Eric Bednash: Why Men Are Lost Today (And How to Fix It)

The Easter season is upon us. That means we celebrate our Lord's resurrection,

we have joy, and we feast. But the question is, do we remember how to feast,

and do we remember the hospitality that we are called to His Christians?

Well, during this season of Easter, doing memento, we will be focusing on how to feast rightly

and how to show hospitality to those around us. The programs and the devotions and

the scripture readings will mark the calling for us Christian men to feast correctly and to show

hospitality and love to those around us. Check out memento70.com to learn more. Again,

that's memento70.com. Enjoy the episode. You really don't watch podcasts?

No. Okay. This one and no, because I watch cooking videos.

Okay. Yeah. I forget what the show's name is. Bradley O'Neill is his name on YouTube.

And I watch his stuff back when he was with Bonetit, Bonepetit, and he was just a fun guy.

I think he was from New Jersey, New York, and he was up at one of those tall skyscrapers for

Bonepetit, and he would do all these cooking videos. And that's what I do to quote-unquote

waste time. It's kind of constructed wasting time, but it's fun because they're usually pretty

entertaining guys that you're watching. Then it gives you some ideas for recipes. Most of the

times I never make, but I'm like, I could do that though. I know how to do that. I can remember

it for now. Yeah. I mean, I made kombucha from watching one of his videos. It turned out okay.

But he'll do like kimchi. He does like all kinds of fermentation. He does a little fermentation

station. He calls it. Yeah. That's a big thing, isn't it? Yeah, it is. I remember diving down

that. I think there was the claim that that's one of the, right? So it's like your brain health

and then your gut health, those two things are massive. And a lot of it has to do with fermentation,

right? That's one of the shifts we've made where you used to eat fermented food all the time.

Right. And now we never do. You deserve it. So pickles, like just naturally fermented pickles,

they're like the salt brine or something rather than just a bunch of vinegar. It's always like a

little bit of vinegar in there. So that's what I'll watch. Because those are good like 20, 30 minutes

podcasts for like hour, hour and a half. Yeah. And for some guys, you know,

somebody like me just with the tension just, you know, always kind of shifting. I'll get plugged

in for a while. And then I'll forget to go back to it when I get busy. Yeah. Look out. I'll

mark that and be like, yeah, I'll come, I'll come back to it. I remember when we, when we did

carnivore, you know, I used to watch a lot of videos for that. Yeah. Like one just like

understanding the meats and whatnot. But then also like one of the things with carnivore is,

you know, you have to get a lot of fat in like way more fat than you're used to, which is just healthy

in general. But, you know, it's like, okay, how do I get fat? And then they, you know,

somebody like beef talo and, you know, yeah, like how to cut your meats in different ways.

You're getting a proper amount of fat in there. Yeah. I mean, that's where like I did well with

ground beef. When I tried to do like steaks, I just don't love fatty steaks. It's, it's, it's,

it's a deficiency in me too. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's a lot of effort. We just like after a while,

you're just like a lot of tune. Yeah. Working those jaws out of your thick ground beef. It's just

like you throw it in there 80, 20, like you've got your proportions good. You can, you know,

whatever. Throw some cheese on it. Throw some butter. You can do it. Lose. You can do it in patties.

Yeah. It's versatile. Yeah. So what do you, what do you think about

sauna cold plunge steam room we did today? I open, we buy the, live by the way. Nice. Okay. Yeah.

What do you think? Eye opening. Yeah. Literally. I mean, you're just, you know, you kind of get

lulled a bit into the sauna. You know, you're, you're there. Then after a while, you start to

realize, no, this is getting pretty intense. And by the time it's time to go, you're ready to go.

So you're kind of like anticipating the cold plunge. The first minute or two, I don't know

how long, I don't know how many of the sauna cold plunge cold plunge. Yeah. I don't know how,

how long it was. But like the first minute or two, I'm like, this isn't bad. This is fine.

You know, this is refreshing. When you get to that last minute or two, you start to feel, you know,

the tingles and, you know, just the endorphin rush. And then you just, there's like a moment where

you just kind of become aware, you know, conscious. You're just like, oh man. Yeah. You know, you're

just like awake in a different way. Um, yes, it was good. It was good. Everything slows down.

It's funny. You had, you had the moment the same time I did. Yeah. And it's, some of them

aware of it. Sometimes I'm not. This time I definitely was where it's, yeah, you go in. There's

the shock. Then you calm. And then you're kind of in a, in a good zone. And then it just is like

slowly building where now you're like really getting cold in your body. It's kind of going in the

shock. And then there's that moment where I don't know if it actually works that way. But I mean,

the endorphin rush, you do get 250% of your normal endorphin output. But it felt,

sometimes it feels like it just all comes at once and then everything zones in. And it's like,

you got a buzz. It's almost like it took a couple shots of vodka or something like that. I mean,

it's a, it's a, it's a different field in that it's not like a goofiness. It's a laser focus. But

it comes in like you just, yeah, you get this like this buzz. Yeah. I can watch on your face. You

were just kind of like, obviously in your eyes were like big. I mean, you had like a little bit of

craziness. Yeah. It's just aware, you know, just a little more intense awareness of things,

which is good to do because I've been like I said, I had for Christmas, my dad, he bought me a cold

plunge to have it at like the house or whatever. You can put it in like, if your bath tub's big

enough, you could put it in there. But if you have like a kind of a walk in shower, you could put

it in there. So I put it in like our basement shower and haven't used it yet. But it's like,

been in the back of my mind, you got to get that thing going. Especially when we had that cold

snap in Baltimore for like the last few weeks, a couple of months ago, where it was just like

bitter cold. I was like, I could have been outside. What's bitter cold in Baltimore?

Well, 20 degrees. But it was negative two at AM. We were single digits for a while, though,

which was, which was like, you know, that was kind of the end of the world stuff for us. Yeah. Yeah.

And I was like, that would have been a great time because I just got, I got natural ice outside

to just cool the thing down, take them out, you know, because you get in the ice bags and

we're like making the ice. I mean, it's time consuming. You have to like plan it. Oh, it's

tough. So I just, that's why I never did it because I, um, before I got back to lifetime, that's

what I did. I bought a big feeding trough. Yeah. And I had it outside, which your brother did right

in it. And yeah, if you're not pumping water out of it, it gets, it gets nasty quick. Yeah,

it gets rough. But it's on the winner. I mean, you can do what your brother did where you,

if you can chisel, but it's a whole, I mean, good for you. That's another experience. If you're

out in the cold air and then hopping in in the back out and then, you know, it's a metal tub. So

the side, it's like burning. Yeah. Um, so that's, don't think, but in the summer, like to get it cold

enough, you need a ton of ice. Yeah. So I bought an ice machine, like an industrial ice machine.

And then I bought bags and then because I had to bag it, I think four times a day, like 20 pound

bags or something. I need like 80 pounds of ice to get it below 50 degrees for it to actually

have an effect. So I had to, it was like a whole thing. I wake up in the morning bag like the

number, the sweet number. That's what I found. Yeah. Cause I would, I, you know, I would use like

a food thermometer and test the water and, you know, I put, you know, I probably put 30 pounds of

ice in. Yeah. That was like, uh, yeah, 30. And I was like, okay, that's gotta be cold, right?

And then I took the temperature. It was like 65. Yeah. I was like, okay, that's not doing anything.

I've always wondered like, how cold is like your house tapped like cold water? If you just like

turn it all the way cold, uh, not cold enough. Yeah. That's what I figured. You got to be below

60, you had to be below 60 degrees to even like really have the kind of effects you're looking for

on a cold punch because it has to be cold enough for your body to, uh, read it as like a shock and

to say, okay, my, my organs, if we continue on this trajectory, it's going to be dangerous for

the organs. And then it releases, I forget the name of the protein, but it's a very protective

protein. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, there's other things too, but that's one of the big things because when

those proteins go out, then they got to do something. And these are like, uh, this is designed for

if your body is in some kind of danger, it's going to go on fixed things to keep you alive for a

while. So once those things are released, then they go out and then they actually start healing

broken cells and stuff like that. So they go do like a lot of restorative work. So to get to that

point, you need to be at least below 60. If you're below 60, you probably need to be in a little bit

longer. You know, if it's like 58, you might have to be in for five to seven minutes, maybe a little

longer. If it's in the 40s like the, uh, at lifetime, it's probably 44, 45. Uh, at that, if you're in

for two minutes. Yeah. I think, I mean, I didn't, uh, it fluctuates a little. It was probably 45.

Yeah. It takes a lot of work to get it into the 30s. Because this next level compared to like,

just a cold shower in the morning, you know, um, you can get accustomed to those pretty. I mean,

some people you grow tall. Yeah. But you certainly do. Like by day three or four, certainly by like

the second way by cold showers. Yeah. Cold showers. Yeah. You're just kind of like the initial shock

is like one second, actually two weeks. Um, whereas you can do a cold plunge like that. I'm sure

that initial shock doesn't really go away. Yeah. You get more used to it, but it's never, it's

never easy. Yeah. You know, it, it sucks every time. Uh, but it's, it's less, your body, the initial

shock is always the same. Yeah. But then your body knows how to deal with it a little bit more. So, um,

you get less like shivering afterwards and stuff like that because you build a brown fat.

Shivering after this. No, you are. I think it was super. It was fun. Yeah. Well, in a different

way. Yeah. Yeah. It was fun. That's my favorite thing. Yeah. I mean, if I had to access to that,

I definitely would would make it more of like a regular routine. You know, so well, I'll have to see

what it, what's it entails to put all of that together for like a home. If you're sick, like it's,

I was talking to a guy the other day and there and he's like, yeah, I haven't done it for a couple

of weeks. I got sick and done it. I was like, man, no, you gotta, if you're sick, hop in here.

You know, that whole thing like, you know, put your jacket on or you're gonna get sick. That's not

how it works. I mean, if you're soaking wet and you're outside of the cold, that's a little bit

different, you know, but no, like if you, if you, if you, if you do that cold pun or the sauna,

like that's, that's how you knock sickness out. Now, if I've got a stomach bug, that's not the case.

But if I've got, if I got the sniffles, if I've got some sinus issues, that's the best thing.

I find. Yeah. Steam room helps too. Yeah. That was nice too. That's nice. We'd end it. Yeah.

It was good. It was like, like you said, it was just a nice little warm hug afterwards.

It's when you went into the battle. Yeah, it is. Oh, man. So what are, what are some like,

different tips and tricks and things that you've done throughout the years that you find valuable?

