
Intro & Outro Song - Ray Fulcher: All Gas No Brakes
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Get your life jackets, ladies and gentlemen, because this is episode two of the Kings Creek podcast. Today's guest is honestly nothing short of incredible, and Jesse has gotten to know him throughout the years. So, jesse, why don't you tell us a little bit about our guest?
Speaker 2:Yes, not only have I gotten to know him, but he's become a great friend of mine, and I probably could not think of another person that embodies the attitude of gratitude like our next guest from Raleigh, north Carolina, Daniel Richie.
Speaker 1:All right, you guys. So just to give you a brief idea of where we're at in this series, we spent the last episode with Dr McKinley and that was a chance for us to define gratitude in the way that we see it at Kings Creek and to give Dr McKinley a chance to explain from his perspective what gratitude is. And in this episode we are joined by an incredible guy, and the main takeaway for this is to show you what gratitude looks like in the real world and to give you the idea that it doesn't matter what circumstance you're in. You can always choose to have an attitude of gratitude.
Speaker 2:Right, and so 100% is a choice.
Speaker 1:And so, with that said, I want to introduce Daniel Richie.
Speaker 3:Hey, what's up guys?
Speaker 1:What's going on?
Speaker 3:Man, super, super thrilled to be here, man. Augusta is my second home, so it's good to be hanging out with y'all tonight, yeah we love to hear that We've kind of adopted him. I mean I'll take it he's an associate pastor for us.
Speaker 2:I feel like.
Speaker 3:I mean, I'm the guy that comes out of the bullpen once a year, so yeah, I'll take it.
Speaker 2:Wild thing yeah. That's right that is awesome, but it's so glad to have you. I mean, we were both excited and just as quick as we figured out what this series was going to be the gratitude series and Dr McKinley was going to come in there and lead us off. I knew. I knew who the guy that would get the job done was going to be.
Speaker 3:I'm a little salty that I have to follow Dr.
Speaker 2:McKinley Sure the cleaner, You're the clean up batter.
Speaker 3:I don't know. But yeah, man, excited to be here, honored to be here.
Speaker 2:We did put you in a tough spot, though he's kind of a. He's a tough one to follow, but yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but well, I'll try to do my best to see my next game.
Speaker 2:You cover, you check every box, I can promise you.
Speaker 1:Again. I think that's kind of gratitude right there. But anyways, daniel, why don't you kind of take a second and just introduce the folks who you are?
Speaker 3:Okay, so my name is Daniel Richie. I live in Raleigh, north Carolina, married to Heather for 17 years now, and then we got an 11-year-old boy at a home named Teague, a year-old little girl named Elliot, and I guess my day job is I'm an evangelist and speaker, and so so much of that is just leveraging my story, hopefully to just point people to the fact that it's man. My story at the end of the day is just it is a crazy story of the grace of God. It has nothing to do with an armless guy that tried really hard and did good with his life, but God really stepped into a mess and changed everything about it and I want the world to know that same sort of life changing hope. So that's been yeah, this is now your. I'll start your 25th of ministry January 1. Wow, so yeah, man, it's just, it's been a ride.
Speaker 2:Wow, I didn't know you're 25 years old.
Speaker 1:You don't look it.
Speaker 3:I'm a puppy.
Speaker 1:You also have a couple books. I did want to mention that, my Affliction for His Glory and Endure, endure being the newest one. And on top of that, you mentioned that you're in school for a master's degree, right?
Speaker 3:now. Yeah, yeah, it's Southeastern Seminary Again, my MDiv and preaching, so that'll be a fun ride. Just trying to improve my mediocre preaching to slightly not mediocre, but yeah, excited about that journey. That'll probably take me a decade, but bring it on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, bring it on. I can only imagine how little free time you have now. It's not great, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's not very good, yeah, and who knows if I finish the degree. But I'm really going to try. I'm really going to try.
Speaker 1:Well, that's all you can do is try. But yeah, we're super grateful for the time. I know you made the drive down here to do this with us today, so I know Jesse and I are both super grateful for that. Why don't we you kind of mentioned your story why don't we just start with that? Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what's so different about you that our listeners can't tell by your sophisticated voice.
Speaker 3:I mean, I think the Kings Creek people would appreciate the massive beard that is hanging from my face right now. That one, that's a big differentiator. The floppy sleeves that one kind of sets me apart. Working on that. Yeah, Between those two things it's like was he a lumberjack, that something went terribly wrong, or you know? But no, so I was born without arms. I think that's the obvious differentiator in the vast majority of people. I mean day to day.
Speaker 2:Maybe to start your story and give you kind of something to build from and to give our listeners something to. I guess maybe start to muster over in their brains a little bit the conversation that ended with do you want us to let him go?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I was born without my arms. But that, even that aspect of my story, was like just straight surprise. You know, my mom had a healthy pregnancy, two ultrasounds. In the process of that, they didn't catch my disability at all, and so the moment I was born was the moment that they knew something was up. And then, you know, immediately they knew there was more going on than just my armlessness, because I wasn't crying, and so they were. They were trying to see if I was breathing. I wasn't breathing.
Speaker 3:Doctor tried to find a pulse, couldn't find a pulse, and so the very next words out of his mouth was that was? He turned to my dad and then, you know, he showed me to my dad, so dad could see that you know just what my situation was. And then he asked my dad, do you want us to let him go? And um, and man praise God, dad didn't mull it over or panic or or anything. He just very simply just told the doctor to do whatever they could, um, to try to revive me. And so I think mom and dad said it was, it was probably less than 90 seconds. They worked on me and brought me right back, but that was like that was my welcome to the world moment and I think that was kind of the. That was the glimpse of what was coming down the road, you know in in the years to come.
Speaker 2:Right, and I think and Mike, you can attest to this too that the thing that sticks out with me in this statement is is very easy to start comparing yourself which is something we're going to get into as well with the situation that you're in. But, um, when you dive deeper into the conversation, can I just can't imagine, as a father, being put in that position. You know, and not for one. The first thing, and I'm very grateful for the attitude that, obviously, that I think I have, um, it would probably be. I would have answered him with a little rage, I think.
Speaker 2:You know I'd probably answer the question with a question Are you kidding me? Have you lost your? I mean, what is your job? You know what I mean. So, but I do understand, from a medical standpoint and historically maybe, what he had been through in the past and what was customary, you know as something that obviously, as believers, we don't. You know, that's just not even a, it's not even a question. So, but now, as a parent, I'm thinking to myself gosh, I don't even have time to think about what I would do if I were in your position. Um, then, I'm thinking about it as a parent, you know, what would I do?
Speaker 3:You know if my son or daughter um if I was putting that spot so that's what's rolled around in my brain now that you know I'm a daddy of two, like I could not imagine the whiplash of going in your life. All right, this is it. This is like my, my, my son's about to be here. This is going to be the most joyful day of my life. Let's go, uh, to that right, you know, to just the absolute. I mean just bone jarring, just shift of everything and um, and just like shattered expectations. I mean it literally. You want to talk about a house car as it collapsed in 10 seconds. That's, that's that has to be what went through my parents minds, cause it's like I've got an older brother that he's six, five, two, 20 in the U S army, like he's a, he does bomb disposal. I mean it's like he's a bad dude. And so they were just like we're. We're going to have another one of those you know, and uh, and so I mean to to have the, the nine months of expectation of this is what we're going to get to.
Speaker 3:That moment, part of me is just like. I mean obviously like dad's character came out in that moment, but it's just like I don't. I don't even know how you could croak out words, you know, in the midst of that, that that to me, I think, is the most remarkable thing in that moment, was like dad didn't. Dad didn't buckle in the moment. You know, he just man, he stepped right in and in a very simple sentence, but you know, that was also I think that was the glimpse of what was to come. He was always like my advocate, my fighter, my we're going to do whatever it is that we can do to try to try to make this work. And so I think even that picture in that moment was the glimpse of of what I was going to have moving forward Wow.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's incredible, I don't even know what the words to say. Um, yeah, as a father too, I was thinking about it and I'm sure that made when you had your, your first child.
