The power to overcome, a conversation with Benjamin Lee

In this episode of Balancing the Christian Life, we talk about overcoming with Benjamin Lee. Welcome to Balancing the Christian Life. I'm Dr Kenny Embrie. Join me as we discover how to be better Christians and people in the digital age, in the world. You have tribulation, but take heart. I have overcome the world. These are the words of Jesus to his disciples, and it's definitely important to know that Jesus has overcome the world for us and that our victory is really through him. But so much of the Christian's life comes down to struggle and working through trial and temptation. We often know the right thing to do, but just don't do it. Paul would wrestle with something similar in Romans, where he talks about not doing what he wants to do, but doing what he knows is wrong. It's a struggle all of us relate to. We all want to overcome, but often we see the obstacles. So when I asked my Facebook group what I should talk about on the podcast, I was met with many others who said they want to know how to overcome. There are many ways to interpret that, but the way that made some sense to me was the idea of setting goals and then following through. Even Lee is an evangelist I've had on the podcast before and has become a friend. He's also the host of the I Can Do podcast and someone who impresses me is not just a talker but a doer. You can often find him posting workout videos or photos after he's done a workout session. In other words, he doesn't just talk about diet and exercise, he does it. So he's obviously overcome something that I think all of us can learn from. He and his wife Nikki and their son Joshua live in Louisville, texas. So, benjamin, let's start here. What's the danger with dreaming?

You sent me the questions early and that question of the danger of dreaming actually really stood out to me. I don't know if it really is like a danger of dreaming, but one of my first thoughts do we actually dream enough? Or this idea of not thinking big enough, not thinking this is going to happen, lord willing, whether it's something with our spiritual walk by God's grace and his strength you know he's going to be with us or if it's different personal goals or fitness goals or financial goals, or whatever it may be, that was my first reaction. What do you mean? What's the danger? Now one person can say the danger is what if I don't accomplish what it is that I'm dreaming? You will never know until you take some kind of action. We both have children. We know how children dream. We encourage them, we sign them up for sports and for swim lessons and run the second instrument, but at some point in time we say, okay, that's enough dreaming there, now you got to be grown up and now you got to do all of that. We were talking about things within the realm of possibility. Dreaming is such a great practice and I think the danger is maybe not dreaming enough.

I think you and I are going to land on opposite sides of the same problem. Have you ever heard of Mr Rogers? I have. Mr Rogers had a very famous television program. It was meant for children before they learned how to write and things like that. But there's a song, and I remember singing this song when I was in graduate school. It's called you Got to Do it. Here's some of the lyrics you can make believe it happens or pretend that something's true. You can wish or hope or contemplate a thing you'd like to do, but until you start to do it, you will never see it through, because the make believe, pretending just won't do it for you. And I think one of the things that you're talking about is opening up potentials. My problem isn't opening up potentials, it's focusing on action.

You see what I'm saying. I do, yeah, so that's two different things there. So that's a good clarification, right when, yes, there is that other danger of we can say all these things that we want, but if we don't take that action, that's not going to happen and that will fall more into. We can talk more about this later. We motivate it versus commit it, because people can motivate it to say, hey, I'm going to, I'm going to run this five K or this 10 K, and then two hours later, as they sit on their couch, they say I'm not going to get up. That's being motivated, right. It is when a person says, no, this is what I'm going to do. It doesn't matter how long it may take, but this is the path that I'm heading on. Motivation is going to run out and motivation is just going to be temporary. So, being able to overcome this whole topic and I think it connects great with Christianity we've made a commitment, we're going to walk with the Lord and so that's who we are, that's what we're going to do. So, yeah, that distinction is important to understand. I was looking at it more of. I still believe that. I said a lot of people think I think a lot of people don't really consider their potential. But yes, behind that, absolutely, there has to be action.

I remember growing up I was going to be an astronaut and a fireman and a cartoonist, but on the weekends I was probably going to build houses. What's the problem with that, ben? Why can't I do it all? Benjamin, I'm dreaming big. I've got these huge dreams.