You know, you mentioned like fermented foods. I know you've done different workout things,

but you've been kind of into different. Yeah. Yeah, I got to think because I'll, I'm the quintessential

in and out of like different, you know, dietary trends or whatever. You know, and nothing has

particularly stuck, except for kind of the fasting aspect, but that, you know, we can talk about

that later. But, you know, I've gone like vegetarian for a while, not recently, but like a couple of

years ago, and I say a while, like maybe a few weeks, you know, that might be pushing it. If you

asked my wife, yeah, she might say, no, it was like a week and a half or less. Yeah. And by mine,

though, it was a couple of weeks. And that's at first, I think it's more mentally difficult

doing the vegetarian thing than it is like actually difficult because you do want to crave, you know,

some meat proteins and things like that. So I've done that before. I actually, in high school,

I worked at this all organic vegan grocery store slash deli. So I worked in the back with this

guy named Lance, who was like a professional chef, or he was, and now he's working there because he

used to work at like the hard rock cafe or something. So I was just like a high school kid working

with him, teamed up with him to make all these like vegan organic dishes, which was fun,

because I learned a bunch of nice skills and just kind of prep work and stuff like that in high

school from this guy. So in high school, when I worked there, which was almost pretty regularly,

almost every day, I would eat like organic. And then I was into that vegan stuff for a while,

not for any particular reason, other than just it was being sold to me like, this is really

healthy. You should do it. And I worked there and I had access to the foods. And so I've done that

before I've gone, like I think in college, I went kind of vegan for a little bit, again,

a couple weeks here or there. And I think there's some benefit to that, but then you miss out on a

lot of the actual just good nutrients and good food that the Lord has provided in natural occurring

things. Because when you start to look into some of those vegan things, like especially the frozen

vegan stuff, like we would make chickenless chicken nuggets. We didn't make it. We just got it from

the box and warmed them up. I don't want to read the ingredients because I'm sure that none of it's,

you know, so evil scientists. It's a pocket in the lab. And it's like, well, it's vegan,

so it's healthy. And it's like, well, no. So the organic stuff, though, that's been a big swing

for my wife and I for sure. Like the last probably half a year, if not more, just being more conscious

about what are we eating? What are we actually putting into our bodies? We're hopeful that it's

going to transform into some healthier living and maybe some benefits of not having all those

chemicals, which I think has occurred, just being a little bit more clear of mind. And then

it's easy to do. Even if you aren't eating organic, just to like, I encourage anybody,

when you go to the store, just look at the back of your box or the back of the label and just read

like, what's in there? How many ingredients do you know? How many ingredients you don't know,

and like make choices off of that? What kind of fits your conscience? But always stick to kind

of the more natural organic stuff. That's been like a really good thing. And then with memento,

just being more conscious about just eating well, just eating good when I am eating. So that's

been a big swing, which has been nice. So by fermentated foods, I've always loved those.

That's when I got introduced to kombucha. Was that that synagros, it was called, it was organics

spelled backwards. And actually, the owner, I'm a friend with him on Facebook, he just posted,

they closed, I think, 10 years ago now. So 2016 was their last day at that place and they

boarded up shop and they had to go somewhere else. But I remember seeing those kombucha,

synergy, like GT, kombucha bottles there. And I never seen it before. And it was like,

they just had the original flavor, which is just kombucha with no flavoring. And they had that,

the mother in there, just kind of this weird thing floating around. And I asked them,

like, what is this? And he's like, oh, it's really good for you. You should try it. So I gave it

a try and it was rough, like the first time, because then you just have like, you know, that taste

is like a taste you'd never really had before. It's a shock. And then you have all the things

floating in there. So it took me a little bit to kind of get warmed up to it. But afterwards,

I realized, actually, this is really good. And I really stop drinking pop or soda, however you

want to say it, a bunch of years ago, I'll have like a Coke maybe on Christmas or something,

like a good ol' Coca-Cola with your sugar. Nothing beats it. But like regularly drinking pop,

you know, probably I'll have maybe half a dozen cans of pop like in a year or something.

That's been a big change. And kombucha has been able to like replace that. It's just like a

natural fermented soda. It tastes good. It's sweet. And then adding some other kind of those

little hot waters I've been getting into, too. Hot water was a good one. Yeah, that was a good

bit. Little memento trick. Yeah. Yeah, it's good, because then, you know, when you're just

the seltzer, but it's, yeah, it's got a lot of flavor. Yeah, a little, a little hot taste in there.

I mean, it's just good to kind of just make, it's really just making those healthier choices and

just trying to be more conscious about instead of just grabbing a sprite, grab a kombucha or

something like that, you know, and depending on the brand, there's different sugars and better

brands out there. But yeah, it's just kind of being purposeful. Yeah, it's a nice thing. Just

think through your actions before you do your actions rather than autopilot. Yeah.

That's really, I think, the biggest thing when it comes to like any sort of diet or nutrition

changing your life is like, because anybody can jump into something for a week or a week or a

week and a half like I have. And then you, you forget about it, because you go, you know,

all hog, and then it's just too much, but just being conscious about what you're consuming. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. We're trying to be. Yeah. Which, I've got some follow-up questions now. By the way,

I guess I didn't really even introduce you, but Pastor Eric Bednash is a pastor in Baltimore.

Yep. You've been there, uh, since we graduated, Sam. So you've been there for eight years?

Nine years, yeah. Yeah. Something like that. Um, so you're there, and then also you are the voice

of Vomento. That's true. So for all of the recordings for those that listen to the recordings

on there, you, you do all of those recordings, which is good. We had some questions on, you know,

hey, is that an AI recording or something? And, uh, answers no, you know, we thought about that.

We're like, we just want to avoid AI in general, right? Like it's just, it's taken over so many things.

It's easier. I mean, you can just plug it text in and, you know, it spits out something.

It sounds professional, but we said now like this, the whole point with this is, you know,

you can hear from ordained pastors. Yeah.

In your city that you know their names and read, et cetera. It's not just like reading random

articles and whatnot. It's like, let's, let's keep that whole process clean in that way. Yeah.

So that's been good. Yeah. It's been adventure. It's been nice. I throw a lot of words at you,

don't they? They do. I think they do. It's like some like Greek words sometimes. Yeah, they'll

throw into that words, you know, I'm not as well versed in Latin as others, you know, so most of them,

I can, I know what, you know, know what they are, but sometimes like, I better double check this

to make sure because it's going out there for people who probably know Latin, and they're going to

be like, come on. Yeah. Yeah. So which is good because I'm growing in that, you know, which is

nice. It's nice to add a little more to my vocabulary, which is something that I try to take pride in

learning new words as time goes on. This has really been able to step that up. So it's just

some of the more classical things, like some of the classical Greek writings and stuff, things

that I've heard of, but I haven't really read fully myself or whatever it is. So yeah, it's been

it's been in his entry, basil or basil or yeah, that's always one that yeah, that's always it's

always a fun when it comes up because you just want to revert to basil, basil, like the, you know,

the herb or whatever. I don't know is it is the is the court out on it, you know, is that basil

of basil? I think people pronounce it differently. Yeah, that's Kenny. Kenny would know. Yeah,

no, I went with basil. And every time it comes up, I have to, you know, second, but no, it's basil.

Yeah, yeah. So what we're going to talk a little bit by the way, we're going to kind of

forecast what's coming up for Easter. We've been working on what that season's going to look like.

And so I'll highlight that, but before that, I'm just kind of interested in what, what's been

your experience so far? What's what's in beneficial? What's been challenging, you know, kind of going

through this for what 40, 34, 44 days in? Yeah, something like that. But who's counting? Yeah.

No, I've, well, just just talking with you the last bunch of years about your own

Lenton journey and kind of the things that you have done. It inspired me the last couple

years to do some things too. So every year, I kind of been increasingly adding different disciplines

or different things to my Lenton time, my Lenton season. And some of them have been cold showers,

some of them have been, you know, more intentional devotional time or devotional and prayer time.

And nothing to the extent that Memento has been, you know, for myself. So this has been really good

to take all of the pieces that I've had over the last, you know, three years or so. And then finally

put them into one cohesive package and be like, all right, now I can, I have like a good roadmap.

Now I have something to, you know, follow the check to check off and to keep me on course.

So that's been good because it's been, yes, since what was it February 1st, I think we

initially started our, our, our Lenton disciplines with Septuagesima. And that was nice to start

just to kind of get, you can kind of ease and do it a little bit and then kind of tighten things up

as Ash Wednesday has come and gone now. And it's been nice that it hasn't been like a week or two

that I was intense and then fell off like those, you know, diets or nutrition plans that I've tried

where this is like, no, I, I have a roadmap. I have a, you know, a brotherhood. I have a fraternity

that I check in with. So I know that I have, you know, other men doing this with me and then also

checking to make sure that I'm doing it and not just from that kind of law aspect, but just from

a caring aspect to an accountability aspect and it gives you the encouragement and it gives you

the courage to say, no, I can do this because I want to also, these are good things, these are

things that are beneficial, but also I want to keep my word to my brothers as well. So that's been

nice. It's been building accountability and it's been nice to also check in with other men as well

and hold them accountable, you know, in a loving and a Christian way. So that's been a big,

wonderful aspect to Memento is just, it's all there and there's a support group or a support team

or, you know, brothers that you're walking with, which is, I think that is, is needed more often

than just the disciplines themselves, especially in the day and age we live, you know, just with,

I think we talk about it in one of our devotions about, you know, there's always a new article that

comes out about, you know, male loneliness, you know, or the fragile masculinity of loneliness or

whatever, you know, the titles are. I think that's an aspect that we're trying to address like

full force is, yeah, it's good to do these things for yourself. It's good to do them because they're

beneficial, they help strengthen your faith, they help you grow in the knowledge of the scriptures,

but also you can sharpen each other by doing that. And I think that's something that was missed

out on the last couple of years for myself of just, you know, I think we've talked about things,

but it wasn't like a real intentional, at least from our perspective of our perspective of,

hey, did you do this or that? It was just, I'm doing this, you're doing that, you know,

how's it going? Okay, that's good, you know, but now it's, it's intentional, which is nice.

Yeah, I think that's big. I mean, two things with that one, you know, I've been very blessed.

I think one of the probably greatest strengths or blessings that have been given to me is I've

always had strong friends like guy friends, whether I go back to middle school, certainly high

school, that group, college, seminary, like I've always, I've always got guys that, you know,

I can talk with and whatnot, but there was a study they came on not that long ago. And it said

that the average guy has like 0.9. So in other words, like, there's more guys that don't have any,

any one that they can, they feel like they can talk to about anything serious. Really? Right,

so like they made a people like they could small talk, weather, talk in the North exit church,

you know, those kind of like casual type conversations, but they didn't have anyone like, I think the

questions had to do with like, if your wife committed adultery, you know, do you have a guy friend

that you could like reach out to be like, Hey, this happened. Like, I'm really struggling.

And the average is 0.9, which means, you know, some like you or me might be like, well, yeah, we've got

like six or seven and a bunch of people are saying, no, you know, we had a lot of people reach out.

You don't have to be getting a momentum. And they're like, Hey, you know, excited for this.

I can't really create a fraternity. I just don't know any guys to do this. And that was, you know,

you know, it's sad to hear, but it's also something I could be remedied, right? And that's where,

you know, some intentionality on that point of saying, yeah, okay, but like, like we can help.

And I don't just mean like, like, Brian Stacker can help or like, like, we the church can help with

that. But we have to be intentional about it. We can't just assume that guys are just going to

figure it out and go do their thing. And then the other aspect is, you know, like, you also have

to have some intentionality of saying, okay, let's build friendships, you know, let's talk about

the Vikings and whatever, like, you know, do that. But to like set aside time to be like, now talk

about serious things. And that has to be like set into the schedule. It's like when we would,

you know, we'll do our Zoom calls and stuff, you know, where we'll stay up in the evening and chat

and bring lean the next day. I'll be like, so I was bednash doing, I'll be like, oh, he's doing

good. Like, like, how's, uh, you know, like, how, then she'll ask some kind of personal question,

you know, like, how's, how's that going? Or like, how's, like, how's the marriage going? I'm like,

I don't know. You know, we're talking about, you know, we're talking about all the stuff that

guys would normally talk about. We're not talking about, like, so how are you doing there? But

this sets that up, right? We're like, in a fraternity meeting. It's like, so how was this week,

though? And everyone's like, you know, I had, I was struggling in this way. Like, I'm just not

waking up when I, when I should be. I'm snoozing. I'm really tired, you know, or whatever, or like,

this is a sin that I'm trying to work through. And, you know, this is how it's been going. And

whatever, like, that doesn't happen naturally. Like, even good friends, even people that are

blessed like you and I that have good friends, we don't just like, whatever sit down, have a beer,

you know, whatever go out for coffee, hop on the phone and just, you know, be like, so how,

what are you struggling with, friend? You know, so it takes some intentionality on that front.