Speaker 3:I'm sure that moment was like just an incredible moment to experience, regardless of the yeah Well, you know it was funny cause it was like, I think, with my story as the backdrop. I remember, with our, with our first, with my son going into that first, first ultrasound, I'm sitting here going, well, what if? What if he's like me, like what if? What if he has to walk this same road that I've already had to walk for three decades? And then there was part of me that was like panicking.
Speaker 3:But then it was like there was part of me too where it's like who else better to raise that sort of child than than the guy that's already? I've already run that path Right and and so you know, there there was part of me there going into that moment with with me on the other end of things, like man, how is this going to go? But but just kind of trusting the fact it's like all right, we have three decades of God's grace. That's very present in my story. I think God can take care of whatever we're going to have to go through in our parental adventure moving forward.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. I want to take it back. So what are your like, your earliest memories like? Like, did you feel like you lived a different life, or was it pretty normal?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, you know, pretty, pretty normal, I mean normal ish, but I mean it's normal, as normal as you could have it. I mean I really feel like you know, I went, I went to public school. I didn't I didn't do special ed or anything I did, did youth sports, did soccer, football, kickboxing, I mean, you know, went to school dances. You know it's just like from the all, all of those little markers that your kid is always going to walk through, I feel like I got to enjoy the not like.
Speaker 3:The path to that point was a little bit, a little bit different, looked, looked a little weird. But I don't feel like you know, my, my life departed from what what people would think of is just like normal sort of experiences that a, you know, an eight year old or a 15 year old is going to walk through. It was just everything looked a little different. Everything had its own unique set of challenges that we had to, I think, navigate and figure out our. How do we make the most of this when we truly don't even know what we're doing?
Speaker 1:Yeah, did that take a toll on you at all?
Speaker 3:Like in the early days it didn't, because I think, I think for me like the the bizarre thing that most people don't realize this is super normal to me. You know, like this is. This is life, you know, and so I had. It didn't click in my mind that I was grossly different than everybody else, probably until middle school. You know that sort of you know, finding yourself sort of stretch of your life. And I'm looking around and I'm going, oh, oh, okay. Yeah.
Speaker 3:But but yeah, man, the, the, I don't know man, probably first, 12 years, 13 years of my life, I didn't even think a thing of it until other people started thinking things of it and started letting me know how you know it was. It was the perspective of the outside world, that's. That's when things started to get real cloudy and murky as to all right, am I, am I truly like, not not good, or like, am I, am I weird? And so that's that's when the question started to flood in.
Speaker 2:It's kind of at the age to where you realize, through some situation in the munchroom or what have you that that. Oh, there is another option for me in terms of how I treat people. Yeah, yeah, I mean because you grew up so long and everybody's friends, regardless of your color, whatever condition you have, everybody's just. You know it just takes somebody a little bit longer to do things than others, and but you know there's no dissension between people and then it's like it just, it pours on it at a certain age.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that literally you know to. To point out the lunchroom thing. I mean that was literally the moment where it's like my world cracked open was. It was like middle school lunchroom moment. It was pizza day and in like public school pizza is an abomination. We were, we were just talking, we were just talking about pizza a little while ago and and how much we all love pizza, and like North Carolina public school pizza comes in like these crustless rectangles and the crust is like the consistency of carpet and so it's like super floppy.
Speaker 3:And I remember I was, I was sitting there at the lunch table trying to eat this stupid pizza rectangle thing and it's just like I couldn't. I couldn't get it in my face because it was so floppy and I don't have like thumbs or long fingers and it's like I'm looking across the table at my buddies they're not struggling to to eat their pizza. And then it was like I looked around in a in this big middle school cafeteria probably I bet you it's 300 other students and I'm going. I'm the only kid right now that is struggling to eat this pizza. And that was the moment for me where it was just like it got. It got real dark, real quick and it was like oh, this is, this is the rest of my life, and that's. That's when it started to get real dark, real heavy, real fast.
Speaker 2:Right, and I think this, you know, is I mean for us, it's understandable. Yeah. At the age that I am now, I can see where that there's a lot of things that go real dark real quick, that are a lot less invasive to the surrounding group of people.
Speaker 2:And if you've ever gone to a lunch room, the only time I've been as nervous, when I was in that position as a young child, I was that nervous when I went back with my kids. You can come, let's go to school and eat lunch with parents or with your kid, you know that kind of a day and just to visit and sitting around seeing how kids would treat each other and talk to each other, and I'm like I'm wanting to be, you know, mall cop at that point.
Speaker 2:I'm wanting to go around there All right, point out all the ones that are causing some problems. Let's go ahead and handle this real quick because I don't, you know, I don't want you guys to have to go through that, but you know, it's interesting how you can easily just call that particular memory back and see how it has impacted your life, and I think that is something that we have totally taken for granted in this country is as bad as it sounds and as bad as bullying and all of that situation is, it has molded some fine, fine people knowing that bad side of things. Now, this is not an endorsement to bullies, but by no stretch.
Speaker 1:I think a lot of people share the sediment that you're saying, but it's hard to express without sounding like a crazy person.
Speaker 2:It's just giving me the opportunity, or give kids the opportunity, to have to dig a little deeper, because I can assure you, if everything would have been just, you know, cakewalk for you, you know the you wouldn't have seen. You know not only a need for you to stand up for yourself, but ultimately the need of a savior.
Speaker 2:I mean if you could do it all on your own and I think that you know, if they would have, let me, at my daughter and my son's school, just clean house real quick in the lunchroom, I think we would have had a whole school full of kids that wouldn't know how to solve problems.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we'd probably be doing this podcast interview from prison. So I'm glad you didn't go that route and given middle school kids a bunch of swirly. So raise God, good job.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so I guess maybe to echo a little bit of that, um it it may be flip, and I don't want to give everybody your too much of the book away because I'd I mean, if they don't read this, I don't know what's wrong with them. But anyway, there's a few things here that will rip you in half as a human being, and here are some of the statements to me that you know, growing up with a different ability. I don't know why we choose words the way we do, but it's not. I would just like to think of it as a different ability. Um, but you, not only did you have to deal with that, but when my parents and I were asked to leave a restaurant because I ate with my feet, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, your dad is a is a saint.
Speaker 3:Hey man, we, we, we got some, uh, Olive, Olive garden gift certificates out of the whole situation.
Speaker 3:So, that that that worked out well. It got a lot of never-ending pasta bowls, but uh, yeah, that was. You know, again, it was just. I mean I remember sitting there and and I mean that wasn't the only time in my life I've been been removed from a restaurant. Uh, you know, because of that, but it's just like there's part of me where it's like I mean what else you want me to do? You? You going to feed me? Do I do? I got a? Do I get a tip you extra? You know, it's just like I don't. I don't know what what people's, people's expectations are you know much less.
Speaker 3:I fully understand that you don't. You don't meet people like me on a on a regular basis, and most, most people don't even have a category to like process that certain situation, even even through, and I think people just automatically default to all right. Well, let's just remove the problem from the situation instead of trying to work, work through it or work with this human being, or try and try to understand. You know why I'm there and what I'm doing.
Speaker 3:I you know, I think most people just immediately default to uh, man, it's almost just like the nuclear option. Uh, yeah it it leads to. It leads to some very teachable moments. I mean I even I had that happen to me. It was, it was Heather's, I want to say, it was like her, our nose.
Speaker 3:It was my birthday. I went to go get Mexican food and I was just getting it to go and uh, and the dude just gave me up one side and down the other of why I was paying with my feet and why I was getting the food with my feet. And I'm like, bro, happy, happy, happy birthday, you know, and so I, yeah, I don't, I don't understand people's like why that's the default. Um, but I think too, it just it gives a very teachable moment and just you know how to, how to respond to to people like me, people in a wheelchair, people that are visually impaired or hearing impaired. I mean, it's just like. I think the most faithful thing for us to do first is to ask questions before we start making blanket statements that we're going to look like morons on the backside of.