Some things are realistic. Time is going to be a factor, action is going to be a factor. What is actually possible? And I think for a lot of people they may try to do too much at once. It becomes all or nothing. But you can look back at all those different dreams and one thing that we could do is okay. What actions did you take on becoming an astronaut? What actions did you take becoming a construction worker? It's okay to have thoughts and ideas. I think that's fun, where we can change our minds. We go to college. We may have a whole different career than what it says on the piece of paper. It still comes back to habits, the action, the commitment. Yeah, we're going to go after that. So I'll tell you one of my dreams, kenny Do I have, do I have one opportunity to become a professional athlete? And that's going to be through pickleball. All right, pickleball.

Pickleball there's amateur status.

There's professional status. I'm 44, but I'm like this could be my chance to become a professional athlete. Okay, I think this dream, kenny. Yeah, what I did. I've started small. I went to Walmart and I got a couple of paddles. My wife Nikki and my son Josh we all have our pickleball paddles. I bought some pickleballs as well. I started playing on a regular basis. I have this aspiration what if, kenny, what if I could move from amateur status to professional status? The only way I can find that out is taking these small, consistent steps. So one of the biggest things is I've been playing for the last couple of months. So the next step is going to be there's actually two a tournament here and and farmers branch in November of this year. I need to find another tournament first, so I'm doing research. Maybe this dream is nothing more than a dream, but the exciting thing about it is let's pursue it for a little bit. Let's see what could happen. That's where a lot of people just stop, where they say I can't do that when I was a child, my goals were unrealistic goals.

I think a lot of people unnecessarily limit themselves. But by the same token I think about some of the great characters of the Bible. I do not know if Moses's great goal was to one day lead Millions of Jews out of Egypt, who would complain and stab him in the back? I suspect that was not on his bucket list right. When I was growing up, some of my goals were child's goals. They were great for being five, six, seven. But as you get older, sometimes you squash goals that you shouldn't, but sometimes you squash goals that you should Absolutely. How do you decide what?

worthwhile goals are from our worldview with respect to Christianity. Obviously, god has to play a major role in that. And yeah, and you talk about Moses often use the example with Nehemiah. I have something happen in his life that wasn't initially on his radar. With yeah built in the wall, he didn't even know how he was going to do that initially, but he's praying in Nehemiah chapter one yeah, actually praying for success at the end of the chapter. Yeah, and he uses these opportunities in Nehemiah chapter two as we think about who we are in Christ, seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Certainly that is going to change some directions. We're going to go Paul talks about the goal in Philippians three and verse 14 and hopefully we're keeping our minds and heart focused on being with God in heaven and that's what we ultimately have to be pursuing. So, yeah, there are certainly going to be times where things that we would never have thought growing up Maybe I did a little bit, because I have some old papers. I wrote something about preaching in Africa, I believe. Yeah, but I'm pretty sure I wrote that down and I had the opportunity to do that, but it wasn't something that was in the forefront of my mind. But going back to your question, yeah, certain goals are gonna come and go and we do have to be realistic, we do have to understand where we are, or even sometimes with resources. So I totally get that. And Whether it's Moses or Nehemiah or other individuals that we can read about, yeah, there are a lot of things that they may not have thought they were going to do with their life. Yeah, but okay, it was something far bigger than themselves with respect to accomplishing the will of God.

At this point your life, what would disqualify a goal for you, ben?

Oh Okay, I'll give you an example. One of my neighbors is a scuba instructor, mm-hmm. He's asked me on numerous occasions hey, come take some lessons. Yeah, I love the travel. I would love to scuba dive. I have a heart condition. It is not wise for me to go scuba diving right as much as I would want that to be a goal of mine, to see how deep I could go into the ocean or to learn how to scuba dive. It's not wise, it's not reasonable. I'm never gonna play in the NFL, no matter how much I dream about it or watch it. We're going to play in the NBA. I've loved those sports. There are certain times in life where there are things we may have wanted to do. Time is a factor, age is a factor. Money can be a factor. I'm not gonna jump out of a plane I've thought about it before with parachuting. Yeah, I don't think it's wise for me. The scuba diving was one I just instantly thought of. I would love to do that, I'd love to figure it out, but it's not a good goal for me to have, I understand.