And it's a necessary thing. I mean, I know it can be uncomfortable for men for at first,

you know, and unnatural even at times. And you don't have to do it all the time. It doesn't have

to be the whole, you know, your conversations with, you know, your friends every time we talk to

your friends, you should happen in the fraternity meetings, of course. But it also, it breaks the ice

and it makes you, it kind of, it allows those things to happen more naturally than when you do

talk to them outside of a fraternity meeting or something like that, where men are more apt to say,

you know, I can, I can trust this guy, you know, and we share something in common so we can kind

of talk it through. And which is good because you can help each other through whatever it is that

you're struggling with, which I think a lot of men are struggling with a lot of different things.

Or I should say a lot of the similar things really, but we just don't know because we don't talk

about it. So yeah, that's been a big, I think, a big thing, just making intentional.

Yeah. I had a friend that was, who's at a conference, men's conference. And I think the theme had to

do with like the, the hidden life or something like that. Okay. You know, so I think the speakers

were kind of grandiose examples of it, you know, but it landed the point that that's kind of,

they're like, you know, everyone's got these kind of secret struggles and they just kind of keep

it to themselves. Yeah. On the whole point is those things have to be brought out into the light.

And that's why you have things like individual confession, absolution to where, you know, don't just,

don't just kind of tell the narrative in your mind, but go and have a confidante and a pastor that,

you know, has been placed into this position, has taken a vow of, of silent like, you know, he can't

be called before court and give an answer. Unless you tell him like, you know, I'm planning on going

and doing this horrendous thing. That's a little bit different than actual confession. So like,

that's the kind of structure that that plays out. But it does take a kind of comfortability with a

group to kind of like let those things be revealed. Yeah. And then, you know, like you said, like,

most guys are struggling with similar main things. I mean, you can go through the 7 Deadly Sins or

whatever and say, okay, there might be gluttony, it might be loss, might be avarice, might be pride,

whatever, you know, and you find like, oh, yeah, like I've struggled with this in the past. I'm

struggling with this now. And then you can kind of talk through that. And it takes away a lot of the

power of that of those hidden sins that cause a lot of anxiety. I mean, and the cool thing is,

hopefully what happens is, too, and from those meetings and those discussions that guys have with

each other, that it would bring someone the comfortability to go to their pastor and say, hey,

I've talked with my friends about this, but I really want to, you know, do a little bit deeper,

more intentional, you know, spiritual addressing of this, you know, and then you have that pastoral

care, too, that can come in. So hopefully it is a wonderful thing for the church in general,

just to allow and give the pastor more access to kind of work on the things that the pastors

call there to do, which is give pastoral care, you know, because otherwise, if it's kept in secret,

you don't talk to your friends about it, you might go to your pastor, but you might not, you know,

depending on the relationship that you have with him, you know, you might not feel comfortable,

whereas if you have already broached that conversation with someone you're comfortable with,

you should be comfortable with your pastor. But if you aren't, then you can, you might be able to

go and talk with him about it. And he might have some extra, you know, advice or, or consoling,

or whatever the case may be. And so that's a wonderful thing, too, is just the Lord doing His work

through His shepherds and through His flock, too, you know, all the Christians, the priesthood of

believers, and then also having the pastor there as well. So I think, you know, it can be a wonderful,

not think I know, it will be a wonderful thing. And we've had, we've had some good conversations

in our fraternity meetings, too. I'm not going to get into all the details here.

But, you know, I think what was the last, what was it last week or the week before I think we

were talking and one of the guys brought up, you know, just perspective and shifting your perspective

and viewing people not as problems. Yeah, problems will be fixed, problems to solve,

but people to serve, you know, and then he kind of relayed that into how he views his,

his wife as well, because as guys, we want to fix everything, not that we're trying to fix our

wives or anything like that, but fix the situation or whatever it is, rather than viewing them as

someone to serve. You know, and I think that can happen to pastors a lot, too, sometimes.

You view your congregation as here, we have all these issues going on, challenges. How do I fix

them, rather than how can I serve the people here, through them? Yeah, there are some issues and

challenges. You have to fix when it comes to building problems or whatever it is. But that

perspective shift, and that was great to have, to have that conversation, that kind of birth from

just having fraternity meeting, you know, just kind of sharing things that have been beneficial

in our own personal lives that could be beneficial to the next guy. So that was great, because I

took that. It's something like, I think I've always known, I think that they definitely teach you

that as seminary, but it's good to have that refresher, that reminder like, oh yeah, I'm not here to

fix everything. You know, I am here to serve, though. Yeah, well, I think it's a good testament that

this happens all the time right where I'll know something, but bringing something from just like

knowing it, to executing it, it takes, it takes a lot of intentionality, and it usually takes a

lot of reminders. And sometimes you can learn the hard knocks away from just, you know, sprinting

into a wall over and over again, where like you recalibrate and like then do it finally the right way.

But, you know, those fraternity meetings are a good example where like iron, sharpens, iron,

right? And when you're able to talk through these types of real things, good advice comes up,

and it's, yeah, it's like you said, I've never, it's not, that, that, that point in particular

very much helped me. And I was like, yeah, I should probably like just intentionally serve my wife

more. It wasn't like I only do on breaking, like we never heard it before, but it was like,

I wasn't thinking about it the previous week or the week before that, or you know, so it's like,

you know, yeah, if you would ask me like, are you supposed to like fix your spouse or are you

supposed to serve your spouse? Well, okay, but like, but naturally guys go to, you know, I've got to

always be fixing these issues. And like you said, it's not even, you're not necessarily, I need to fix

my wife, but it's like, you're just thinking, I need to fix whatever this is, I need to fix whatever

that is. And that gets in the way off and of just kind of thinking about how you serve. And yeah,

it's all of those little mic row reminders as you have relationships in a community or brotherhood.

Yeah. Well, again, I think it goes back to that just intentionality and things. I mean, and that's

what, going back to your initial question, I think of like what has been good about the

mental process so far for myself personally speaking, is the intentionality of things. I mean,

we might have touched on a little bit ago. But I think the same thing can be true in any past

oral setting, you know, just coming from, you know, a past or serving in Baltimore, you can get

into the routine of things, which is good to get into a routine. But if you're just in the routine

without thinking about it, you know, you miss out on opportunities to serve better or even just

the purpose of why you're doing what you're doing. So having those intentionalities are just

really important. So that's been a big one, I think, for for myself with momentum, just it's just

hyper kind of fixating and focusing things on, you know, this is this is the task at hand,

this is what matters. And yeah, it's good to have a good, it's recalibrations good sometimes.

You need, I think you need it every once in a while, you know, we have kind of two thoughts with

that. I mean, the one, you know, lots of people will be like, well, you know, I think they assume

like when I'm going through my mental, like easy peasy, like, you know, like that's not the case,

right? Like I struggle like everybody else, particularly waking up early. It's just been a bore

this time for whatever reason. Well, we've had some sickness in the house and stuff and kids and,

you know, rough nights and all of that. Yeah, but, you know, having tried to do like different things

in the past carnivore and, you know, different lenton things or whatnot, it's like, if you,

if you just leave it up to you, you know, for the most part, there's exceptions to this for sure.

I know some people that are exceptions to this, but for the most part, you're going to do it for two

weeks and there's going to be a legitimate excuse that comes in and you're going to do that excuse

because it's a legitimate like exception or whatever and then like you just kind of trail off and

like the motivation kind of dies. So it does take, it takes like that, you know, this is what you do

today, you know, you've committed to this, you didn't have to commit to this, you could have committed

to this, this, this, you know, but you chose these things. So then you commit and then you know,

like other people are doing it. Like you said, if it's just me saying, whatever, like I'm going

to do 100 pushups a day, if I don't do 100 pushups on the third day, like, okay, like I let myself

down and I'm like, you're okay, Brian, like don't worry, like you're off the hook, like, okay,

you know, that's the internal dialogue, but, you know, when you've got, you know, thousands of other

guys that are like doing these things, it's like, yeah, like I want me to just sit down and read your

devotion. Yeah, read the scripture or catch up from yesterday, you know, there's days that you fall

behind and you catch up or whatever. And it's like, it's not, like you said, it's not a law thing,

it's not like I think they're going to be anger, but it's like, come on, let's do this with the

guys. I just realized that because I've been thinking about this for some reason, randomly, the last

like few months, you know, I wrestled in high school, I wrestled my whole life and then I wrestled

in high school and then a little bit in college and reflecting back on that time of like making

weight, waking up, because I woke up early today to, to fly out here, you know, and I haven't

woken up that early in a bitter cold, you know, weather. And since like high school or college,

we need to wake up at like four, you know, three, 34 to get on the bus to go to the tournament or whatever.

And you're wrestling at that time, you're fasting because you're, you're cutting weight, you're

trying to make weight, you know, so you're just, you're weak and you're cold and just thinking about

I did that for like four to six years and didn't think twice about it. And there's like

tensionality behind it. And it wasn't just me holding myself accountable. It was, you know, I had

my team. I mean, granted, you're the only one out there on the map, but you have your team that

you're in points for. You got guys that they made weight. So if I don't make weight, then I'm letting

them down, you know, and so having that intentionality behind it made those very difficult, you know,

tasks that I had to do to make weight or just to, to be in that kind of physical condition during

those cold months, easy in a sense. And the same thing was was, you know, I've kind of correlated

that to my mentor as well. You know, I feel like I'd be let myself down. Yeah, you know, because I said

I would do these things, but I would also be letting my brothers down as well, because I said I'd

do these things. And they're good things. You know, I mean, they're good things that that form

me to Christ and can. So I mean, when I, the intentionality's been there, I essentially is, is,

is what it is. So that's, that's the thing that I've been holding true to throughout this process.

This is the last month or month and a half or whatever it is. It's just thinking about like,

yeah, I used to do some of those hard things. And I got soft in my older years, you know, after college

and realized, oh, I don't have to do this anymore. I don't have to make weight. I don't have to wake up at

3.34 in the morning to do this or that, but I could. Why not? You know, what are the benefits behind

it or whatever? And obviously they're, they're numerous for memento. So I won't get into them at the

moment. Yeah. The Western man certainly has a unique, uh, need for these things. Like, you know,

I don't know if you've traveled internationally, but it's really apparent like I've done more probably

in like Africa, you know, and obviously like those communities are just very, like, natural,

right? Like people don't have their palaces that they go back to and like shut their garage door

and like do their life on their own. Like, you know, they live in normal houses on worldly standards.

Yeah. Right. Um, not suburban mentions that we like living. So the force is like they're just

outside and the weather's nicer, right? So I mean, they're just outside. They're always in the

community. So there's, you know, things are public pretty quickly when things go awry. You know,

and I remember, you know, Dennis Meeker was the pastor and missionary over there that we would

work with in Kenya. You know, and he just, he would always, it was, you would always know,

I guess, you know, so and so said that like, you know, this is going on in so and so's life. I

got to go, you know, deal with this and it's like everything was like very much out of the open.

Like so and so's back on alcohol. You know, it's like how'd they know? Well, like he doesn't get to

just like sneak into his house and like be away from everyone from two weeks or whatever, you

know, just doing his own thing. Like everyone just knows, right? So we don't have that. So it does

take some intentionality because you can, you can just sneak off and get into your own bad habits.