Speaker 2:Right and and Mike, I know you, being in the military, you've been around a lot of uniformity and and and. In this country we kind of tend to if, if you are not exactly like the next person, then we feel like we need to create a category to put you in Right Um, and I don't know if that's, it's definitely not to your benefit.
Speaker 1:It's not to make you feel special, you're the only guy that we know without arms.
Speaker 2:So we're going to create that is, unless you don't want to identify somebody with arms.
Speaker 4:Right, yeah, yeah, I'm going to I'm going to identify as a unicorn, I mean, you know, identify.
Speaker 2:I've got arms. So yeah you know, whatever it is, but um, anyway, that's another rabbit trail. I promise you I can run down, but we wouldn't get anywhere. Um, this other statement when I wasn't allowed to play in a YMCA soccer game until I took my arms out of my shirt.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I guess the guy was afraid I was trying to skate on hand balls or something. So, yeah, that was to have an argument with a grown man.
Speaker 1:No, really, I don't have arms, you know, that was uh, you know, I think I'm David Blaine and I'm just like illusion illusionist. Yeah.
Speaker 2:They pop out and and that's crazy he told I could not get on theme park rides with my friends because I was an insurance liability.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's, that's that still happens this day, you're going to slide right through the arm.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:We went to universal in May. They wouldn't let me. They wouldn't let me ride a single thing. Mary, go around Nothing.
Speaker 2:We're going to give you some prosthetic, just that's. All they need to do is see it. Yeah, Whether it works or it's helpful, I'm all about being safe and I don't want to sling you out of you know the what did?
Speaker 1:you get worried, though, of flying out.
Speaker 3:I wouldn't.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean the ones that like buckled down between your legs, you'd be fine, yeah it was.
Speaker 3:it was funny we did, we did Disney on the same trip, and they didn't care. They were like get on whatever you want. I can't we dude we got.
Speaker 3:We got on a tron like the new one, yeah, and they have like a I don't know, it's like a handicap accessible car in the back, and so they were like you can ride in there. I legitimately thought I was going to die because I was. I was sliding all around the car in the back and I was like my kids are never going to see me again and it's because of this stupid Disney trip. So, so there was part of me where it's like I don't know if, if I want to do this anymore.
Speaker 3:So yeah, that went.
Speaker 2:that one created some some second thoughts in my brain, but but and you're a smart guy when you get in there and you're like, look, there's really no feel like this is holding on to me.
Speaker 1:I'm going to set this one out.
Speaker 2:I'm going to go ahead and go back and y'all have fun. Kids you know, and but no, um, another one here getting frisk at the mall because a store owner thought I was keeping stolen merchandise under my shirt.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I mean you know, again, I think assumption is a pretty dangerous thing and I think a lot, of, a lot of those situations are just people people's assumption of me, and it's usually not assuming the best. It's almost always assuming either the worst or the most broken, or the the absolute worst picture of the situation. That's where people's minds automatically go and that's that's how my initial like that that is my first impression. To most people it's usually not great, and so it's I'm always. I'm always feeling like I have to like climb that hill from the moment I meet somebody for the first time.
Speaker 2:And it's you know, I think it's to the point that it's either you have to make jokes and be humorous about it as an icebreaker. Yeah. Because the human mind just does not process. You don't want to be treated any differently than anybody. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:Well, I think, with humor it's super disarming. But you know yeah yeah, we need some, some lap tracks, but I think I think, if people I got one on there somewhere, I just don't hit the wrong one.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but it's like I think in those situations that people can see all right, he's, he's laughing at himself. I think it automatically it takes people off from from feeling like they're walking off glass. Walking on glass, you know, because a lot of people they're like oh, I don't want to offend him, I don't want to say anything. Like I preached a conference last week and as soon as I finished the guy stepped up in the pulpit and he's like hey, let's give him a hand. And then it was like I just watched the poor guy's like blood drain out of his face.
Speaker 3:He looked back at me. He's like man. I'm so sorry. I'm like bro. I just laughed at myself for 35 minutes. It's okay, that's right. Yeah. Okay. So yeah, I think I think to show people you're comfortable in your own skin, I think it allows them to to become more comfortable just with my situation and how they can interact.
Speaker 1:To take it back to. I want to take it back to the, the lunchroom moment that you talked about and how you started to feel different and I think, to tie into gratitude that to me show it's like the comparison mindset. Oh yeah. And how dangerous that is to live in, that that mindset of I'm always, constantly comparing myself to other people as opposed to myself.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, cause, like the, the comparison mindset, like you know, from from that moment into into watch, like how the, the roots of, just like bitterness and insecurity and and frustration, it just like spread all throughout my life, like after that moment, and so much of it was comparison cause, even in my faith, I'm sitting here knowing that, like I've been taught my whole life, jesus loves me, jesus has a plan for me. But then in that moment I'm like, well, god, why don't you love me, like everybody else, like you, you love everybody else. And you gave them two arms. Like what? Where did I screw up?
Speaker 3:And so that was like that was like a poison pill in my faith, like does God really love me? And that that was like from from 13 to 15, I was just in the spot where I'm like, clearly he doesn't like clearly, cause I'm, I'm just looking around at my circumstances and I'm going, yeah, maybe, maybe Jesus loves me is true for everybody else, but it cannot be true for me. And so that that was really like the real quick slide down just in, just in terms of self worth and identity and hope. Like that, that comparison trap man, it ravaged me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's a great way to put it. It's a trap and it's so prevalent to. I mean, the idea of keeping up with the Joneses is everywhere, and that's, I think social media is great as it is. It also is great at, I guess, bolstering that, that idea of keeping up with the Joneses. Yeah. Oh, you don't have the next iPhone. You're a bum.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what are you talking?
Speaker 1:about why do I need the next iPhone? Yeah, but it's. It goes on beyond that too. It's not just. It's about like characteristics of oneself, Like are you not working out five times a day? You're a bum, and it's. It's such a trap for sure it is.
Speaker 2:And one thing that I always have told myself to because everybody falls I think has a tendency to fall into that little pitfall, I'm just being able to recognize it as soon as you can and say what are you thinking? That does not matter, yeah, but it's kind of like. What I tell myself is comparing yourself to others. You know, maybe for success or to to deem whether or not you're considered a success is so crazy, considering the fact that there's always another person there. You know, there's always. The person's always changing.
Speaker 2:So it's a moving target, right, and so there's no, there's no definitive, there's no absolute. You know, the absolute is whatever you're feeling at that time, whatever you can identify with. You know, if you're a avid hunter, it's always gonna be the people that you deem to be the most successful hunting. It's gonna, it's gonna determine whether or not you're successful, until the next person kills the bigger one. Right now, of a sudden, you compare it, and so it's Something that goes on and on it. Just to me, it just leads to confusion, and we know, overall, our you know our goal is to not live a life of confusion, right, and so that was something that I had to start programming myself to say well, I'm going to limit my success If I compare myself to another human being, because who's to know or who's to say that the person that I'm comparing myself to is not creating a ceiling for me, that I could. I was meant and made to get above and beyond.
Speaker 2:So you can shortcut yourself in the same sense if you're comparing yourself to somebody maybe not lofty as God has intended for you to be. Yeah, and so it just there's.
Speaker 3:It's hard for me to Figure out why that's such a difficult thing, but we all continue to do it Well, I mean it's just like you know, if, if we know somebody's already like, walk that path. Or you know To your point, like business, success hunting, success, stuff, like that. It's like if, if we see they've already blazed the trail, well then I can just follow behind them, and then I don't. I don't have to catch all the heat, I don't have to have fallen all the traps and make all the mistakes. Like there's there's a sense of, I think, fear that it's just like alright, god designed me to walk this path. It's gonna look somewhat similar to others, but but it's also gonna diverge.