Let me ask you this I'm sure you've heard of this idea of manifesting. What does it mean to manifest, and do you think that's wise for a Christian to do?

If I'm understanding what people mean or how they define manifesting this idea of Speaking things into the universe and things like that. There can be some danger with that, for sure. Where number one, when people say speaking Things into the universe, who are they actually talking about? But Focusing on a particular goal, obviously God needs to be a part of everything that we do. Right and is will and not doing something that's gonna go against his will Manifesting. I don't know if I'd necessarily use that language pondering and thinking and setting a plan and praying about something that we're gonna potentially pursue. I think there's some wisdom in doing that, but sometimes people can just say if I just think about something long enough, then it will happen. That's not the way that's gonna happen, and there are books out there like the secret that I believe right, right, is that kind of language. Yeah, positive thinking is certainly gonna be better than negative thinking, reaction behind it, and just because we think about something does it's not gonna make it a reality either. There's danger with people Dismissing God and thinking anything I want, that's what's going to happen. I don't think that's reality either.

I'll go ahead and tell you one of the things that happened to me this past year. I took a missionary trip to the Philippines. In one of the podcast episodes I did, I talked about a desire for me to do some foreign evangelism, but I Don't have an experience with that. If anybody's gonna pick me to help them on a foreign evangelistic trip, I'm the wrong choice. Except, I said that out loud and I said it on a podcast, and, wouldn't you know it? Mark McCrary heard that podcast and said hey, man, I'm gonna be going to the Philippines, would you go with me? I Don't think I manifested that, but I do think that there is an advantage to sharing what your dreams are. Maybe especially with people who can Either keep you accountable if there are things that are within your control, but if there are things that are not in your control, what you can do is just say, hey, man, if you see something open up when they're looking for somebody like me, am I going to consider me? And I think one of the things that we often do is we limit ourselves, and I think you would agree with this. We often limit ourselves by not seeing the resources that we don't use often but are still available to us. You see what I'm saying.

Yeah, and I'm so happy that you were able to go. When I traveled overseas, it was a life-changing experience being able to share that with your podcast. Maybe somebody will say, maybe that was providential, maybe that was coincident, maybe, yeah, it wasn't, that was on your mind and it wasn't like a mystical power per se that it said, okay, all right, boom, there it is. No, when I was at Downing Road Church of Christ, I went through the preacher training program there. Yeah, and I can remember one time we called it the cubby hole. It was upstairs. Basically my office was in the attic and I was just sitting there. One day, kenny, I said to myself, man, I would really love if we could just stay here and I could preach here. Now, I don't know how many months that was before and I interviewed at a congregation in Houston and then Downing Road came back and said, hey, we'd like to see if you and Nicky would like to stay here and I was like, yes, I would like to stay here. That's not by my own power or anything like that. Right, I believe Nicky and I were there providentially, with God, working in our lives and meeting the people in Columbia, missouri, that knew about Matt Baskford who used to be in the preacher training program there, because I was looking to preach and they said why don't you call Downing Road? There's a lot of different things that connected that. I'll give you another example and we'll see what you think about this. And I'm not making this up and I'm not saying that it's manifesting or anything like that. But we've been working on a preacher development program and I was working out one day in my garage and I was just thinking to myself about it and I was like I think I'm ready now for the preacher training program. If we find a guy, let's go ahead and do it Later. On that day I got an email from a young man looking for a preacher training program. We ended up hiring him a number of months later Providence, coincidence, I don't know, but I believe it's working out great and so it's just interesting how things work. But I do think thinking about what is it that we want? For a lot of people that's a very difficult question to answer. Our number one answer should always be what is it that God wants from me? What is his will? We can go after all these other dreams and aspirations and things like that, but if we miss heaven, we've missed it all, and so understanding what is it that he wants, what is his will for me and as we think about our lives, what's going to align with his desires, with the things that we're going after?

Yeah, I think that my problem is and this is probably not your problem is that I know I need to give God the wheel. I just want to make sure that I have the brakes. I have control of the brakes.

All right, so let's if you got we got a sec here, just a two. Yeah, go ahead. Okay, let's ask the question why and people can play a game. You ask why seven times? Why do you feel like you need the brakes, kenny?