Yeah. You know, no one knows. Yeah. You know, you just, I mean, yeah, at the conference,

when one of the examples of someone that was for like 10 years, you drank a half gallon of

vodka a day and he's like, no one knew. Yeah. Like no one, like, how do you hide that? Like you,

you, well, you can do that if like you're working remotely, you know, three days out of the week

and then like you go to the office or don't say out of your neighbors, you know, they only see if

you're like bringing your trash out or whatever and you kind of waver your mowing or whatever. Like,

yeah, you can just, you can sneak off and hide things more than, more than would be the case

normally historically. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then you add that to like the data of how many people

do you have in your life? How many other guys do you have that you can, that are trustworthy,

you have a closer relationship? Like zero, one, like, okay. Like this is, this is a rare historical

issue. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, so that, yeah, that just ties it back to the, um, the fraternity thing.

You have brothers that are asking questions and you feel the, you know, you don't want to lie to them.

You know, you shouldn't be your, yeah, try to be a good Christian man. You know, you shouldn't be

lying to the people that are that care about you. So you have that kind of, you know, a little bit

of the guilt or the law that that presses on you. Yeah, don't lie about this. Be honest about

whatever that struggle is or if you, um, especially the struggle, but especially if you didn't do the,

you know, the disciplines as you thought she would or whatever it is. So it's nice. The

accountability is something that has been lacking, I think, for a long time and in the Western

culture. Yeah. Yeah. So let's, let's spend a little bit of time. So we do want to kind of highlight

that's coming up for the Easter season, which is, you know, one, one of the things that's, uh, you

know, we, we, what kind of sprinted to get things together and put up, you know, in November to

prepare for Lent, because Lent is, you know, that's going to be kind of the backbone of things.

You know, it's not necessarily the most important, but it's certainly one with mental

remembrance. What kind of things have we forgotten? I think Lent, and the more we've, we've studied

this, like it's just, it's so apparent how much we've lost kind of the understanding of Lent,

you know, one of the things is we have the kind of traditional Lutheran colics. Yeah.

In Lent that are built in and that's been one of the more eye opening things for me where it's like,

you know, you listen to these colics and these are not, we're not, like these are not colics

written for, like, memento or anything. Right. These are, these are ancient colics used in the

Lutheran culture. Once we put together by the Lutheran missile project, we forgot. And like,

what are most of those colics? And these are daily colics used to be that would be used in prayer

services at the church, you know, whether Sunday or if they had like a daily matins or something

like that. And what do the colics talk about all the time? Like, you know, may you use this

mortification of the flesh? Like, may, may you bless our fast so that it would also help us

resist sin? Like this is like throughout all of Lent. Yeah. This is heavily the focus. And Lent

for me is like, it's like, I don't know. I'm like, Easter's coming up, like a story, you know,

like I'm a teenager, you know, my 20s or, you know, even early in my ministry. It's like Easter's

coming up. Maybe I'll give up chocolate, you know, kind of, you know, the sermon focuses are

going to be a little bit more, but it's not this holistic that carries into the 365. So anyway,

you know, we launched for that. That was a big thing. But that's not 365, right? And that's,

you know, I think most people understand that by now. But the point isn't these are, you know,

food fasting 365 days a year, you know, heavy discipline all the time. The point is that we've

got all of these different seasons. And we lean into them in different ways. So we've leaned

into and we're currently leaning into Lent, but around the corner is Easter. And that's going to be

a big focus on feasting. Yeah. Right. So that's going to be a, it's going to be a completely

different shift. You know, and pastor even Ian Kinney talks about it. You know, he's like,

you know, the typography is more mountainous. It's like you're like way up here and way down here.

It's the paradox that Chester talks about. It's so beautiful. It's not just the the flat planes

where, you know, Wednesday in Lent and a Wednesday in Trinity Tide and a Wednesday in Advent and

Easter and Christmas season all look the same. It's like not only look way different. In the same

way that's naturally speaking, like a Wednesday in the summer, like I'm out mowing the lawn,

I'm playing with the kids Wednesday in the winter, like, I don't know what I'm doing. I'm stuck inside.

It's terrible. So yeah. So in the Easter season, it's going to be a focus on feasting.

It's also going to be a focus on hospitality. Yeah. And vocations are going to start to play a bigger

role. So we lean into that a little bit in Lent, but kind of the the idea is the main focus in Lent.

I mean, Almsgiving is obviously a very vocational, you know, external, externally focused thing,

but a lot of this is the time where you're just kind of working through the weeds that have

entangled you internally, right? So that you can move into these other seasons and then you can

feast and show hospitality because you know, Christ has worked through some of these weeds, you know,

and work and whatnot to prepare you for that. So there's going to be a big focus on

on how do we feast in a recovery of that, which we'll speak about here in a second.

And then also who do we feast for? Right. So very much an outwardly oriented type focus with

some different disciplines. If you want to call them that, you know, habit formation to kind of

bring this back and healthy communal base way. So I don't have any macro thoughts on it.

Well, yeah. I mean, just from the Lent in disciplines and the intensity therein,

removing those weeds, allowing the Lord to kind of uproot whatever those weeds are for good

seeds to be planted. And then now the time is, you know, especially moving into kind of panic

costs then into the summer seasons, the green season or the non festive season, whatever you call

it at, you know, whatever particular congregation you're at to let them those seeds that have been

planted from the weeds being removed to then grow. And that's kind of the transition into Easter is

celebrating the victory that we have in Christ and the resurrection that is our hope and the

peace that surpasses understanding. But then also focusing as you said on those vocations,

and then all right, now I have space where the Lord has probably planted some good seed there.

And asking him to use this time of feasting and focus on vocation to grow and bless not just me,

but my family and others, especially. Right. I mean, I think that's kind of the transition is,

you put in this hard work, you know, the Lord has done hard work too on you with his word.

And in those disciplines and now we get to kind of see maybe the fruits of that hard work.

Hopefully, I think that's the the intention. Yeah, it's good to make sure that people know this

is 365 days. There are different seasons. There's different focuses. We're in the most intense

season right now. Easter is pretty intense as well, but just in a different aspect. Yeah, you know,

so yeah, the hospital is a big one, which is what I'm excited about because

it's not one that you kind of maybe is always in the forefront of your mind. You know,

it's something that you do when you have the opportunity if you remember to do something about it.

But this is kind of putting that into, no, be actively looking for ways to be hospitable to

whomever. I mean, I think we have a kind of a list of,

yeah, things which we can go through. And I mean, I would say so, I mean, really,

Pastor Ian Kinney has been probably the main driver for kind of the nuance of this. And we

talked before he's very well researched on this kind of historically and whatnot.

Especially the Lenten season, but you know, he's he's kind of spread his wings here on the

seaster season, too. It's pretty impressive. Well, it is, it didn't impress him. I'm very happy.

Very blessed to have, yeah, to have a guy like that with the resource, the resource that he is.

Yeah, any calls of the job he does a lot of, you know, calling up great guys,

you know, Brian Wolfmuller and things like that, just to kind of pick their brains. And I mean,

one of the big things for me is, you know, when I was thinking of the Easter season,

kind of head when it was still kind of vague and we're kind of thinking through like, okay,

what's it's going to look like? You know, it seemed simple, you know, and then kind of as we've

looked into it and especially as, you know, Ian's been kind of putting this together, it's like,

it was eye-opening in that. Oh, yeah. Like, nope, there's surprises here for the Easter season in a

really good way. Like, you know, things that you don't think about. So, you know, one of the,

kind of the macro thesis is going to be we've we've forgotten how to fast, but believe it or not,

we've forgotten how to feast. Yeah. You know, in other words, he's like, well, that might sound

kind of weird because we're surrounded by a wasteland of food, you know, we've been feasting

out of dollar general and get little debbies, right? Like all these, like, yeah, we've got so much

things. We always know how to feast. And, but that's not even necessarily feasting. That's really

just kind of mundane gluttony, you know. Well, I think that's a big differentiation that we're

hopeful to make distinct and clear to in the Easter season is this feasting isn't just straight

up gluttony, right? Yeah. I mean, it's cool. He's got a little token. I mean, this is a document

that's going to go out here shortly on them. I meant a website, but he's got a cool quote at the

beginning. It's from Tolkien, you know, it's if more of us valued food and cheer and song above

hoarded gold, it would be a merry or world. And that's I think I'm pretty sure a reference to

the Hobbits, you know, and just kind of there. There's simple feasting joy, you know,

earthy in the ground and whatnot. So anyway, let me, I'm just going to jump forward to the actual

disciplines themselves and we can get back a little bit to the why. So there's kind of a bait,

though it's going to be structured a little bit different in that there's a baseline. And then

there's a list of additional ones to choose. And, you know, we have always a tier one, tier two,

tier three. And the idea is, tier one, take on something like three, tier two, take on something

like six ish, maybe nine ish, and then tier three something like nine to 12 out of the 12 that

are there. So we're so kind of breaking that up. So what's the baseline? Well, the baseline is

these habits that we've built. What are the key ones that we've done? You know, cold showers are

great for those that do the tier two, tier three. That's not the core of what memento is. That's

something that just kind of helps with our softness and our addiction to comfortability. What's the

core? It's the daily scripture reading, which for lent was heavy. I mean, we, you know, we're

we're getting close here to being finished with reading all of the Psalms and the New Testament

in 63 days. That's the that's the most it's the quickest I've ever read. It's a lot. I mean,

I'm still getting caught up a little bit myself because I, you know, it does. Even

it just life hits you sometimes and you can fall behind really quickly. I've talked to

talked to a few guys who have been like, yeah, I've fallen pretty far behind and my

encouragement was, well, I jump back in and just, you know, continue to work through those as

time goes on. Yeah, but yeah, it's it is a lot and it's good. It's a good a lot. It'll be less.

So once we get the rest that we're going to be falling election area approach where I haven't

looked specific. I mean, you know, you have a New Testament reading, an Old Testament reading,

you know, maybe maybe a Psalm in there or something. You don't want to be feasting on God's word.

Yeah, you want to be feasting on God's word. So that's going to be an anchor. We'll continue to have

those those plans put out and what the prayer, you know, the the mountains and the

vespers with some, you know, the call X and, you know, maybe a couple of different

different prayers that we'll bring in at different times kind of, you know, add to it. And then,

yeah, fasting is not a focus here, right? So that's the primary goal. We're not moving it. That's

not the goal. That's not what we're putting, putting forth. And then the idea is that you want to plan

feasting meals, right? And what's a feasting meal? Intentionality. Yeah, yeah. Which it's kind of,

we call it a discipline. And the idea is a feasting meal doesn't just mean like I'm starving after

lunch. So I'm going to go pick up my favorite pizza and go home and pull out the paper plates and

me and the kids are going to chop down, which we do. Like we do do that. But it's a feast is something

you plan and you say, you know, Sunday, we're going to have a nice meal. We're all going to sit here.

Maybe we're going to light some candles. You know, maybe we're going to invite a friend over

our family over and talk about it. Like it's going to be a celebration. We're going to celebrate.

Yeah. Right. So different ways to do that. The idea is to make that a focus in Easter. You're not

going to do that every day. You might not even do it every week. Everyone's going to be a little bit

different. But the idea is that, you know, for everyone, whenever you do your feast or your feasts

plural, begin and end with scripture, a prayer, a hymn, and a toast to Christ. Yeah. Right.