Speaker 3:It points I'm scared to know that. It's like, alright, I've got it. I've got to walk this path with the sets of skills and abilities and relationships that God has given me. And and the only person I have to trust in this moment is him, I can't, I can't look to anybody else, to you know, to Blaze that trail. I think for a lot of folks like that's, that's a an intimidating thing to walk in. But I think there's also comfort, like if if God designed you to be like your, your forerunners, then then he wouldn't have designed you in the first place.
Speaker 3:Like if he, if he was just in the business of making clones, we wouldn't have seven billion people on the planet right now. But it's like God God designed us to to walk this life, to you, to, to walk this life to use the gifts and talents, abilities, stories, that that we have, and and to leverage that and into the lives and into the communities where, where he's very sovereignly placed us. And so I think it's like it's that realization, that it's like I don't have to be different because it's by design. I think that's that's when that comparison gets unlocked and it's like we can we can draw encouragement from others and we can draw like Challenge and accountability from others, but the moment it's like comparison starts to become well, I have to adapt and assimilate that. That's when we're departing from like what, what God's design is for.
Speaker 1:I Love that. Different by design, I mean. It totally Gets rid of that comparison mindset right, and you're designed to be different.
Speaker 2:That's, that's incredible right and Real quick. And one thing that I think is probably the coolest aspect of this when it and just because I I know you as well as I do Probably the most intimidating thing is not blazing that path ahead on your own and setting that. You know, just going at this without any expectations, you probably put more pressure on yourself because now we do have those younger kids that it happens so much that we're born without arms, without legs. Now they're looking to you and I can promise you you're like look, you really need to figure out a way to carve. I mean, I'm here for you, but you know carving that path for yourself.
Speaker 2:Yeah and and Is one thing, but having the pressure of being that You're that guy. You're the trailblazer for so many other people that I know you get to meet a lot and it's hard enough for me to understand it. But to see it with my own eyes is my. You talking about a hero when you've got a seven-year-old kid that's got the same situation, or maybe he's. He doesn't even have legs for example right.
Speaker 2:And then he gets to see somebody like you that has lived this life, going through everything you've gone through with the attitude and choosing to not just go through it. But I'm gonna choose my circumstance to to preach the gospel and to help as many people as I can help. When you know Jeff's would be in a corner somewhere, I think, yeah, I'd be just balled up in the corner in the fetal position.
Speaker 3:That was, you know, gosh, when I when I preached it, warren, in 2019, there was a local school teacher brought this little boy named Trey and no, I think, quadruple amputee from like elbows, elbows down, knees down and and she brought him to me. I was kind of staying at the back door and and just sat down on the floor and there's just I, instantly. You know, I think he was seven, but it was like instantly, we just got each other man. We're just sitting there talking, just I mean, we're talking sports, we're not, we're not talking like the armless thing, but it was just like in that moment there, there was just like this instant, like empathy, community. You know to know that it's like In my situation, sometimes it feels like I don't have a people.
Speaker 3:You know, I don't, I don't have a group or a bucket that I fall in, but it's like in that moment, like, even though he's a, he's a quarter my age, for me to look at him and go, alright, you're my people, and likewise, for him to be like, oh, okay, well, I don't, I don't have to walk his path, but I can see he's three decades ahead of me and he's alright. So, so maybe, just maybe, this is a part of my story. If I can give that the, if I can give them the glimpse Of what the path looks like, moving forward, even though our paths are gonna go very differently, if I can give them, give them the glimpse of the one that gave me the hope In the midst of my whole life, if I can give him just that, that one little shred of Gospel, hope because of what Jesus has done, man, and then bring it on because it's like you know, at the end of the day, like even in my story, I'm not the hero of my story and I don't want those, you know, I don't want those kids that I meet or the adults that I meet, ministry stuff, day to day. I don't. I don't want them to remember me, I want them to remember the God that stepped into to that mess and that brokenness and changed everything about it.
Speaker 2:He used so many people in your story too, and I think you do a great job in highlighting that, even highlighting your parents and what all they did to stand in the gap for you and Forced you to learn things, to do it the way that everybody else did it, not a special way for you.
Speaker 2:Yeah it's something that always resonates with me and, and I also feel like in the back of my mind, when you met this young man. It was such a beautiful situation. Anyway, I happen to be up there when that happened and You're more likely the one that's, like God, you could have given legs.
Speaker 1:I mean come on man.
Speaker 2:I mean, you know I Can help him with the arm thing, but you had to take his legs you know I mean, and that's kind of your attitude. It's not like you know, I Don't know. I just think it's such a unique perspective that not only is it a perspective that I obviously cannot identify with, it is just something that I don't even notice. How about, almost, that I don't even notice your arms not being there anymore?
Speaker 3:No, I mean you and me both. Yeah, I mean honestly that that's. That's super, super common. Like I get that all the time. Like people my Pastor, growing up to this day, still tries to shake my hand. Or like my buddies when we're we're hanging out on the weekend you know they're working on cars, working in the yard. How many times they will just like just kind of blindly toss me something and it hits me in the chest?
Speaker 3:I'm like you're like come on man Sure you know, it's like I think, I think too, it's like, you know, the moment, the moment that I, that I shift in the way that I live, that that I'm not gonna be like the woe is me guy and I'm, I'm just gonna like fully embrace the life that God has given me. And if I'm not, if I'm not Eoring my way through life, people, people aren't gonna focus on that. They're just gonna see me as Daniel. They're not gonna see me as the armless guy named Daniel. You know, and so that's the. When you choose to define your life by something outside of, like your, your circumstances, your failings, your insecurities, the moment that you leave, those is like the, the refining parts of your story and not the story that. That's when the people around you can, can move past that and they're they're not stuck on it.
Speaker 1:What was that moment for you, that switch where you decided like I'm just gonna embrace this and Live this life that I'm called to live.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean so. So it was. It was 15 for me, age 15. Buddy invited me to a youth group lock-in. That was. It was a dodgeball lock-in, so it didn't. He didn't tell me that big jerk and and so it's a, it's a tough, tough start to the night and and and so just, I got tired of the dodgeball eventually and so I just kind of went off and pouted and the youth pastor that was doing the whole the you know the whole lock-in, he came over to me and we started to talk and you know that big burning question For probably the two years before that in my mind was why doesn't God love me?
Speaker 3:And so I'm like well, this youth pastor says he seems to know God pretty well, so I'm gonna ask him and and and he laid out I mean just picture perfectly like God's love for you is expressed in the gospel that the greatest issue in your life is your sin.
Speaker 3:And Jesus stepped in to do what you couldn't and living a perfect life, to be a perfect sacrifice For your sin man, to give you not only hope in this life but but eternal life, you know, in eternity, to like to save you from your sins. And and it was like that for me was a moment where it clicked like God, god really does love me. And for some reason or another, for those first 15 years of my life I did not see it. And and so, from that moment, like in trusting Jesus as my Savior and Lord, that was the foundation where it's like alright, this, this is the foundation of love, hope, strength, identity, everything, and then I can just start to to couple. You know, whatever I can, you know, by the grace of God, offer this foundation. And that's when it started to build. It wasn't a, it wasn't a switch for sure. Like I didn't go from Pouty, depressed, insecure to Joyful, happy, love everybody, let's just let's go take the world by the horns, but it was like that was.
Speaker 3:That was the moment where it began to like, you know, we started to cobble this, this house, together you know of just the life that got it giving me, but that that was, that was the defining moment, for sure, and it it took a minute, you know, I mean it probably it took years for me to like finally be in a place where I was comfortable in my own skin. But that that's when it that's when it began.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's an important part to that, that story too, because a lot of people think it's it's like a switch and it's it's, yeah, from zero to one, and it's not. I mean, you gonna, like you said, kind of cobble it together and build the house stick by stick, stone by stone.
Speaker 3:And that was kind of like the, you know, I think, part of me and just being an ignorant Christian. You know, it's like I go to bed that night and then I wake up the next morning and I was kind of like looking at the sleeves.