Because I don't trust God completely. That's, unfortunately, the answer.

Okay that's why number one. Okay, why don't you trust him completely?

Probably because my faith is not what it should be.

We can keep pilling back these lighters. All of us have felt the way you have, kenny what if I don't have the brakes? What if it just keeps on accelerating? But that's where for you and for me all of us have been in that situation before where we want to have that control. But yeah, that's another level with respect to our faith and our trust in him.

For sure I've talked about before the difference between the right answer and the authentic answer. The problem is we always know the right answer but we don't know what our answer is really, and that I've heard it called the five wise but the seven wise. Same thing, which is it usually gets down to very simple truths about you, very fundamental truths about you, and the thing about it is we all there are guys that we all know that answer. All the Sunday morning Bible class answers really well, but are they doing the things that they know to do? And the answer inevitably is no. None of us are, and so I think it is important to know the right answer, but it's probably more important for us to know the authentic answer. Do you know what I mean?

Amen. I appreciate your being honest and open with that. You're exactly right. Yeah, the honest answer or the right answer can roll off our tongues, but we have to get to the heart of the issue individually.

I've heard it said that we overestimate what we can do in a day and underestimate what we can do in a year. What is a good way to think about goals in?

more productive ways. I heard something not too long ago where it said that drug addicts only think about four days in advance. The average person may think about five years in advance. Entrepreneurs think 10 years in advance and thinking long term. I think that's one of the things we really need to focus on when it comes to our goals. Yeah, that the goal itself is not always like a 90 day goal or, okay, this endpoint here, but it's just helping us continue to move forward, and so how do we think of goals in a more productive way, finding the value of check-ins or checkpoints with our goals. So by that, if you're trying to lose weight in 90 days and maybe you don't have that physique that you want, it doesn't mean that we just revert back to where we were on day one. It's a checkpoint, right? Okay we're writing it Right. So if it's our spiritual disciplines growing in our faith, we keep checking in. I think that's a better way of in a more productive way of thinking of our goals, not just like an end, all be all.

Yeah, and really what you're addressing there are those intermediate goals and those long term goals Covey talks about. Begin with the end in mind and then putting first things first, which is more important, ben.

I would say first things first. You can begin with the end in mind, and certainly that's going to be important. Both of those are important, but first things first is going to deal more with priority. You can have the end in mind, but you still have to take those initial steps. That's how I would answer that question.

I don't know. I think one of the things that I would say is you said this a little bit earlier and it really struck a chord with me is defining what you want, and I think most of us never go through that exercise. We know that high achieving athletes will have played the game in their mind before they get on the court. They already have envisioned what could happen and what they should do in response. I think most of us are probably winging it day by day, and we probably shouldn't be winging it as much as we do. There are only a few things that probably going to happen and you can probably anticipate most of those things, and if you're going to constantly be in a state of wow, I didn't see this coming, then maybe you aren't planning enough. I don't think we think about exactly what it is we want, nor how much it would cost if we actually got it.

I think a lot of people struggle with that. Maybe an easier way to get started is asking what is it that you don't want? Think about that from a family. What is it that you don't want? I don't want a divorce. I never talk to my kids. Okay, it sounds like here's what you do want. So if this is what you actually want, then now we need to see are my actions, or your actions, aligning with the very things that we say that we want? And then that can help bridge that gap. In John chapter five, the man who had been sick for what 38 years, Jesus said do you want to be made? Well, how can I? There's no one here to help me. And then Jesus heals him. And so many times we can put obstacles in our own path, the things that we do want and then make an excuses for why we can't go after them or accomplish them. Obviously, I'm not talking about anything that's sinful in nature or anything like that, but there are many things that we put in our own way where we say that we want them, but the way that we live or think it's not in alignment with it, and so that's always going to hinder us. And even when it comes to goals. Productive goals need to be written down. You've already touched on it. We need to have a system. If we're going to begin with the end in mind, then we have to create a system and walk backwards, right? Okay, this is what I want. Now how many steps is it going to take for me to actually get there? That actually takes quite a bit of work, but the effort is always worthwhile if we're willing to do it, and so I like what one person said you can't be upset at the things that you didn't work or go after for, so we have to be willing to at least try and go after these things and put in the right effort and attention, which is necessary, yeah.