To bring that back, you know, doesn't have to be a long scripture to chat, you know, just a

something with your family, you know, pray, you know, maybe sing a hymn and then give a toast to

Christ, you know, which is just kind of a cool, I don't know, it's that festivity. It's that

celebration. Yeah. I mean, it's that that that victory, you know, that victory feast, the Easter

season. You know, so just it's always tying back into that, which is I think easy to fall away

from, unfortunately, you know, because you get your big Easter celebration on like Holy Saturday

or Easter Sunday and you have your big feast at church before or after whatever you do and your

congregation. And then maybe Easter Monday, you have something else. And then by the end of the

week, it's kind of like Easter was like a week ago. It's already over with, you know, it's almost,

you know, even in the church, you've come to church on Sundays, you're still kind of talking

about it. You're following the story more from the gospel readings and the book of Acts. But

in your everyday life, though, I think it's pretty easy for it to fall away. You know, you lose

that intentionality of, oh, no, it's it's, I'm still celebrating Easter, you know, which is a

wonderful thing. It's the highest, you know, the highest, I think feast day that we have in the

in the Christian church. Yeah, it's definitely the pinnacles that this is certainly the second

mountaintop. You got kind of Christmas in the Easter as like the two, you know, big feast festival

days. And that's yeah, and that's an important point, which has been a calibration shift for me.

And it's beautiful. If you can move in this way, Christmas is, you know, maybe even a little bit

easier, but the point is we have seasons not days. I mean, we do have days, you know, Easter is

the day on the calendar. But the point is it's a season. And that shift is massive. And that

the point is if I just have one day, it's like a birthday or something like for people that

lean into birthdays, you know, I don't for myself. But, you know, if you do, it's like this one day

has to be what like all your favorite thing is like, I'm going to go and I'm going to do this

because I like to do that and that. And I, you know, and you have to soak it all up in 24 hours,

go so quickly. And then it's done, you know, and same thing, like if you put all the pressure on,

we want Easter to be amazing. So we're going to have like one day and it's all going to be packed

into there. Then it's just stressful on everybody because you're just, everything has to go right.

If not, everyone's stressed and angry because like this one day, the bridegroom is like,

it's like, no, no, you got 40 days. Like spread this out. You like enjoy it, you know, second

Sunday and Easter, you can do something special. You know, whatever. Same with the 12 days of Christmas,

you know, Christmas days like chaos when you have like church and presents and kids stuff. And

you're trying to say, you got 12 days, you know, you spread those presents out over 12 days.

I mean, there's a lot about that, right? Yeah, there's a lot of, yeah, there's a lot of stress

around Christmas, even Christmas, which is families and stuff and people that I talked to because

they're all trying to fit all that into those two days. And it's like, no, we have, we have time

afterwards. I think it's a good, um, curb, maybe or guide to keep us on the rails too from falling

off into just gluttony too, because you have that intentionality. No, you don't have to fit it all

in on this one day. You can, we have a season to celebrate, you know, we have these, we call

them rhythms, but, you know, we have these, these guidelines to help keep us with intentionality,

you know, and that's something that just, it's the more I think about it, the more I'm,

I'm just thankful for the church here. You know, it's not, it's something that I was aware of

growing up in the Lutheran church, but, you know, as a kid, you don't really think about it outside

of those kind of big days, Christmas Eve, Christmas and Easter and maybe some other the big holidays,

panic cost and stuff like that. But as I got older and seeing the seasons, I've grown a lot more

appreciative of them, you know, just, no, I can, I can revel in this a little bit more. I can

really enjoy, you know, this season or stay focused, not just for Ash Wednesday, you know, but for

these 40, 45 days or 65 or whatever it is that, that what we have 63, 63, yeah. Yeah, I think East,

this, I'm very much looking forward to Easter because I've, I've done some lentens, this is my

most intense lent, you know, 20, 26, but, um, I've, or last five years or so, I've done more,

more lent things, but I don't think I've ever leaned into like Easter, you know, as a season. Yeah,

so this, uh, this is cool. So let me, let me go through some of these other, uh, these are kind of

them, the other additional things that we kind of put forward, you know, choose ones that you,

but these, uh, I really like these. So, first one is take, uh, one to three vacation days off work,

you know, during the season of Easter. And here's the thing, you know, here's what people normally

do for vacation days, right? You take it off and you're like, you know, we got a lot of yard work.

So I'm gonna take a day off and we're gonna, we're just gonna work, right? Yeah. And the point is,

no, no, no, take, take some days off and just rest or be with your family or plan things with your

friends or, you know, if you're a single guy and you like to go hike, like, enjoy the spring and just

take like two days and just go do the things that you enjoy. Like just, it revel in God's blessings

for you. Like cultivate a heart of things, giving by leaning into that, um, because we don't,

normally, especially like for us with young kids, it's like, you know, when we started to come along and

we're like, we got a clean and then we got a kid. It's just like, yeah, no, just take a day and

just, you know, play baseball, Lincoln kind of a thing, you know? Yeah. And enjoy it. Cause I think,

I think that stems from maybe the work of all the kind of aspect of, you know, the American,

the American dream or whatever, like if you, if you take too much time or you enjoy yourself too much,

there's always work you could be doing, you know, um, what is it? The, uh,

oh man, I'm trying to blank on it now. It's, we just talked about in one of the devotions, um,

um, laziness. Oh, sloth. Yeah. Thank you. Of like being slothful in the opposite way, you know,

but this is like, no, take the time and be present with the people that are in your life, you know,

and enjoy the rest, enjoy, you know, that time to just bask in just the simple and ordinary

blessings that we probably so often take for granted. You know, I know that I can be guilty of that

at times. It's just not being aware of just taking for granted that's the simple, ordinary

blessings that I just, you know, brush off as ordinary, but when I stop to think about them,

I'm very, very fortunate, very blessed, very thankful that the Lord has, you know, given me or

allowed these things to happen in my life. And that's, I think, very important as well, you know,

to just work on that attitude of gratitude. I know it's a cheesy phrase, and I hate when people say

it, but I just said it. But I, it's, but I mean, there's, there's a true, there's, there's a

little bit of aspect, you know, true aspect there, that we don't, we don't always do. And this

is that intentionality, then, again, for that. So yeah, I mean, I guess for some of the context

on Sloth, because I think that's one of the most eye-opening of the Seven Deadly Sins, you know,

maybe Averis too, but probably Sloth, in that Sloth, historically speaking, right from the desert

fathers, when it was kind of first articulated, you know, as kind of ways demonic forces attack you,

and then, you know, categorize in different ways. But up until really the enlightenment,

and especially Ford, it was actually someone that really shifted it. Yeah.

Sloth was always understood, not as just laziness or sluggardliness, you know, as I talked about

in the Proverbs, but it's actually spoken of as just having things distract you from the important

thing. Yeah. Yeah. So good thing is getting in the way of the ultimate things. So, you know,

the example is, you know, you're doing your prayers in the afternoon, or a more modern day example,

maybe you're in church on Sunday, you know, you can miss church because you're falling asleep,

or you slept in in the morning, that's sluggardliness, that's part of Sloth, but the other one is

you're sitting at church and you're thinking about, you know, oh, you know, I've got to go answer

that email, or you know, I can't wait to go and like go do my yard work. I hope this hurries up.

I'm just like, whoa, whoa, like what's going on? Like you're at the divine service, and you're

preoccupied with work you have to do. Yeah, in the moment. Yeah. So your work's that important.

That's actually Sloth. Like your busyness gets in the way of your true vocations of receiving

from God and pouring out to your neighbors. And so Sloth is a big issue, and it's funny when Henry

Ford comes around, he recategorizes Sloth only to mean laziness. Yeah. And America has obviously

inherited that where, you know, there's that one commercial, it's a car commercial, right? And it's

some luxury car to get which one. It was a Cadillac, and you know, the guy's got a nice house or

whatever, and it's like this speech, you know, as he's going about putting on a suit and like,

you know, venture can hop in this nice luxurious car. And so on American exceptionalism, you know,

you know, but other countries, they take two days off work, but we don't do that. We only take one

day off work. And we put in the extra hours in the evening, and you deserve this nice thing,

and it's like, man, you just destroyed Sloth and Averis all in one commercial. And when I watch

it, I was pumped up, and like, you know, then after that, I'm like, oh, shoot, like that's actually not

all that healthy, you know, this, this work, work, work. So, yeah, first one, take one to three

vacation days off work. And remember, you just, you pick which ones that you want to, want to tackle.

We good bet it? Yeah, okay. To invite your next store at neighbor for an Easter feast, right? So,

yeah, on one of these times that you have an Easter feast, you work ahead, you plan a meal,

you prep it, maybe they do, but whatever, like, and now it's not just you or just your family,

invite someone over from your, from your neighborhood, you know, invite someone over from the

call to sack. You know, here's an opportunity to serve your neighbor, you know, which is something

that's very much shocked in the Bible. So, invite them in for a feast, you know, and then what do you

do? You pray, you know, you can use your wisdom on, are you going to sing a hymn? Are you going to

do a toast? You know, I mean, I think those are good things at the same point. Use your wisdom.

So, you know, don't have to necessarily startle somebody, but sure, but still lean into it.

Yeah, you know, next one, invite your pastor and his family over for an Easter feast.

You know, and that's a good one, you know, and, you know, have a relationship with your pastor,

maybe you've never had a meal with him or with his family, you know, invite him over for an Easter feast.

And I'm sure it's much different than like a meal at church too, you know, which is a home is so

much different. Yeah, it's a different way to get to know the guy of it, you know, which can be,

I mean, which can have a lot of benefits, you know, you just, just a different, especially if they're

at your, if the pastor is at your house, you know, it's just kind of nice, because sometimes,

especially if you're like a family of, you know, with kids and stuff, the pastor may or may not always

be visiting you, depending on, you know, because more often than not, they're probably visiting the

shut-ins and the homebound and, you know, those who are sick, they might not always get around to

just have a regular visit with the folks that they see kind of every Sunday. So, just it's a different

aspect. It's a different viewpoint. You get to build that relationship in a different way,

which is, which is nice. Next one, it's right along the same line, invite two families from your

church for an Easter feast at the same time. Yeah. Right. So now it's, now you're moving into like

a little bit of a festival, right? And maybe this fits better. I mean, I'm thinking from our

perspective, I'm in a soda, this probably fits better towards the end of the Easter season, right?

Where it's like, okay, now it's nice out. So maybe we can, we can grill out, we can eat out,

the kids can run around the yard, you know, but it's, it's that communal aspect. We miss that.

That's something that's historically normal. It's culturally normal outside of our setting. But,

you know, for a lot of us, we might go a whole year and other than like for one or two really close

friends that we just get together with. It's similar to the fraternity. It's similar to the

fraternity aspect of, you know, you, you see these guys every Sunday, unless you, you know, now that

the fraternity has been made, you have a different relationship with them. You know, you might have

families the same way. Like, oh, I see him at church. We're friendly. We say hi. We talk at church.

We have coffee or whatever. But we never really hung out with them before. You know, and that really

changes the dynamic. It makes you think a little outside of your own circle as well. So it is,

it can be probably a little bit uncomfortable at first because, you know, when you first kind of

interact with somebody in that aspect, it's just, it's a different thing than just kind of the

niceties out in public. It's just a little bit more personal, which is a good thing. And it's a good

uncomfortable. It's, it's stretching in a good way, you know. I mean, these are, these are great

things that I'm, you know, I'm thinking myself like, oh, man, that's, that's, that's some work

though. You got to put in to do that. You know, it's about a discipline. Yeah. I mean, these,

these are disciplines. They're just a different aspect. They're, you know, so I think these are,

these are great. And that's why I'm excited to, you know, lock in on these and, and focus in on them

because it's going to challenge me because I can be one that just, you know, you go to your church

thing, you, you talk with your folks, you visit your folks, you call them, you talk with them, but then

you're kind of done, you know, and sometimes, sometimes you need that just some personal time.

But other times, you could probably, you know, it's personally speaking, I could be a lot more

hospitable. Yeah. Yeah. And just kind of build those relationships in a, in a different way,

you know, and that's kind of nice because you know, what kind of conversations arise, what other

opportunities arise just from getting to know somebody in a different light, you know, outside of

just the confines of the, the, the church building, you know, I mean, just think about the ripple

effect of this. Let me say the next one. Yeah. Feast with someone at the nursing home. Right.