Speaker 3:Where Mars go yeah, yeah, well, I know I know I was like Lord, you, you know you're not gonna fix this and and so there was there's kind of part of me there that there was a little salty there for a minute, but then it was like. You know, in the days and weeks to come is like guys are starting to pour into me that that was the realization. God, god could change your circumstances. I mean, he makes lame people, not lame, blind people see dead people, not dead like he's. He's done plenty of that Miraculous stuff. He could do that.
Speaker 2:But fully capable.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, but they, they were like you know you, part of your story could just be this, and what God has given you is them the means to navigate it, and not just the Remedy of the physical situation. God's, god's giving you a means to navigate A less than ideal situation with, with pretty incredible, just like God, given joy and hope and peace.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's, I think Denzel Washington, of all people he had, was given some speech and he said that If you pray for strength, do you think God's gonna give you strength or an opportunity to exercise that strength? Yeah, I think that's exactly what you're saying right there.
Speaker 3:It's like oh absolutely.
Speaker 1:You know, if you pray for one thing, maybe he's just gonna give it the opportunity.
Speaker 2:Like to express it or use it percent 100% right, and I think it's important too that you know we were talking about how the circumstances Don't define your joy. You talk about that in the book to some, but they're still hurt. Yeah, it's not like and and I think that that's one of the main things that I I guess my goal where, when we decided and we came together with this, was, you know, I think far too many times you know people that are in a pretty good spot, that are trying to help other people. At some point they lose the connection with the people that are different from them?
Speaker 2:Yeah, they don't realize that it takes a little while to get you know, to get yourself in a position to start making good decisions, or to start, like we're talking about with gratitude, to start making healthy choices to promote. You know, that type of an attitude and I never want to leave or lose those people Somehow by feeling like, or for them, feeling like they're. It's just, man, my road's a lot longer.
Speaker 2:You know, it's just gonna be so much harder for me because you don't understand my situation. And it's not that I don't, you don't, we don't Understand that situation, but it's that everybody's Path to healing starts the exact same way with that one choice yeah and you've got the suck to me. The suck has got to be worse To you at that point, to where you want to beat it. Yeah, you're like, I'm tired of feeling this way.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm a firm believer that there's no gratitude without grief. Right that you're. You're not gonna live a life of gratitude if you know, if, if you're in my situation, or if your marital situation is not great, or financial, or you know just what, whatever your thing is, the worst thing you can do is to just act like it's not an issue and like block it out and just try to like move on and act Like everything's fine. Um, I think I think one of the most faithful things you can do first is just to, to grieve it, to like Lament it. I mean, you know what is it?
Speaker 3:30, 30 percent of the Psalms are just like the picture of god my life is not going how I plan. God, this is really hard. God, my enemies are gonna kill me. God, I don't have anything right now. Like lord, where are you?
Speaker 3:It is this very heavy like grieving process. But Out of out of every single one of those like when, when you can grieve, like what is not right in your situation, and and to push you know yourself to like this greater dependency in god, um, to to see the, the, the, the tentacles of grace you know that are present in your life, even in the mess, even in in the grieving process, Um, that's what allows you to move forward. If you're just trying to like just paint a smile on and grind through it, you're never gonna be, you're never gonna live a life of gratitude, you're always gonna be bitter. Um, so I, I think like to For for people in less than ideal situations. I think step one is like, grieve it like it's.
Speaker 3:It's okay to cry, it's okay to like be frustrated. Um, like god, god can take your anger. God, god can take your, your, your frustration and your brokenness and your weeping, because he's right there, like he is right there to listen man to, to lift that burden. I mean, he says that over and over to the disciples. And so I think step one for us in gratitude is like in in the midst of my mess, is to just to grieve it and to let the lord bring healing, and that that's what allows us to move forward and to begin to see Just his grace, even in the midst of my mess, and and how I can extend that same grace that he gave me in my hurt, how I, how I can give that to others.
Speaker 2:Right, I think that that's you know one thing, that I've got a few quotes that I've written down that have. I have always circled back to with you and I Guess they just stand out to me. But my body was willing, but my heart was weak. Oh, a hundred percent and for some reason that just hit me, it's like my physical body was willing, but my heart was weak.
Speaker 3:Yeah, cuz you know the, the, the aspect of my story, like physically, like I don't feel like I've been without. You know, I've led a full life, got an amazing wife and kids and ministry, and the, the body wasn't the issue, it was always. It was always the heart. It still is the heart in a lot of ways. Just you know, I mean even even today, like you know, just continually fighting against comparison.
Speaker 3:I mean, that's just a. I Think, especially for us as men, to preach that reality to ourselves every day, because the moment we think we're fine, as a moment we're not. And so I think that, even even if our body does start to fail us, it is to realize it is our heart that that can lead us into pretty terrible places, and to always be able to point out that weakness in the midst of our lives.
Speaker 2:And that's true for you and I both, mike. You know that that Nobody's exempt from that. It all comes back to the heart. Yeah, you know our physical bodies. You know all three of us have got physical bodies.
Speaker 2:You can't deny that and our bodies are willing, but our heart is what gets us in trouble, you know, and it's also what, thankfully, what Create situations for us to try to improve situations.
Speaker 2:And I think that if I was, you know, without comparing myself, you know where I go a lot of times is if I had the, the mental Capacity that of Mike, the way that he is at his age, it's hard for me to not think, man, I was so far behind in my spiritual walk and just really what made what mattered to me.
Speaker 2:I guess I should say that you know, and if there's any way that you can reach these kids, you know, 16 to 20 year olds, you know, because you, if you look back, five to six years of a young man's life has such long lasting consequences and that's really when you need to stand in the gap and you need to really dig your heels in. You know, as a mentor or as a boss, if you happen to have them working for you, if you're not taking every opportunity To try to get to the heart, it's. But you know we try to. You know we try to reel people in based off of everything else other than the heart because, it's not really socially acceptable anymore for us to talk about that.
Speaker 2:I kind of lean into that that a little bit more than I probably should. You know. Fortunately it at our company I kind of am our HR department. You could, you could do what you want. So you know, they do tell me. A lot of the people here always tell me we need to go to HR about this and see you know, because it's there's no reason why You're saying this or acting this way. But it's kind of a fun part. But anyway, that was something that's always meant a lot to me and I just want to let you know that that's pretty cool that you admitted that and talked about that. And One of the things that I did I was reviewing the book. I've read both of them. I was reviewing the book and it brought me back to a story might that I wanted. I was actually just writing it down to tell you, because I was going to tell you he's very hyper sensitive About the fact that he does not have his arms.
Speaker 2:So we probably need to really tread lightly on that, and Don't, don't give me a cry on the podcast, man, we don't want, we don't want tears, that's right, but he says something that was really cool In kindergarten, doing everything the other boys and girls would do or could do, including climbing on the monkey bars. The one bonus was that he didn't have to worry about falling off and breaking his arm.
Speaker 3:Silver lining and everything bro, yeah, silver lining.
Speaker 2:I love that, so it's awesome. I mean, it's you know it. There's so many Jokes, but I'm gonna tell you there people will say as many jokes about my idiotic self, but yet, if it's a a different ability or if it's you know, I feel like to your point earlier that the sooner you kind of whether it's humor or To me, I don't I don't know what the answer is for people that are different, but I feel like what we're talking about here with gratitude, we're giving a pretty extreme case, because there's not a better visual, especially since people are listening and they can't even see us. But they're just gonna have to trust us with this. But you know, I it could be the guy right across the street from you that just you know, maybe he's a different race than you are. Or you know we're guilty of of creating, you know, worse environments for people every day, right, instead of figuring out ways that we can create better environments. Yeah, one question.
Speaker 2:I wanted to ask Was we kind of said?
Speaker 1:like it's the heart that that we have the trouble with, and I think to that point, gratitude is, is a choice, yeah, and so how do you keep choosing gratitude Like I? We both think that you're in a great example of someone who chooses gratitude Every day, but as someone, you have to.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean you have to in his to me, you know, to your point yeah, yeah, but why do you keep choosing? I mean, how do you keep?
Speaker 1:choosing gratitude. Yeah, I think, I think it's it's to. I mean to watch how, in the wake of my salvation, to watch how.