I completely agree with that. It reminds me when Jesus in Mark 10, he healed a blind man, but before he did, he asked what do you want me to do for you? I think that's such a great question, because what could he have asked for? And was he short-selling himself by only asking for his sight?

You made me think of someone else too King Solomon. Yeah, first King, chapter 3, when God asked him ask what you wish me to give you. That's, essentially, what is it that you want? He could have asked for everything that most people ask for, but he had that wisdom and he knew exactly what he needed understanding his situation, understanding his limitations, becoming King and how he needed that wisdom from the Lord. So, yeah, there's interesting scenarios and questions where Solomon knew no, this is what I need, and then God gave him even more than he asked for. There has to be some kind of acknowledgement or understanding of exactly where we are and who we are, and that will help us to understand. Okay, this is what I want and this is how we can go to get it.

I understand that and really one of the things that, again going back to Kavi he talks about identifying the roles in your life and then identifying goals within each one of those roles. I think, even with my wife my wife and I there are things that I would like to achieve in my marriage that aren't there yet and I see what you're saying professionally. There are things that I would say that there are things that I want to achieve. I still think that the hardest part for me is identifying and defining that. It's the identification and the definition of what does a good marriage look like. That, to me, is difficult. Although the person that I have to do that with is my wife and I love her dearly. The person who I have to negotiate with is in my corner and I love that.

Do you feel overwhelmed at times when you start thinking about certain goals?

Sometimes. But one of the things that I would say is in my marriage and I'm not trying to focus all this on my marriage, but I'm the one who is more laid back. My wife is the one who is more into the details. So, and so one of the things that I would say is I am somebody, I am enjoy the ride, and my wife is. Are we there yet, gotcha, and you need both of those. I think one of the things that my wife is probably better at is like today we took a walk together and she said have you thought about what we're going to do for Thanksgiving? No, I haven't. And she said we need to start thinking about that. I guess you're right. It's one of those things we compliment each other very well, but do I stress out about it? Probably not as much as I need to. I probably need to address more details than what I am Sure.

Yeah, and you can always ask her. Maybe you don't, maybe that is the balance, but that would be something that she would have to give you some feedback on. And hey, would this actually, would this make you feel better if I did that? Yeah, I wonder sometimes if you have the smart goal system, you have all these different systems. Do we actually need every single time, all of these spreadsheets in three months before we decide to take action? Maybe for some things you want that, you want to measure twice, cut once, you want to make sure that we're doing this right. So, laying a foundation for a house, a surgery, now let's make sure we got everything in alignment. But I do wonder sometimes if we overthink it so much that it just forces us not to take any action.

The paralysis of analysis is what I'm really good at. We've got a little yapping dog. It's a 10 pound dog, so it's not dangerous at all, but the dog has basically barked at every UPS driver and cannot stop. 10 minutes later, that little dog is still yapping at the UPS driver. And so today, seven years after we've gotten this dog, I came to the bright realization a bark collar might be in order.

Yeah.

And here's my problem, Ben. For the next two hours I started looking at bark collars. I was looking for the best bark collar. Look, Just buy one. Any one of them will do.

Yeah, yeah, that's exactly right. Yeah, there was a book called the paradox of choice, I don't know if you've read that, I say it's a great book. It's been a number of years since I read it, but I started going through it again, just looking at some highlights it was such a great reminder of and these are some things that I do, kenny. Put yourself on a timer, for example. Set your iPhone, say, 20 minutes I'm going to buy a collar before the end of 20 minutes. And I've fallen into the same thing that you have done too as well, kenny, where I did a blog post on this this horrible noise I kept hearing every night in our backyard. What is happening out there. Yeah, it would not stop, but I knew what it was. It was the fence that needed to be fixed. So that's okay. How much more pain do I actually want to experience? Fix the fence that's what other people have talked about, this. Do it now, do it now, do it now. So when I did it, I instantly felt better. So the Israelites were like that. They're looking at the wall every day. It's destroyed, it's broken down, it needs repairs. How long do we have to look at something before we say I should probably do it?