Twice. Yeah. Twice. So, you know, think about that of, yeah, we've got, you know, every church

has people that are in nursing homes or shuttons, you know, so, so how do you do this? Well,

probably like, talk to your pastor and be like, okay, who's, who in our church is, you know,

at the nursing home or it doesn't have to be someone that's in your church, but that's a really

nice, easy starting point. If you don't know people there and it's like, you can. I mean,

a pastor's will do it. I mean, yeah, you know, I'll go visit someone in the nursing home. Sometimes

it's lunch and like, oh, they're down having lunch. You know, and I'll go down and sit with them,

be like, pastor, you know, go grab some food or whatever. And, you know, sometimes I've already

eaten, sometimes I haven't. Right. So it's, this is not difficult to do. You don't have to be a

pastor to visit. No, folks, no, yeah, 100%. So, yeah, I mean, there's people that, you know, there's

people that just eat alone all the time and you will make their month if you go and have,

have a meal with them. You know, and yeah, just imagine thinking about, you know, a church that has

six, seven guys doing memento, you know, and so let's start with the congregation. So let's say

you've got six, seven guys that are doing memento and a congregation. That'd be kind of a normal

number. You know, we've got churches that are doing 30, 35 guys. So now I'm imagining you got all

these guys like leaning into hospitality and other friends have like, you know, those families

are connected with their pastor, they're connected with other people in their church and within

the community. And let's imagine you get like six people that are like pastor, you know, who's our

shut-ins. Well, we've got 10, you know, and all of a sudden in the season of Easter, you know,

it's being highlighted to them. Like, this is an important season of feasting and hospitality.

You know, you've got guys like coming in, they might have like three, four meals with different

families from their church that they don't even know. And it's like coming in that we want to sit

and not want to eat with you. Maybe it's just, maybe it's just the guy coming in and just having

a one-on-one or maybe brings his kids or something like that. Like, that's beautiful. And if we have,

you know, we're not far from a thousand churches and, you know, throughout the Luther church. Yeah.

So now you've got thousands of churches, not thousands, but hundreds and hundreds close to a

thousand churches where now all of a sudden shut-ins are like being visited much more. And it's just,

this could be really beautiful. And you never know. I mean, sometimes, you know, I just talk with

the gentleman who's, I think, going to join up with St. James because he was looking for a church

home. And he came from, you know, a non-loathing background. Now he is an LC-MS Lutheran. And,

but he has experience going visiting, you know, shut-ins and those who are in the hospital and stuff

is kind of a deacon at a previous congregation. And he's like, I really loved it. I really find a

purpose there. And, you know, and you never know what that leads to. You could be the pastoral

ministry. But it could just be, you got another great, you know, layperson that has a heart for

visiting folks that often are neglected or forgotten about, you know, not just, you know,

from families, but just from society sometimes. And then you have somebody that, you know, they do this

just what they might think is uncomfortable at first. And they find out, oh, man, I really love

this. You know, and then you just have, it's just, there's a bunch of beauty and growth that can

come from that. You know, so that's a really exciting thing. And if you have kids, it's wonderful for

your kids. I've, I mean, I just did this on Saturday. So a couple days, three days ago, you know,

went for a, a sudden visit. I mean, this was someone that's, they've had surgery. So, you know,

they're throughout a month or so. They're not going to make it into church because they can't leave

their home. And I've done this once before with this couple when the wife was, you know, had surgery

in a different way. And, you know, I brought my kids, you know, sweet sit there and, you know, we

do communion. My kids, you know, I was watching, but, you know, my, you know, my four-year-old and my

six-year-old are there. And they're kind of talking with some other adults. And, you know, they get,

that's very formative for them. And that's really valuable. I mean, I love taking them to hospital

visits too, just like letting them see this side of thing. Like people getting sick and having

conversations. What does that mean? Right. Or taking my kids to funeral. Like these are,

these are wonderful blessings for your household. And it's just leaning into the community that we've

lost. All right. Some of the other ones, this one is definitely an Ian Kinney one, but I'm going

to try it. So, roast a whole animal. I mean, it sounds weird. I've never roasted a whole animal.

Yeah, I'm either. I don't know. Maybe grab a squirrel. Well, we got, we got big old rats in

Baltimore. So, that's a big old rat. There will be, in the document, some advice on that.

There's someone here. I'm not going to go ahead and read it. But, yeah, or just Kinney's got some

scripture. There's a little piece of meat, smoke it or something. Big old. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. But, I mean, that's cool. The, you know, the point is, the identity behind that, you know,

to get a whole, you know, I mean, he got a whole hog roast. He's got a whole hog roast. Yeah.

Magdalene, I think, is her name. He's roasted. He's roasted. Oh, man. But yeah, there's something to it.

Like, once again, it's the whole remembrance idea is what we think is normal. It's not necessarily

normal. It's not normal that I can just go to the grocery store and just be like, you know what, I want

T-bone or, you know, I don't have a filet or whatever. And just, I'm going to take this little

piece home and I'm going to cook it. Like, before there was some work and appreciation, you know,

I'm not a hunter. But I've got a lot of friends that are hunters, Ben and hunts. You know,

they always say like, there's a beauty to the fact that you're participating in the process by which

you get your meat. Yeah. Yeah. Like, when I go pick it up, like, that's not how meat starts. It's

not just like prepackaged a nice little slice that I throw on the grill. Yeah. Right? It's,

there's a whole process there and hunters will say that. It's like, you know, you hunt the animal,

you go through the work, then you have to actually, you know, skin and it's not carve. What's the right

word about it? Harvest? Harvest the animal? That sounds goofy. Ben is thinking, I don't know,

you hunters know, prepare, go through it. Right? I mean, it's, it's, you appreciate the process.

Right? So what else here? Be home for supper every night during the Easter season. You know,

there's a good one and obviously for someone like if they've got a trip, they've got to travel for,

you know, build those kind of things in. But yeah, make that the goal of like, I'm going to be home

to my family for dinner. You know, intentionally there. Yeah. Just, you're making it a focus like,

this is what's going to happen unless barring any emergency. You know, I know,

passers are called away for, you know, end-of-life situations and whatnot and whatever else other

jobs there are, you know, dress it, dress it. There you go. That sounds better than Harvest.

What kind of hunter are you? Yeah. Yeah. It's an exciting jack over there.

Oh, man. So yeah, yeah, be home for supper every night. You know, be present with the family,

recover the fact that the meal is really important. I mean, we could geek out on babbets feast.

Yeah, little bit. Yeah, it's been a while since I've seen it. But I remember that was like a big

focal point. Yeah. It was a dirt. Yeah. Dr. Ardjust, he uh, and our, uh, what was it? It was the

Teoligia, uh, on the, on the Lord's Upper. Yeah. I think it was three, whatever that one.

Um, yeah, we go into class one day and, uh, I don't think he explained it either. I think he just

like started, no, yeah, he just like showed us where we're watching a movie, which, I mean, at

seminar, you don't watch movies and it's really unique. And I'm, and it's like this French movie.

So it's in subtitle. Yeah. It's probably made in like the 70s or something like that. I don't know.

It was a curve ball. It was a curve ball. And I'm like, what in the world are we doing? I don't

understand what's going on. The plot was since I had no context. I was like, he didn't give us a whole

like this. We're gonna watch this for this reason. He just threw us in. I was late like five minutes

of that class too. So I walked in and like, it was playing. Yeah. I was like, what's going on?

Like what I miss. And yeah. So the, what it's, it was, it was underwhelming until it wasn't.

Yeah. Now it's like very memorable. So babbits, babbits feast. I don't know how he's about babbits.

You know, you can look it up. But so the whole thing is there's this, the town's becoming fractured,

right? Everyone's kind of, there's disunity. There's a lot of fighting going on. It's, I think it's

French. It might be, it could be Nordic as well. But, uh, you know, so it's, it's all connected with

the church. So there's a bunch of disunity in the church, which is kind of an extension of the,

the community. And then there's this lady, I think, babbit that ends up coming there for some reason.

She kind of ends up, she needs work or something. Yeah. She's a chef. I think or something.

She's a chef. She's a skilled in the kitchen. Yeah. So she kind of, she takes on kind of the

role of like a servant, you know, and so she, she saves her money for this period of time.

And then she uses that money, I think, to like throw this feast. And she's just going way over

the top. And like, everyone's kind of frustrated by it. If I remember, I think so. But she's just like

so diligent on like, I, you know, I need to get this, she's putting in order that she's like from,

from Paris. Like, I need, I need this and it needs to be this type of cheese and like,

da da da da, and I need to, I need this cookware and all this stuff. So it's kind of, it's,

it's obnoxious to everyone around. And then she puts on that she serves and puts on this grand feast.

And everyone kind of reluctantly comes and, you know, and then throughout the feast, it's like

10 courses or something, right? It's just, it's over the top. And you just watch and all of a sudden,

all these relationships that are fractured, you know, they start to come together and all of a sudden

they're laughing a little bit, you know, and they kind of jarn at each other a little bit. And then,

and then it's just, all of a sudden, everyone is like unified. And in the point is theologically

speaking, it's a picture of the Lord's Supper, right? And this grandiose feast of Christ's body

and blood that he gives sacrificially for us. What does that do that brings all of these disjointed

people with these different backgrounds and opinions and ways of life, you know, and what not,

some are hunter, some are, it's like, and they all come together. Now there's this unification

that takes place. And the point is that, you know, Kenny highlights this that, you know, that is not

a symbol. That's the reality. But our personal feasting is a symbol of that. So when we feast,

when we, you know, go about being with our family or inviting people in, like it is around the

dinner table that this unification happens, because that is, that is symbolic of the heavenly meal

that we participate in. Yeah. There's, it's a weird segue. And I want to take a soft track too much,

but there's a, I've mentioned this book to you before. It's out of print. There's my CPH back in

like 1954, somewhere in the fifties. The gentleman's name escapes me. I have it over my bag.

But the title of the book is, I think it's called spiritual power for your congregation.

And it's written by this pastor whose name escapes me at the moment out of Englewood, California,

I believe. And in it, he talks about, he talks about a lot of stuff. It's a really short read.

It's really easily accessible to understand, what, accessible to understand, not accessible to

find anymore. I think Pops has been buying up as many copies as he can get his hands on because he

loves it. That's how I got a copy of it. But in it, he goes through a lot of just different basics

of the Lutheran faith. But in one of the chapters, he breaks, he breaks down kind of the heart alter,

the home alter, and then the church alter, and kind of where all three need to be there for the

Christian life, you know, and it starts with, you know, your faith life, if you, it doesn't start

there. But like you have to have worship in your life outside of Sunday mornings in your everyday

life that flows into your daily life, especially as a father with your family, you know, the home

alter then, and being intentional with reading God's Word, prayers, discussions about scripture,

or Christian topics, or whatever it is. And then of course, then the church alter, where you go and

get fed by God's Word and the sacrament, and how they all work together. This is kind of that

focus on the home alter aspect of just being intentional with your family, just for mealtimes,

but also what else does that include too? You know, just time with your family, intentionality

with your family, you know, taking those weeds that we hopefully, the Lord, you know, uprooted

in Lent, now we can see some of those fruits of the discipline of spending the intentionality time

with your family. So that's what this one is. Yeah, like I said, I wish I remember the author's

name, and I'm sure we could probably, I'm going to have to talk to Fox and see if we'll send

me a copy. Yeah, I don't know how many he has in his stockpile. Yeah. No, that's good.