Speaker 3:God's Beginning to change my life, you know, to your point. He's given me opportunities to trust his strength. He's given me the opportunities to to walk in joy. He's he's surrounding me with just so many graces, you know, I think, to choose to acknowledge those Because, like the, the hard part was suffering.
Speaker 3:If suffering works like like blinders On a on a horse and so I know I know some of y'all, y'all's listeners, they got horses, they've strapped blinders on their horse and it's like you put blinders on a horse. Literally the only thing they can see is right off their nose, they just see what's right in front of them. Suffering works exact same way with humans. Like all we can see is that we can see the darkness, the pain, the broken expectations. It's really hard to see anything else.
Speaker 3:And so I think that, in the midst of our hardship to be, to be people who are, who are grateful to be, to be those who are making that choice, to walk in gratitude is is to peel back those blinders and to at least look around and see.
Speaker 3:You know what, at the end of the day, like in my situation?
Speaker 3:Yes, sure, I don't have arms. God gave me two really good parents, or God gave me this great group of friends that he surrounded me with, or my or my local church, or they are little bits of grace that's present in every single one of our lives, every single day. We we have to almost groom ourselves to spot them, you know, and to pull ourselves back to them, because if we don't, then we're just people with people who are not. We just like marinate in our hurt and insecurity. And so I think that the, for for me in my life, like to to live out gratitude, just starts with, like surveying the landscape of my life and just seeing like our God's grace is still very much a part of my life, and so my, my response to grace is then to extend it. My response to grace is then to To worship and to love and to serve, and so it starts with just our vision and then and then it moves to action. But that that's, that's where it has to start.
Speaker 2:That's cool and that, you know, I I have got so many things that I wrote down here that Are. You know, the more I looked at them, they were so applicable, regardless of of the situation, you know, regardless of whether or not they're going to be a good person, of the situation, you know, regardless of whether or not somebody was born with a physical build, physical disability or not. That I want to just touch base with to now. Your second book, endure, was borderline, getting above my brain way, because I'm not quite as Smart as you are.
Speaker 3:I wouldn't say smart.
Speaker 2:I'm telling you it was. It's a totally different read and it probably wasn't that big a deal to me because they were. It was a few years apart, right? So Until I reviewed both of them, then it was like we went from boom to boom and it's kind of like oh, now I can I know what I'm doing now with these books. So now, while I've got your attention, let me go ahead and get you some. I'm gonna really give you some meat here. Yeah and so I feel like the second book is pretty meaty.
Speaker 2:Yeah and I love that. But it was learning how to live out our faith in an enduring type of way, not just a flash in the pan. Yeah and I feel like that is that where you've kind of kicked it up, up notch. I guess, if that's the best way to put it, not only are you, you don't want to be looked at as somebody that's just Getting through life with a disability, right. You know what I mean. It's not, that's not your attitude.
Speaker 2:Yeah um you, when people leave you, it doesn't take long to realize you're thriving. And yes, you did marry way over your head.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:You want to talk?
Speaker 3:about the picture punching above your weight class, bro, like yeah.
Speaker 2:That's I mean. I understand I did, Mike did. This is that's one thing that all three of us have in common is that we have all married way over our heads. Um, and I, I promise you in your case you did, yeah, but I do know what she got. There was not a better example of somebody that, uh, if you want to trust somebody, is somebody that has kind of lived a life having to trust a lot of people.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know because I know you. You probably were pretty guarded for a long time, um, and and probably pretty insecure about opening up about things other than maybe the humor side of of what you have gone through and it's very easy to be the butt of people's jokes. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:But you know that's also the, the kid that's real quiet on the school bus, on the ride home after a day long of that, and he's riding home, you know, and and when he's by himself he's still that same guy. Now he's processing all this stuff, you know. So you have to, you have to think about that and and that's where my mind goes that I just have such and I shared this with you guys earlier when it comes to people, that about making the choice that I want to live with the life of an attitude, of of humility and gratitude.
Speaker 2:You know that we just don't understand because you know I'm so different. You know he, he doesn't have to deal with what I've dealt with. And you realize real quick in your life that there's only one explanation for how you got through what you got through.
Speaker 3:Oh, a hundred percent.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you're so quick to you know to point that out to people, and you've committed your and dedicated your life to doing that, and it's it's something to me that it makes me as if I don't feel this way enough. Like what in the world? You've wasted half your life? Um, now I might have wasted three quarters of it after meeting you. Um, you don't do a lot for.
Speaker 3:Well, I mean, it's like, when you think about it, like the Apostle Paul wasted probably three quarters of his life. You know like I mean he pursued he. I mean you know he pursued the Mediterranean dream, I guess, instead of the American dream. He's like all right, let me get the education, let me let me get, let me get the, let me get the government job, let me let me get all this authority, all this power, and then I'm going to be a terrible person that persecutes the church for a good chunk of my life and then, on the back end of everything, jesus saves him and then sends him to the one group of people that nobody wants to take the gospel to.
Speaker 3:It's like the least glorious, like calling that you can have on your life, and God used Paul to change the planet in the back quarter of his life. So it's like God, god can do a lot if you're on the back. Non, you know, like you, you don't have to. You know, first T box, you don't have to be tight with Jesus, like you can. You know you can make the turn. Uh, you know, hold on and and and figured out, or I mean if you're on, you're on the 17th hold like God.
Speaker 3:God can still like, take just what, whatever you have, and and he can leverage that for his glory.
Speaker 3:Like there, there is no sort of you've got to have this long of a runway for God to to use you to make like a a lasting impact.
Speaker 3:You just, you just got to be willing to, to do something right now, cause we're not we're, we're not scattering like temporary seed, we're scattering like eternal gospel seed in the way that we live. And so it's like it has. It has nothing to do with with how many decades we're we're stacking up. It has everything to do with just all right, god, I'm gonna, I'm, I'm gonna use, use today, you know, and, and so I mean man praise God, cause I know I know a lot of people that have hung out quote unquote hung out at church their whole life, and it doesn't inform their other six days of how they live in a week. And so it's like you know people that have lived like that for 50 years versus you know you all right, god, you know I'm I'm figuring this out a little, a little later in life, but I'm gonna go all in right now. God can use that life more than he can use the life that's been hanging around a church for 60 years Right.
Speaker 2:And I hope that's something that everybody can kind of identify with, just to maybe to address those that think that they might be a little too far gone. You know it's. The pictures are definitely taken during the golf tournament on the 18th green. Yeah, you know they're not taking on the number one T box.
Speaker 2:So you do have time, um, and real quick. One thing I do want to make sure that we had we talk about a little bit, cause I know you and I agree, and, and Mike is definitely on board with us too. But on the importance of serving, you know, um, that is something that made such an impact in my life and continues to, and I like the story in in your second book where you were talking about with the kids. You know you wanted to figure out a way to serve, and, and you ended up in VBS and I just wrote a few things. I'm not good with little kids. I struggled to teach scripture on a fourth grade level and kids struggled to understand where my arms went. It's a match made in heaven, and so I can see where that'd be an uncomfortable situation.
Speaker 2:You're going back to that lunch room again.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. What could go wrong? Right, yeah, cause it's like if I, if I try to explain to a seven year old that I was born this way, they're like nah man. But if I told him a dragon ain't my arms, they'd be like oh yeah, that's legit.
Speaker 3:And so it's just like you know, we're always, you know, it's always like we're living in this fantasy world with kids, and so I'm always just like I I have not figured out that way to like just navigate that instant, like kids are just lost on the front end of what do I do with this harmless guy? And so I default to. Well, I'm just not even going to bother with it in in the whole situation, right. And I remember that like in that season I mean, that's, that's when I was, you know, full on like teaching, preaching all over the country I was never at my local church and so I couldn't, I couldn't serve at the church we were at at the time and and and so here it was, like VBS was in between, like my weekend, like preaching stuff. So I was like dang it. You're telling me that the one time I can actually serve my local church is in the worst possible scenario I possibly could. And I wrote it off. But then it was just like I can't quite remember the, the moment where it clicked. But I'm like man, the local church has changed my life and if I can't get off my tush and serve it, even if it's for four days, in a situation that I'm probably going to fall on my face a few times.