Coming back to spiritual goals, it's kind of like diet and exercise. All of us have a diet plan and an exercise plan in our mind. It's just getting to the first step. I think all of us have basically the same goals. They're all easy goals, but they're ones that we keep on avoiding, which is Bible study or reading our Bible more and doing some kind of benevolent act, sending out cards or something like that. These are common goals, but are there other goals that might be more elusive but more important than we originally think?

One would be singing Really, why? It's something that I've observed. We sing on Wednesday nights at the building with the singing we sing on Sundays during worship services. But we definitely have room to grow with singing hymns, whether it's together in the home throughout the week and not just on these appointed occasions, and that's certainly okay to do. But it's an act of worship, singing praises to God. I believe that would fall into there. Prayer is a necessity. It's something that God tells us to do. He wants us to do it, there's an expectation for us to do it. There's joy there should be when we do it, and yet that's something that we may not always aspire to do as well either. Prayer singing we have all the time in the world. Time is really not the issue, but it's actually putting that intentionality on it as well. The other one I would add would be meditation. I'm not necessarily saying emptying our mind of everything, but filling our minds with the word of God, pondering and memorization, dwelling on these things, as Paul talks about in Philippians 4 and verse number 8. That takes a lot of energy, but there's such obviously wisdom. How many verses might I be able to memorize? Right? What if I did memorize? And maybe this goes back, kenny, to some of the dreams that we have. What if we dreamed God really liked to memorize the Sermon on the Mount? Yeah, is that a worthwhile goal? Yes, will it be pleasing to God Absolutely? Will it help us in every area of our lives? Yes, that's another way to reshape the goals that we have. God is going to give us our daily bread. He continues to give us our daily bread. He continues to provide for us. As we start thinking more from a biblical standpoint, that will help us to see what it is that we want, should want. No longer need to go after All of these things, I think, will give us a lot more clarity. There's so many things and I know there's a lot, obviously, fitness, finances those are always big things. Books there's nothing wrong having goals to read a certain amount of books in a month. My goal is to read five books each month. I just started that this month. Congratulations, thank you. I hope Audible is acceptable for those who keep track of things. Listening is a way for me to hit that mark, because I have a lot of drive time every day. I get it. But thinking about those spiritual aspirations, reading our Bibles and studying our Bible should never be underestimated, but also thinking bigger picture. You asked and we talked about earlier, about underestimating what we can do in a year. How might that change our workflow or become a better steward with our finances so we could have more opportunity to serve where we wouldn't feel like we have no margin and we're up against the line? Once I get all of this taken care of, then I can start thinking about doing some other things like that. I think all of these are really intertwined. As we think more about what is it that? That's it, kenny, what. We're not asking the right question. We're asking what is it that I want? What is it that God wants? He answers the questions for us. Here's what I want for your family Husbands love your wives, even as Christ loved the church. Wives submit to your husbands Children. Be obedient to your parents. Here's what he wants for us. We can just go down the line. Here's what he wants for us as his people. He wants us to be people of self-control. That covers how we eat, what we do as stewards of our bodies and our time and our money and our thinking. We have just missed it. God's wish in 2 Peter 3 is for all men to be saved, that none will perish but that all will repent. That's his wish. That's what it says in 2 Peter 3. Is that my wish? Is that what I'm aspiring? What can I do to help accomplish that as well? So what if we just flipped it and said maybe enough of me asking the question, let me just go back and consider what God says. God, what do you want? And then how much would that make our lives even easier?

And once you stray outside the bounds of those of what you've decided to define as a good relationship, then you're no longer in a good relationship. The problem is, we don't negotiate with God that when you come up against God, he's going to dictate the terms of the relationship. And boy, that seems awfully selfish. Until you recognize that the person that you're trying to negotiate with is literally perfect. The more you try to negotiate your way around something that he's telling you to do, you're not hurting God, you're hurting yourself. Does that make sense? Amen, it does. That's well said. I think we get. We want to negotiate with God too, and God says okay, number one, no, and number two, you don't know what you're asking for.