All right, let's go through these last ones. Send someone a feast, you know, and that's the idea of,

yeah, yeah, I mean, I can think of some people, you know, I mean, think of, I think of young families,

you know, meals can be tough when you've got little kids running around or something like that,

you know, send them a meal, you know, when we had all of our kids, or both churches that we've

been at have done meal trains, yeah, which was a godsend, right? It's just, it was like, I forget

how long this one was, but it was, I don't know, it might have been a month, even like four or five

weeks, you know, where we had three, four meals coming in, some different people from the church

dropping off meals. That is a wild blessing, right? When you're going through a day, and it's,

you know, you got a little baby and other kids running around, it's, when you're like, we don't

have to cook dinner, we don't have to clean up dishes, we don't have to like scrub pots and pans,

that's massive. So send someone else a feast.

Pick someone, I like this one, this one came actually out of some of the discussion that you

were talking about earlier in our fraternity meeting, but pick someone to serve every day for those

40 days. You know, just being, again, purposeful, like, and if you're married, your wife is going

to be an obvious pick here, it doesn't have to be a pick, but that's a good place to start,

you know, maybe it's your mother, you know, you can maybe do both, right? So the idea is,

okay, how often do I call my mom? How much do I, how often do I ask how she's doing?

Yeah, you know, so maybe for the Easter, 40 days, right?

Again, those are probably things you should be doing already, but if you aren't,

it's a good time to be intentional with it. Put them on the app.

Yeah, you cook it, and I called my mom. Yeah, you're growing into these things that, you know,

that you forgot, right? You know, I mean, even the good things, right? Not so much the hard things,

like lent was about, but these are the good things that probably are pretty easy to give your

mom a call. Yeah, you know, wash the dishes for your wife. Whatever, whatever, whatever,

whatever, you know, means something to your wife. Yeah. Do that for 40 days and just watch what

happens to your relationship. Yeah, with no like, you know, no expectations, just I just want to do

this because I just want to surf. Yeah, you know, I just want to be hospitable. Mm-hmm.

Some pick one person, maybe two, I mean, you know, use some wisdom there, but yeah, it's that

intentionality, right? I don't, I can't think of a time that I've set aside 40 days to consciously,

like, serve my wife. Yeah, usually comes in waves, I've come in waves, like, yeah, or you kind of

just say, well, I just naturally do that. Right. And then you think about, I said, well, maybe I don't,

like, there's some things that I might do that might be serving, but do I actually, like, wake up

and plan out and be like, you know, today, I'm going to make sure that I do this, you know,

I'm going to make sure I send her a nice text or something like, yeah, you know, last three here,

snack on purpose, snack like you mean it, snack like you mean it. This one's kind of cool.

So we haven't been snacking in lunch. You ought to snack at Easter. It's going to be kind of cool.

What does that mean? Well, I mean, I guess it means you can go buy more Doritos and just like

hammer through a bag of Doritos. He could. He could. Yeah. And you can as a Christian, right?

But it might be, it might be kind of cool to snack on purpose. You might notice the benefits.

What does that mean? Well, I don't know. Go to a cheese shop, you know, and try some nice

cheeses and pick up some nice crackers and be like, all right, it's for my snack. I'm not just

going to grab a bag of fake food. Right. You know, I'm just cut some nice cheese and what I'm

going to appreciate it, right? Yeah. It's that, you know, rather than me kind of like scrolling

through social media and aimlessly just like tossing non-food into my mouth, you know, to scratch

an itch, like appreciate a nice piece of cheese or I don't know, Bennett, what would be someone like

nice snacks that you choose? Chircuti platter. Five, six slices of Colby Jack cheese,

a few slices of salami and some salami, nice apple, some good honey too in there. Yeah.

Cottage cheese. That's a hot thing right now. Yeah. Cottage cheese. Yeah.

Yeah. Mmm.

Those are hungry now. I think they're doing it. Yeah. I mean, yeah, that's true. Like just some nice

slices of like, you know, I know that Ian's be going for that smoked gouda and prosciutto. Yeah.

But, you know, those nice like slices of meat that you see, we got a Wegmans over by us. So,

you know, when we're feeling fancy, we'll go to Wegmans and get the nice cheese sometimes,

which reminds me, I'm missing out on, we bought these cheese wheels from Wegmans.

Um, they're like Irish, you know, made with like a Guinness or made with like an Irish whiskey,

something with the cheese. Those are sitting in my house. I don't, by the time I get back,

I'm sure my wife will have finished her house on me. Yeah. Yeah. Cause she was excited to get

into them. Yeah. You know, so, yeah, this is a good cheese store and it's in the mini apples

of St. Paul. Not too far from where we were. Uh, man, they've got beautiful cheese. When I was on

carnivore, I'll be coming back from the children's museum and we stopped there because I was just

like shaking. I was so hungry. And, uh, so we stopped by and we got some of these cheeses and

it was like just heaven. I mean, it's soft cheeses. I mean, it's just, it's another ballgame.

Like when you're not talking about, uh, I mean, I like the carry gold cheddar. Like, that's fine.

Yeah. Um, and you don't have to like go above and beyond, right? But try some other cheeses.

Like, cheeses, you know, it's, it is, it's not why we're only talking about cheese.

I see. That was Minnesota and, you know, and this. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. What other hummus?

Yeah. I mean, just just like, you know, like you said, it's not a list. There's not a wall.

Like, here's what it is. Just being intentional with it again. Like, you know, if you're

going to snack, do it with purpose, have, have, have something good. Have it be, what are you

celebrating? Well, the resurrection of our Lord, you know, or is craft singles good enough for

that? Right. I guess it could be, but I mean, why not, you know, do something, try something new,

to expand your horizons just from, just from kind of like a simple human's point of view,

you know, just try something new too. You might, you might, you know, find something delicious

that you didn't know you loved before. Yeah. You know, I've been into figs lately. You know,

those are, that's not really like a, I guess it is kind of a, kind of a fancy snack. We have

these like Turkish figs that are, you know, sun dried or whatever. And so I'm looking forward to

getting into those more as Easter comes up, because I'm kind of like put them in like meals,

you know, I'm not snacking, but they're good. But yeah, try, try something like that out. Put

down your Sharku to re-board and, you know, who's some olives? Some olives, yeah, big olive guy.

Yeah, that's good. Yeah, jalapenos. I'm going to get me to get hungry now. We're going to have to,

we're going to move on to the next one. Yeah. I think, yeah, I think the overarching point is like

just real food. And again, it's not as a law. We're not saying like here, to be a Christian,

you eat, you can't, don't eat Doritos. That's not the point. The point is, yeah, some intentionality.

If you decide to choose this one, that's the one you want to pop in, like maybe eat something

that God crafted and versus a scientist crafted. All right. Last two, I'm going to say 11 for last.

Next one, no eating alone. Right. So which is cool. There was a book, my previous senior pastor,

pastor George Ruish, that was like one of his favorite books. And it was, I'd never read it,

but he would talk about it. It was like never eat alone. And so he would, like he would, you know,

and I suffer from sloth. So shame on me. But he'd be like, hey, like come have lunch with me.

And be like, I'm just like, I'm working. Yeah. I guess he knows I could have important things to do.

It's like, you don't go eat with, don't eat with George. Yeah. And I would, you know, I mean,

not every day. But he would try to do that. He would just, he would eat it. He wouldn't eat in

his office, eating the conference room. And, you know, Diane was over there. So sometimes she would

join. Charlene would be there out. You know, so he really tried to cultivate that and good for him.

But that's yeah. And I mean, even in here, it's like, okay, that might be easy for, that might

be more easy for some than others. If I think to be honest, that's probably going to be a hard one for

me, you know, just because I'm so used to like not necessarily have an office setting. I don't,

well, yeah, no, it's a unique situation. You know, both more ministries, a unique situation.

But, you know, I got into the habit before the lengthened season of like eating lunch,

because I'm working from home, I just go sit at the, you know, kitchen table, get my lab to

about put YouTube on by myself, you know, because either my wife's working or whatever the case may

be. And I just, you know, I'm not eating alone. I got, you know, I have this screen entertaining me.

So that could be a good one, a beneficial one, I think outside of just the hospitality aspect of

it, but just kind of just breaking you out of the monotony of staring at a screen, eating alone,

just kind of what benefit is that when you could be building relationships and bridges with folks

that, you know, you interact with every day, but now you have a different, a different aspect

to interact with them. You know, it's not a work setting, even if you're at work, you know,

that kind of, those meals kind of break down some barriers if you think about it. Oh, 100%. Yeah.

So yeah, yeah, you can't feast alone. Right. It was the point. I didn't even tell

the story in here right where it's like, well, I'm going to have to go through the story, but those,

yeah, well, yeah, and there's, yeah, there's more info on the docs and stuff. Okay, last one,

this one's kind of cool. He calls it a gridlock feast. We're actually going to try this. I was

going to try it on Easter day, but I think we're going to punt for a couple weeks because we need

better weather if we're going to host a lot of people. Yeah. And it's looking how it is right now.

Guarantees of that here. So, but anyway, what's that? You can go for all of this or you can go

for parts of it. But, you know, he says, okay, this one's going to take some planning, but find a way

to close down your block street called a sack church parking lot for a potluck feast. Yeah.

So we're going to try something like this. I'm going to talk to the city and see if I can get,

I don't know how that works. So I need permission for like, you know, probably have the call to

sack, you know, put tables out in the call to sack, invite everyone from the call to sack and

like the houses nearby and say, hey, you're welcome to come. Kind of open invite to a lot of the

church to say, you come. And I mean, we're working on, we've got friend Matt Kohlendr's got a

company that, you know, pork and a lot of wholesale selling of local source. And he does all the

cooking and stuff. He's fantastic. And so yeah, that's your, that's Ben, it's cousin.

Yeah, buried in. And yeah, so he's going to like provide, you know, the meat, you know, at

discount, which is awesome. We're just going to have that and then have like wine and, you know,

beer and just like make a big festivity and just be like, yeah, you know, lady that lives alone,

like you come, like friends come, like neighbors come and just like open it up and make it a big

Easter feast. Yeah, you know, no, that's that's a great idea. I mean, there's the buddy,

he's a neighbor of mine back when I used to live down down in the city in Baltimore. He's moved

out to the suburbs as well in the recent years. But for like 10 years, and I kind of was on the

tail end of that, he's a firefighter out there. And so he would have a lot of connections. So he

would like get the permits to like shut down one of the blocks and the blocks in Baltimore are

a lot different with like the row homes, they call them town homes, but the old row homes there.

And he would just throw a big Halloween party. I mean, there would be hundreds of people there.

And he would have like retired police officers or off duty police officers there to kind of just

make sure that things aren't getting out of hand. It was always pretty fun, but the whole point

was just to kind of cut loose and things like that. Whereas this is the intentionality. There's

a little difference. So it's certainly a feasible thing. It does take a little bit of planning,

but how cool would that be though, you know, to have that? Either in your neighborhood or outside

of the neighborhood of the congregation wherever you're at to do something like that. And I'm sure

there's folks at any congregation that are plugged into the local community, you know, and it also

is a community building thing in some regard as well. Like the community gets to see the church

celebrating with no strings attached quote unquote, if you will. You know what I mean? Like it's just

hey, come and feast. We're celebrating the resurrection of Christ. You're invited to share in

that joy that we have, you know, so that's kind of a that's a unique and I think a really beneficial

one. I mean, we talked with Dave Peterson about that a little bit, you know, some adjacent things,

but it's yeah, I mean, honestly, if you know, if a church is trying to think of a way to,

you know, reach out to the community, like this is probably one of your better ways. This is

going to work better probably than some kind of program that you run, you know, it's just we're

having a feast. Yeah. And now the catch is like, you need to make it a feast. Like I should probably

have beer there. I think like you should probably have wine there, you know, tough to find a feast

in the Bible where well, wine's not present. Yeah. Right. So is that a rule? No, but like make it,

make it just feel like. Yeah, Pastor Duncan often says like don't don't you dare let the pagans

feast better than you do. Like you actually have a reason. Right. Right. Yeah. So don't let them

feast better. Yeah. And they might feast sinfully. You know, so that's that's not the point.

