310. Random morning of things I’m grateful, celebrating a friend’s birthday and went from 0-100 in 7

What if embracing gratitude could transform the way you experience life? Join us on a heartfelt exploration of gratitude's profound impact, beginning with the everyday blessings we often overlook. From the freedoms we enjoy to the warmth of supportive relationships, we celebrate the elements that infuse life with joy and meaning. We pause to appreciate the simple but significant comforts of modern life, such as clean water and electricity, and acknowledge the quiet strength found in everyday heroes and bold risk-takers. Together, we reflect on the power of community and the solace of shared spaces, underscoring the transformative strength of gratitude.

The episode takes a poignant turn as we recount a touching celebration of a bedridden mentor whose unwavering faith continues to inspire a community. Surrounded by admirers of all ages, his legacy of service and connection resonates deeply amidst the chaos of modern life. We draw strength from his enduring influence and reflect on the resilience needed to face life's challenges with purpose and determination. This heartfelt narrative invites you to shift your perspective and discover the joy that gratitude can bring to your journey, reminding us of the enduring value of purpose-driven living.

Chapters

• 0:32 Gratitude for Everyday Blessings
• 8:22 Perspective on Life and Gratitude

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:33

I'm starting today off with intense, immense, huge gratitude. And here's the kickstart let's go. I'm grateful I live in a country that allows free speech. I'm grateful that I have people that believe in me and that are willing to take a gamble on me. I'm grateful for an incredibly loving spouse who's willing to do inflexible things so that I can do inflexible things and we can do what we need to do as a couple for the responsibilities that we have. Long days, long hours realizing yep, this is just a busy season. I'm grateful for an incredible spouse. I'm grateful for my kids that they pray for me, that they love me, that they get excited when I come home from work, that they want to hang out with me, that they want to wrestle and kick soccer balls and that they want to play and jump around and bounce around and be goofy and snuggle and read books and brush teeth. Well, some of the time is brush teeth. Let's be real. Like half the time they don't even want to brush their teeth and they have stinky breath and they know it.

Speaker 1: 1:44

I'm grateful for friends that I can reach out to when things are easy and when things are hard. I'm grateful for a church where I can go as a place of worship to recharge my soul. I'm grateful for a car that runs. I'm grateful for air conditioning. I'm grateful for healthy food, clean water, air that is smog free. I'm grateful for trees and nature. I'm grateful for the sound of frog croaks. I'm grateful for the sound of frog croaks. I'm grateful for smooth pavement that I can drive my car on. I'm grateful for eyesight. I'm grateful for colors, not just a black and white experience. I'm grateful for sounds and hearing. I'm grateful for the quietness at the end of a day when there's been so much to think, do and contemplate. I'm grateful for what else can be grateful. I'm grateful for shoes that fit my feet. I'm grateful for socks that keep my toes warm. I'm grateful for family members and having relatives, some with amazing relationships, some that are a little bit rocky, but I'm grateful for all of that. What else would we be grateful for today? I'm grateful for electricity, that things turn on. Electricity that things turn on and it's an oddity when I flick a switch and things it's rare that when they don't run. I'm grateful for weekends and rest. I'm grateful for a job that provides an income To pay for Providing for my family. I'm grateful for a business that stretches, grows, provides a chance for me to. I'm grateful for a business that stretches, grows and provides a chance for me to help people. I'm grateful for what else can you be grateful for? Let's keep the good times rolling.

Speaker 1: 3:47

I'm grateful for people that reach out to me and are encouraging me and trust me to be a close confidant. I'm grateful for hot water and toasty showers. I don't know if you knew this. I have to look it up. I think like hot showers came out like I need to look it up but a hundred years ago hot showers were not a thing and even like the richest people didn't have a hot shower. And like you can go to a campground and get a hot shower. I'm grateful for that.