That's exactly right. The devil can creep in very easily, and I was just studying Genesis and just being reminded of how subtle he is. Adam and Eve already had it all and even thinking about this idea of overcoming Kenny. To overcome, we have to remember what we have become. We are Christians, we're part of a holy nation, we're loved, we're the children of God, we're forgiven. I think we don't put as much of an emphasis upon that. We're complete in Christ, according to Colossians, chapter two, and so to overcome one of the things, we have to remember who we are, who we belong to, and that makes life a lot easier to navigate, because we already know where the victory is, and that's in Christ.

Yeah, what's the biggest thing we have to overcome?

Doubt is one of the first things that comes to my mind. Overcoming doubt is where a lot of our obstacles are in our lives. Overcoming sin those are things that we need to be able to overcome, but doubt and trust. All throughout the scriptures were reminded about the faithfulness of God. Throughout Genesis, we see who's the one that's faithful over and over again it's God.

I wrote an essay that I did on the podcast not too long ago that addressed my fear of flying. When I'm in a car, I'm fine. I don't understand how a car works. All I know is how to use a brake pedal, a gas pedal and a steering wheel. Those are the three things. I know how they operate, but I don't understand what happens once it gets past my hands. I have to trust that car a lot, but when I get into an airplane, the illusion of control is completely gone.

All of us do want some kind of control and yet, yeah, you're exactly right, as we think about what's happening in our world, we don't have really that much control. We have a hard time controlling ourselves. We have a hard time controlling our bodies. Don't we look at these bigger things and say, no, I can't have control of that.

I'm reminded of Gideon and Moses, and all these great characters did great things, except when you think about the great things they didn't do any of them. It was God that was behind them the entire way, and the point of Gideon was he couldn't do what he was asked to do. He was given insufficient everything to prove the point that it was God that was behind this. And I guess I need to be taken back to Gideon, yeah, and just be shown that.

No, I am not good enough and we have to trust in the Lord with that brother, yeah, and know that he's with us.

Have you ever read Atomic Habits? I have One of my favorite quotes in there goes like this you do not rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems. Do you agree with that? I do. What does it mean?

I also thought about John Maxwell. He has a book, the 15 Laws of Invaluable Growth, that served me well. I read that a couple of years ago and James Clear talks about that a little bit in his book Atomic Habits. Systems are going to be the way that we accomplish these goals. So if we begin with the end in mind, putting first things first, we need to have our systems set up so that we can eliminate obstacles and make it easier to overcome whatever that may be that we're trying to accomplish. Systems, for example. You have systems when it comes to your podcast yeah, how you record, how you edit, when you post, how you share questions that you give to your guests. Whatever the case may be, these systems give us clarity. Systems give us consistency. Systems make it easy for us to navigate and to take away some of the challenges that come. You can have all the big goals but again, if you don't know how to go about it I don't know if Daniel was thinking about it he probably wasn't systems and things like that, but certainly with his habits or customs. Yeah, I think about Daniel going to pray in the same place three times a day. Yeah, think about Jesus. There's customs or habits that he had waking up early in the morning to pray, yeah. And so having these systems in place where things become routine in a way that just automatically says okay, no, this is the path that I'm going. It makes everything a lot easier.

That's Christians. How should we overcome our obstacles?

It always begins with our Heavenly Father. First John, chapter five, verse four. We need to be reminded of our faith in Him. So, as Christians, how do we overcome these obstacles, the obstacles of sin, of unbelief? We need to make sure that we're turning to the one that has the answers. We need one another when you think about what God has done with the church. Paul needed Barnabas. Barnabas at times needed Paul. Peter needed Paul when he was rebuked in Galatians, chapter two. So if we're trying to overcome by ourselves, that's not gonna work out. Confess your sins to one another. James five, those who are spiritual, like Galatians, chapter six, verses one and two. So we need one another, we need honesty. We need to be honest with ourselves and actually see where are we. That's how we're gonna be able to come with certain obstacles as well. We need good soil for our hearts, where we're not just here but we're doers and we're obedient and we persevere. As Luke, chapter eight the parable of the sower there, that account talks about this idea of perseverance and we need to surrender to the Lord, casting your cares to him because he cares for us. First Peter, chapter five, verse seven. What else is interesting about that? Kenny is right before that he talks about humbling ourselves. We have to humble ourselves to go to God to understand. I can't do this on my own.