Speaker 3:I think I think this might be worth it, and it was. It was a great week, man, like I enjoyed the. Enjoyed hanging out with the kids and sharing the gospel with the kids. And yeah, I think a lot of it was. It had more to do with my, my fear and ineptitude than it did the actual like weight of the situation. It wasn't going to swallow me, it was just like all right, I just got to, I got to find a way to love these kids well and and yeah, god, god took care of the rest that week.
Speaker 2:That is cool and I want us to work on a story for we can read, we can retail Daniel in the lion's den, we can tell everybody he didn't.
Speaker 3:he didn't make it out on stage, he didn't come out exactly like you think yeah, the Bible left out some some corey details.
Speaker 2:It cost this Daniel a couple of arms. All right, um, mike, what else have you got?
Speaker 1:I was just going to ask, like what does gratitude mean to you?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, I think gratitude is. I mean it truly is like a, a worship response. You know, um, uh, romans, chapter 12, verse one just says therefore, offer up your life as a living sacrifice, which is your one acceptable form of worship. And that comes right off the heels the, the, the end of Romans 11, it says for from whom and through whom and to whom are all things? To him be the glory forever.
Speaker 3:And so it's like the, it's, it's like both sides of the seesaw, it's like because God is, the, is the one who has formed and fashioned and given you all that you have in your life.
Speaker 3:Like, in response to all of that goodness, to all that glory is, is worship with your life Now, not worship with your Sundays, not worship with you know an hour a week, or or how you listen to your podcast, but it's just like everything that I have is his, and so the moment that I realized all of the gifts that I have been given comes from him, at the end of the day, it's like I would be the most selfish jerk in the world if I saw all that and go, hey, that's good on me. You know, like this, this is mine. I mean it truly is like the overflow of his grace in our lives is meant to be shared, and so I think it's gratitude is, is the full recognition of I got so much that, uh, that I could not have, could not have possibly earned myself, and and that the moment, the moment I see that is gratitude, is the default sort of way I live my life. Worship is the default way I live my life in response to grace.
Speaker 1:Interesting so he would see gratitude as a verb. Sounds like a verb to me, yeah, um, one thing I want to say. There's a quote, uh, that's coming to my mind that it's from someone we all know that says there's nothing in this life that hasn't been given to you.
Speaker 4:I don't know if you all remember, but that's that's the old Dr McKinley there, hey, hey.
Speaker 3:Doc, man, that's pretty strong, he's. He's always dropping those, those nuggets.
Speaker 2:Man, I love it, I've got one here that I want to get. I've been on the gratitude bandwagon trying to find everything I can find, but this one kind of hit me a little different. Um, and the quote is with gratitude, optimism is sustainable. If you can find something to be grateful for, you can find something to look forward to. And that was said by Michael J. Fox.
Speaker 1:Man, he's the guy from back to the future. Yeah, I've never seen that Age is the. I know that this age gaps that, that that one might have been before your day.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that was the first guy to wear the. I mean he was the first.
Speaker 1:I know, I know like the pop culture references to him and all that, but I never seen it.
Speaker 2:Parkinson's yeah, yeah I know who he is and it is an amazing, you know, yeah.
Speaker 3:And I think I think that quote in light of that story like he literally went from biggest star in Hollywood to his body's betraying him, and when he can say something like that, I think that that's something we we all follow away in the back of our brain.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think I'm. I'm like a closeted optimist too. I know that's a weird way to put it, but I used to be like super optimist and then as I got older and started to compare myself, like kind of get in that that trap, I got real pessimistic, like ah, it is what it is, it's probably not going to work out. But so I say I'm like a closet and optimist, but it's like really who I am at heart and I try to. I like that. That gratitude is. It's a great thing. Gratitude is is the route to sustainable optimism.
Speaker 2:I mean, and that's he's the only ones ever said it that I know, of that I've read and it was just like of all people, here we, here we go again. That's good.
Speaker 2:Um, and then, in order to battle the constant depression that we have in this country um, it is a tough time to to have a series on gratitude is great regarding the month that it's in right, mm-hmm. But I'm going to tell you, regarding a lot of other things, it's, it's. It's a pretty tough time for us to have a gratitude series, but, um, I think when we got to the conclusion that really, it's what was the quote it was the parent of all other.
Speaker 1:Yeah, gratitude is the parent, or yeah, gratitude is not only the greatest virtue, but it's the parent of all others, just the parents by sister.
Speaker 3:Okay okay.
Speaker 2:And to me it's like nothing starts until you make that choice, you know you've got and I guess our goal. We wanted to figure out. What can we do to get people that are listening to just make that one step. Yeah. And because, if you go back to that time, that you know that you made that one step and then everything that has transpired since then. Yeah. I would. I just want everybody to start living that life as soon as we can get them there.
Speaker 3:Yeah because the moment you change your perspective is the moment your life changes. It is, it is life-shattering, yeah, and so.
Speaker 3:I think if we can turn people's eyes off of all of the junk, mess, hurt, turn their eyes toward grace, hope, truth, the gospel, that's when the life follows, like it isn't. If I get my junk all sorted out myself, then gratitude will follow. No, I have to cast my like, hope and affection and vision on something so much greater than myself, and then that's when the life change happens. And so I think it's y'all are on to something If we can shift our perspective onto a lasting hope, that's when a life that walks in hope follows.
Speaker 1:Right, it's easier said than done, especially in a society that tries to sell you and strap you into those blinders, like you said. But that's I mean. Hopefully we're here to step in that gap, like you say, and show people that you know there's another way and you can live this life with an attitude of gratitude, no matter where you're at and what circumstance you're in, and I think you're the picture perfect guy for that.
Speaker 3:Right, I appreciate that, man. Thank you, yeah, of course.
Speaker 2:You know when we were talking about depression. And another one that you know, it just rings true to me, is joy and depression. They can't reside in the same space. Right, you wanna get rid of one of them, you're gonna have to develop the other one, right, right? So if you take somebody full of joy, the only way you're gonna kill that joy is you're gonna have to create some depression adversely. So if you wanna get rid of that depression, you're just gonna have to choose a life of joy and the only way to me that you know it's a big difference in joy and just being happy.
Speaker 2:You know it goes back to what we were talking about the temporal versus something that is sustaining and long lasting. I have never. I probably wouldn't be described by any of my friends or acquaintances as just this joyful guy. Right.
Speaker 2:You know, I think it would be very easy for people to say, well, he's a nice guy. You know he doesn't really meet any strangers. You know he likes to talk to people. You know, and those are all of the ones that we wanna bring to this description for this example purpose. There's probably a lot more, but I think, saying that I was joyful, it was kind of a gut punch to me that I might not exude that life of I might not be exuding all this joy.
Speaker 2:Maybe, I am a little bit like you say, a little pessimistic. I think a lot of times pessimism might be, you know, it might be. It might say that I'm being pessimistic, but maybe I'm just a little bit. My patience is not what it was before.
Speaker 1:I have always seen pessimism, pessimism, whatever it is Sounds great. You got it. I've always seen that as sort of a mitigation of a letdown, like a way to manage expectations. That's what I've always like that's what it was to me and it was like, if I can just tell myself that it's not gonna go good that way, if it doesn't go good, I was right. And if it?
Speaker 2:didn't go good, cool, Like I got one I'm one up on the man, even though you felt the same disappointment, right, right, as long as you could vocalize that ahead of time. And I wanted to get you to bring, or to maybe get your opinion on. We all know that's kind of as men, that's kind of how we are, but what are some ways to keep yourself in a place or in a spirit of gratitude? What are some practical ways that you know that we might could keep or maybe get on that path? How do we take that first step?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, I know for me, like my wife and I, we hold onto these things. We call them measures of grace, like just these little moments where it's like God shows up, either in little ways, big ways. It could be like encouraging conversation, unexpected, like provision, stuff like that, and it's like we'll celebrate them either as a couple or as a family.