But yeah, don't make it a whitewashed feast. Right. You know, don't make it, you know, just make

it good food, lean into it. Yeah. And that's the point. And it doesn't mean you have to like

break the bank to do it necessarily. Yeah. There's a lot of different ways you can do that,

obviously. But yeah, feast. Yeah. The mental feast. Yeah, I'm excited. I'm excited to get into

that because I think like you said, we started off with it's an aspect that we just

forgot or don't know how to do or have been doing it poorly or wrong even maybe at times. And

this is kind of just how do we do it well? How do we do it to to God's glory? You know, which is

I don't know sometimes maybe not the thought at times when you're feasting. But so it's good,

it's good to have that perspective shift. You know, so yeah, it's gonna be a good good next season.

Yeah, feast with the purpose. Yeah. All right, let's take a quick break. All right,

and Bennett says we're back. Yeah, so let's go and pivot here. I just want to pick your brain

a little bit about what you've seen in, you know, you're a Baltimore, so inner city unique setting,

certainly different than what we're at here. So what's what's that been like doing ministry in

and kind of a struggling city? You know, I had that. Yeah, it has, I mean, it has its ups and downs with,

I mean, the HBO show, The Wire, it's fictional, but not really. I think it was written by

a retired detective and a retired like writer for the Baltimore son from like back in the 90s

or something. And the tag team to write and produce the show. So they just kind of wrote off

of experiences, but change names and different things. So there's, you know, it's a pretty,

you know, it's a pretty graphic and gruesome show and things like that. So it's not always for

everybody the stomach, but if you do happen to watch it, it is, it is pretty accurate when it comes

to a lot of the struggles and issues that are going on back in the end in the late 90s or

2000s and then even to today. So it's a, it's a, it's a greedy city, but it's got its charm. So they

do call it charm city. That's its nickname. Yeah, which does probably keep people around because

if it didn't have that charm, you know, it's, it's not particularly safe everywhere, you know,

like any, any big city or things like that. But the ministry out there is, I think,

um, is it villain lay? Lou, villain lay? I still can't pronounce the name. So I'm, but don't

anybody put that in the devotions for me to, um, to pronounce it to Google it. Um, but they,

yeah, they had that, uh, that building at Fort Wayne Seminary. Um, but I think he came in through

Baltimore from that mistaken and same with Winnekin as well. So we have, um, you know, our circuit

three is the circuit that's out in Baltimore. There's 15 churches out out in that circuit. Um,

and I happen to be the circuit visitor, um, for the next couple of years there. And

we also have a project called the Winnekin Project as well, which is kind of helped step up and

fill some gaps with just ministry, um, that needs to happen with, with kind of the, the failing

buildings really more than anything. But then some of the church attendance struggles as well,

because we have a couple churches that are, you know, one that's in Carrollton Ridge in West

Baltimore, which is, I mean, it's a food desert. It is, it's just a, almost a desert desert. There's

just, you know, bombed out arson buildings everywhere. And then you have this church, um, and there's

a core group of people that are there, but they need help because they can't support the church

themselves. So the Winnekin Project kind of, um, got started, I think 2014 or so to kind of

help fill those gaps where maybe the district didn't have funds to do it. And the other congregations

that are in our circuit don't have the funds to help out another church let alone sometimes

themselves. So that's been a beautiful blessing that I've been able to be part of, um, on the board

for the Winnekin Project, um, just to see where's a need. It's sometimes just a basic thing like

your bell towers about to fall in. We need to fix that. Yeah. You know, this building's from 18

whatever. How can we make that happen? How can we find the grants or raise the funds to do that?

So you have those two big, you know, Lutheran guys coming through Baltimore. So there's a big

Lutheran presence there, um, you know, in the 17, 1800s. Um, so that Lutheran presence is all

over the place in Baltimore, but because of the struggling economic situation sometimes with some

of the parts of the city and a lot of the folks moving out to other areas, the churches that are

there, they dwindled in size. And so did the funds then. So we just have a lot of buildings that

need a lot of, you know, structural help. Um, where do we find those funds to do? Because they're

there in those areas where the gospel needs to be preached. And then you tag in kind of the,

I think, um, an issue that is probably across the country as well and a lot of different circuits

and districts where we have a lot of agencies also because we've had either guys who have retired

or more often than not congregations that can afford a full-time pastor. So of the 15 churches

in circuit three Baltimore, if I remember correctly, I think we have five that have full-time

called pastors there. Ten vacancies and five. Yes. Wow. If, like I said, if my memory serves me

correct. So the last few weeks, I've been, you know, meeting with congregations and on the phone,

and we just recently had a congregation kind of become vacant because of this gentleman who was

filling in a lay leader who's been faithful for years. He's like 84. He had him in his stroke. And

so now that's another congregation that is what do we do? And so we kind of go through the list

of the options, which I don't know if are known to everybody. I've walked my own congregation through

this just, you know, just so that they know, here's what happens if either I take a call or,

you know, something happens or, you know, we have a big financial struggle at some point.

The, the solutions are you call a pastor? That's kind of like the ultimate. That's what you want.

A congregation and a pastor to be together. If you can't call a pastor because you can't afford one,

then can you multi-point parish or a dual point parish with a pastor? Call a pastor to two different

congregations and have them kind of serve them both and get them going on their feet. If that's not

an option, then we moved to multi-point where maybe there's a couple different few different churches

the pastor works at with help from other pastors in the area. And then if that's not a viable option,

then we have to merge congregations for, I hate to use the word viability, you know,

because it seems very like unchurchilly and untheological. But, you know, there's situations where

you have a few folks and the building is almost suffocating, you know, is it time for us to consider

maybe merging congregations where we maybe sell that property and, you know, use those funds for

some ministry opportunity to fund back into the circuit or the city in some way. And then we kind of

bolster another congregation and it's sort of a rejuvenation. And if that's not an option, then

was it looked like to close and then replant? We have a situation out there where there was a church

first house in in Towson, which is kind of a suburb of Baltimore that had a similar struggle and

they decided we're going to close, but we're going to replant with the Lutheran High School that's

out there. So now they're they're called new thing and they're in the Concordia Prep High School.

And so they're a congregation, a new congregation, you know, rebirth from that old one. So that's a

unique situation that is a viable option if you want to say that so that you can continue ministry,

but maybe in a different look in a different way that might be you can always grow from there.

And if that's not something that's able to be happened, then you have the unfortunate and kind

of scary option of was it looked like the close? And what does that mean? Was that look like? And I

think a lot of people are scared of that because it looks like failure, but the Lord can work wonders

through that as well. And it is a sad reality that a ministry in that particular building in that

particular spot, you know, may not be there, but that doesn't mean something else may not come back.

So that's kind of what we're working through at least what I'm prayerfully working through with

trying to facilitate that, you know, because I told them I don't have all the answers really.

I'm just here to help you walk through it and get you in contact with folks that might

or pray about it or maybe the Lord will lead us to think of some new creative options or creative

solutions for what ministry might look like because there's a lot of there's a lot of need

for God's word to be preached in the city of Baltimore. It's just the way that we've been doing it

right now is very difficult because we have aging buildings. So it's I'm trying to view it with like

just a perspective shift on where are the opportunities at, you know, and kind of rephrasing

things. Sometimes it's semantics, you know, instead of what are our problems, what are our challenges,

but when you do rephrase it and think about things differently, you can look at things a little

differently and you might have better options, you know, or better way to think about it when you do

it that way. That's just kind of like an overview. I think there's a bunch of stuff I forgot to talk

about, but I know for like my congregation of St. James, we've been, the Lord's been with us,

as he always is, but we had some big, you know, building issues the last couple of years. You

know, we had a big old roof leak with some ice and wind that, you know, our slate roof was

approaching 100 years, you know, there were original slate roof, beautiful, but also it's got

its age and it took out some paint plaster. It took our organ out for the last two years. So we

just been using the piano. And you know, so we had water damage to kind of to work through and

insurance claim and raising funds then to kind of pay for the organ and repair that. So we're

we're hopeful, we're prayerful and we're close. I think we'll have the organ for Easter this year,

which is going to be a great thing. But you know, it's I've seen the ministry in Baltimore just

being a pastor out there is you do what you can with what you've got and you do it all to the glory

and you just roll the punches. You know, that's kind of what I've told my folks at St. James,

you just roll with the punches. We just got another one this past week that I'm like, well,

because we're almost done with this one punch that we just got over where we're rising back up,

there's another one coming, but we're ready for it. You know, and you just kind of have to have

that mentality in I think any congregation, any pastoral setting, but especially if you're kind of

in a a city area to where the folks that are coming in may not be from the immediate area. And

there's a little bit of a disconnect or maybe a distrust or whatever it is that, you know,

just with with the communities that are there and how do you bridge those gaps and how do you kind

of foster new relationships with the community that you have and give them what they need whether

or not they know they need it or not, which is God's word and the peace of the forgiveness of sins.

So that's just it's an ongoing process, you know, and there's a lot of great guys that we've had

out, you know, in the Baltimore area for a bunch of years. Pastor Roy Coates is, yeah, he's a fun guy.

He's a fun guy and he's he's great at what he does and he has a congregation in West Baltimore.

And I think there are a majority of it's it's Liberian refugees or immigrants that he's had

and he's, you know, from Sweden. And so like just the disconnect there, but they love him and he

loves them and just he's been able to foster a great community and really just do a lot of great

things there and it looks completely different than than what that church did a long time ago.

But it's just kind of when you have a heart for doing the right thing and you're there for the

folks, you can really, you know, do a lot of things. The Lord works through that just a willing

servant spirit. So that's that's kind of like the 500 foot, you know, view point of of ministry in

Baltimore. So I think yeah, the one takeaway and then we actually we got to run here Bennett is

actually going to be skating on the Minnesota wild ice here in like an hour and a half. So we've

got to get him to St. Paul. So he'll get himself in St. Paul. He's a big boy.

But yeah, I mean, you know, international mission is really important. But I think we also have

to remember that domestic mission is also really important. You know, there's a lot of money out

there and it can go a long way in places like Baltimore and certainly not just Baltimore. But,

you know, you can see the examples to where yeah, like if you can you can help with some of those

things. If you could help support a pastor's salary for three years and give a church a chance

or something like that. Like there's a lot of opportunity for domestic work here. You know,

yeah. We have, I know we're short on time, but we just recently called another pastor to St. James

to be our assistant pastor for mission. And we called him up from South America to kind of

be the pastor to be the called pastor to St. James, but really be positioned and, you know, regulated

to Nazareth Lutheran Church in Highland town, which is a really majority Spanish-speaking community

and a Hispanic community. And even therein though, there's changes as well. So I've told him,

hey, just keep an eye out on what's going on in the community and just be able to pivot when

you need to. You know, he's really excited to be here. But we are unable to do that at St. James

alone. We've had help from some of those auxiliary, you know, mission posts like the Winnickin

project or even the district has stepped up and stepped in to help, you know, cover that salary

because it's a need. We need to get some pastors out there. And then how do we do it creatively? So

yes, it's been an exciting thing. We're still kind of working through that whole process. And

he's only been here since September. So yeah, yeah, it's been fun. I'll pass Eric Bednash. This is fun.

Yep. Let's go get some dinner. All right.