I appreciate that you talked about other people as well. I think the promise of the internet was that we would be able to get so many different perspectives, but the reality of the internet is we all live in a lot of echo chambers. It's a lot of people that think almost exactly like us. I'm an advocate for digital technologies. I think these are great things, but I think the way that we often use them is in such a way that we hide ourselves from people who can help us. What you're talking about there is the importance of constructive criticism. I think we've lost that ability. I think we're so used to people agreeing with us and now, if they don't agree with us, we call it cancel culture. But it's had many names over the years and it's not new. How do you get out of echo chambers that make you sound amazing but don't help you at all?

Number one we need to fear the almighty over the algorithms. We have put some things on algorithms. So this is where my reputation has become I'm the Facebook hypocrite because I have deleted and gone back and forth. I will say this Kenny, I don't think social media is the answer for all of this. No, I don't either. I've been so attached to it that we have forgotten the art of just communicating with people. We're fighting a losing battle. If we think that we can beat the algorithms, tiktok, facebook Meta Threads, whatever it is, we can do good on social media. But if we think that we can somehow overcome or break through now, there are some other things, like mighty networks. You can do some things like that. But there's other things too, like a book club in public or meetup in public, or inviting members from your congregation to your house, or just getting off social media for a year. We have to be willing to say you know what, maybe this way just isn't working. So that may not be a popular answer. I'm on social media, but I still go back and forth with it. Where all the good things are still, with what I'm doing with you right now, talking to you face to face, going back and forth. You push back, I push back a little bit, but no one is telling me to look at this post or to agree with this. With what's going on in social media, I think, if not careful, we can depend way too much on social media with our relationships. I don't know how we're gonna break free and overcome algorithms. I just don't think it's possible.

I don't think it is either, but I think it's important for you to make close friends that aren't afraid of calling you an idiot. You see what?

I'm saying, yeah, absolutely. We need people like that. We need people who are gonna be straight up with us what are you doing? And things like that. Those kinds of relationships are gonna be fostered in a different way than over some kind of platform.

What did I miss?

What if? I think that's a great question for all of us to ask ourselves. What if? Mm-hmm? I also believe, when it comes to setting goals and getting started, get moving, there's a danger of an all or nothing mentality. Yeah, I can never memorize that many scriptures. Can you memorize a word? Can you memorize a sentence? Get moving. Ask yourself if this was easy, what would it look like? Yeah, let's not overcomplicate what we're trying to do and who we're trying to be, and so those would be just a couple of thoughts as we wrap up.

I end all of my podcasts with be good and do good. What's good about?

overcoming. Ultimately, we wanna give glory to God and all that we do, our savior. Through him we have victory and we want to remain with him. So overcoming is another opportunity for us to give glory to God, to share and show others where our faith and where our trust is, to help our brothers and sisters in Christ, to see we can do this, to press on, we're headed somewhere, we know who we are and where we're going to be one day. There's a lot of good and reason for us not to lose our confidence but to remain with our King.

I completely agree. Thank you very much for this, benjamin. Thank you, brother. Benjamin is one of those guys that I really appreciate. I really love his perspective on what it means to actually set goals and how it's important for us to realize that God really is the one in control of our lives, and that's an important thing to remember as we try to make decisions that we think shape our lives. Thank you, benjamin, for what you do and who you are. You're a good guy and I'm proud to know you. As for the good thing I'm thinking about, the school year is beginning again and I've been caught up in several pre-semester meetings and sessions. I'm always glad to see my colleagues again. One of my good friends at the university recently lost his father. Another couple have gotten jobs elsewhere and many of my students are looking forward to the classes we have together. I am that odd academic who doesn't believe colleges for everyone and that the trades are off-limits. I'm glad that the trades are often overlooked as important careers, but still I must admit I love the life of an academic. No, it's not real life, but I do love talking with students and thinking over great ideas. I'm looking forward to this upcoming school year Now that the summer is winding down and my travel is ending, I plan to release more readings from the Bible. It's been a great exercise for me and I'm grateful for the practice. So until next time, let's be good and do good.