Speaker 3:But then, too, I like stash them in a journal at home and so that way, on those rainy days or really dark seasons where it's like man, there is not a lot going very well for me right now, I'll go back to that journal and then I'll look at just all of the things that God had done in like the weeks and months that are recent to that moment. And so I know it's super probably not the Kings Creek sort of audience vibe that we're gonna journal, but this would definitely be the one thing I would challenge. People like to just preach the goodness and the grace of God to yourself, because your problems will have no issues in preaching themselves to you, and so it's like we almost have to be we really do have to like lock those little bits of grace away so we can pull them back out when we need them for those rainy days, and so I think that is just one of the most practical ways in terms of like gratitude that we can keep that well full and not like bone dry.
Speaker 1:Right. Jesse showed me this piece of paper and I wanna say that I was thinking of this before you wrote it down. It sounds like what? Pastor McKinley. We asked him if he's got a bucket list or about a bucket list, and he said well, I would encourage people to have a blessing list, which is almost like a new. It's just a different way to say what you said, and I think that that's it's a practical step, that I have yet to do it, I'm gonna admit that, but it's definitely something that I think I'm gonna start doing, especially just one or two things a day that you could be grateful for. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah and yeah. I think when you can see it in list form and it seems almost imposing like man God really is showing up in a pretty big way in my life right now, that's a great way to like plunge the light of the grace of God into the midst of your darkness.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think Steve Harvey even talked about that. You know he was giving some instruction to some people about wanting to find out. If you think your life is that bad, then why don't you sit down and start listing out your blessings and some things that you have to be thankful for? And he said I'm just gonna tell you before you start. You're gonna be here for a long time. When you just really drill into it. You're gonna be here a long time. That's good.
Speaker 2:And so one last thing about that I think is pretty cool One of the few, not few, one of the many things that I think is pretty cool about you is that your agreement and your agreements on service coming from you, it just seems shocking. It just means something different to me personally that the first one of the things that you think is as great as is that act of service and we were talking about ways obviously, to get yourself, I guess, to get your steps going towards a life of gratitude and serving to me is one of those areas that if you can find somewhere to plug in and serve. But I'll never forget when you made that statement and I can't remember I think it was maybe for our life service, it was in my other journal, you made it to about five or six of them because we've had you for a few things, but anyway, it was talking about the statement of, or the statement you made was the vulnerable are everywhere. They need us to advocate for them. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And whether it's life or whether it's somebody that's got a challenge in their physical appearance, they need advocates. Like your dad started your life from day one as your advocate.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, because it's like for me.
Speaker 3:I had the physical advocate and my dad, I had spiritual advocates and a student pastor and a guy who in my local church, wasn't involved with a youth group or anything but personally discipled me for more than a year we met every Saturday at like this little breakfast joint in the middle of nowhere in North Carolina and he just taught me what it meant to follow Jesus.
Speaker 3:Guys who took me under their wing and ministry and loved me and encouraged me. I mean gosh, I mean even now, like I'm almost 40 and to have a guy like Dr McKinley in my life where it's just like I can just pick up things just by watching him and like man, this is how I should like serve and love and encourage and shepherd people beyond. When I'm like up on a stage, I think it's like so much of just like where I'm at in my story has absolutely nothing to do with me and when I see the difference that other people have made in my life again, I think the most selfish thing I can do is hoard it for me. And so you know again to go back to worship when God has showed up in such a cool way in my life. How could I not want to respond and see that bear fruit in the lives of other people?
Speaker 1:Awesome. Well, I think that's a great place to wrap up. If you guys are cool with that, one parting question for you, okay. What challenge would you give to someone listening to this podcast regarding gratitude?
Speaker 3:Oh, man, I think it would be to exhibit it more than anything under your own roof instead of outside of it, because I think a lot of times, like our spouse, our kids, our parents, you know whoever we live with, they usually get the short end of the stick and it's like the front facing, like loving, gracious, serving, kind, come around other people. It always happens once we step out of our homes, and so it's like if we're doing that, we're missing like the ultimate blessing you know of. Just like I want to be a positive influence in the people that are going to be at my funeral versus people that I may never see again, and so I think that has to be the focus first. I'm not saying neglect everybody out there in the world, you know I'm not saying that, but don't give your family your seconds.
Speaker 3:You know, definitely be sure to give them your first, and especially when it comes to gratitude, get some of that.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So well said yeah, I mean that's kind of easy.
Speaker 2:I mean, how easy is it to bring the bad home? Oh yeah. But it's a lot tougher to bring all the good from inside. You know, if you've got good inside the house, I think it's going to exude. It's just going to follow you everywhere you go. Oh, 100%. But if you've got good outside, for some reason you decide you want to take a break when you get home. And we're all get at least. I'm speaking for myself. I'm guilty of that. I think I've given too much up. I'm ready to turn off.
Speaker 1:Oh, I know that, 100%, oh, and.
Speaker 2:I'm.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, I resonated a lot with what you just said. I think a lot of people listening do I'm preaching to myself too.
Speaker 3:sadly, you know, I can come home from time on the road and be like a depleted jerk to my family. So yeah, that's a reality. I'm having to preach to myself quite a bit too.
Speaker 1:I feel like I always reference a song in every episode, but it reminded me of a song by Larry Fleet, and the song is called Things I Take for Granted and in that song, like you were saying, basically says like sometimes I get home and I'm tired and I don't really want to stay up with the misses and put the kids to bed, but that's something that I shouldn't take for granted, right Like you. Those are the moments that you're going to cherish 10 years from now, 30 years from now oh 100%.
Speaker 2:Now that you said that you made me bring this out Not this old, this is a story for another day but this song that I've $1,000 bill that I bring around with me, that I carry my wallet, you can see, is Sanctis.
Speaker 3:real baby, let's get home. That's a deep cut, that's like.
Speaker 1:that's like, like the old band Sanctis real. Yeah.
Speaker 3:That's like a wow 97. All right.
Speaker 2:It's like az lyricscom from back in the day, printed off I made myself carry this around and I've carried it around, but since well before I was married and it was lead me and that was the thing you know. You forget about who you're coming home to, you get so caught up in everything else and to just my biggest thing was just teach me how to lead them and lead me so that I can do that, but it all starts with a choice.
Speaker 2:I think that's what we the crux of this is to take that step because it's definitely gonna be worth it. So, with that, I think it's time everybody grabs a life jacket.
Speaker 1:Yeah, join us in the creek. Before we do go, though, I wanna shout out your website. Yeah, it was DanielRitchiecom. Danielritchiecom, and you guys can book Daniel to speak. You're probably sold out for the year.
Speaker 3:I mean, we can always find room. Yeah, and yeah, yeah, absolutely Just, yeah. People just reach out to me and we'll make something work. There's definitely there's gaps in the calendar, for sure.
Speaker 1:Awesome, yeah, y'all heard him DanielRitchiecom book. You can book him and learn a little bit more about him and what he's got going on in his life. So that said, Daniel, thank you so much.
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:We really appreciate it, appreciate y'all. He's dressed well too.
Speaker 3:Hey man, I mean I gotta represent my favorite clothing brand man.
Speaker 2:This guy takes us everywhere. I've got videos of him laying on his back putting gas in his car, and nothing makes me happier than him having King's Creek on while he's doing it. Hey man.
Speaker 3:I got like a bro hug from Tebow wearing my King's Creek.
Speaker 2:He was jealous. He was jealous.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, those big old biceps. I made me jealous.
Speaker 2:I was like yeah, Must be nice Tim. Yeah, if I had arms, that's the arms I want, yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, oh 100%, making an XL look like a Shmedium.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he's a nice guy.
Speaker 1:All right, well, let's end it on Tebow's biceps.
Speaker 2:Up to that night mighty fivin' never fin'd be. Some kid from across the county got a mouthy bite His dead is new come arrow.
Speaker 1:And it was all good.