Speaker 1: 4:22

I'm grateful for people that listen to the whole story. I'm grateful for living in a country that advocates for safety and security and public utilities. I'm grateful that I can just go into a random place and get Wi-Fi and internet free of charge. I'm grateful for the silent majority and people that go about their day, live normal kind of boring lives, but are here for the long haul. I'm grateful for the wild people that are risk takers, game changers and want to live life to the fullest. I'm grateful for brave people that stand up and will take the flack when it's the unpopular thing to do. I'm grateful for the people that.

Speaker 1: 5:24

What else can we be grateful for? This is incredible. I'm grateful for, uh, oh, what am I? What's it called? Sorry, I'm blanking because I'm trying to grab stuff out of my car and do a few things. I'm grateful for microphones. I think I'm grateful for social media. I'm not quite sure. Some days I'm not so grateful for that one. I'm grateful for people that look out for me when they don't even look out for me. I'm going to pause there because I want to head inside, I want to have a fantastic morning. All this to say I am grateful and I'm going to be grateful, and I'm going to choose grateful, because it's easy to be distracted and negative and pessimistic and to pretend that life is hard. At the end of the day, we're here, we're alive, we have a purpose. God is good.

Speaker 1: 6:37

And final thought yesterday I went to um. Yesterday I went to a friend's birthday party and this is a mentor of mine and um. We met seven years ago. So I'm, we met seven years ago and, uh, he had a desire to do like ministry and to reach out to people. And um sorry, I'm just trying to gather my thoughts and and all that Um. And at the end of it, or, and he was like figuring out some, and he was in his like he's in his mid-50s and I was saying like hey, like I've seen you at church, man, like how, how's your life going? I want to like get to know you a little bit. And he's like thanks, so much, you know, let's do it.

Speaker 1: 7:27

And so we met up for like breakfast once or twice as like a mentor, mentee relationship, and fast forward a couple I don't know months, years, and turns out that that was something that he was praying for, what happened in his life as he was approaching retirement. It's his story, so I'm not going to share like the stuff he went through, but there was some things that he was praying for and to turn a chapter in his life. Seven years later, and right now he has terminal cancer with only a handful of years to live. I don't remember the type of cancer or the stage, but it's one of the ones you really don't want to get and it has a very ominous um connotation to it. And I found out, maybe like six months ago.

Speaker 1: 8:22

We've kept in touch a little bit. We don't I don't seem like every other week or every week like we used to, um, so it's been like a month or less, maybe like a month ago at church and yesterday was his birthday and so there was just a lot of folks texting like hey, we're going to be at this person's house celebrating their birthday. So I go to the house. There's cars packed in front of the house, at a parking lot nearby Like it's like a grad party for like the popular kid and he was so weak that he's in a hospital bed and his son porch, and so he can see his backyard and everyone just goes to the backyard and we can just see him through the window and his energy is failing and it's mixed emotions, because you see someone who has a heart of gold and has served people and seven years ago I was his first little mentee, I was the first person that started that relationship and here there's now a crowd of at least 100 people and their spouses and their kids, folks that are old, folks that are young.

Speaker 1: 9:38

In the course of seven years there's now a congregation of people that want to be there to celebrate this person's birthday and we pray, we sing some songs and, looking through the mirror into the sun porch, all I can see is him in his hospital bed. His wife is sitting next to him, his hands are lifted up, praising because he loves Jesus. He loves God and when it looks like the end of his life is coming soon, he just wants to go home. So all of the craziness, all the social media blasting, people just going nuts on the Facebook group, being loud, stirring the pot, causing drama On the flip side, people messaging me, dming me, thanking me for for certain things in this whole process that's their side of things. I'm not gonna go beyond that. But then, like an hour later, driving to this person's house to see like what the end of life can look like in only the course of seven years, from nothing to massive impact and purpose, it really puts things into perspective really fast.

Speaker 1: 11:07

Um, and that's that's what I want, not because I want people to sit there and like hang out in my backyard while I'm having a birthday, but to see what it looks like to do life well. So I'm grateful, I'm sure I'm sure many people would happily trade spots with where they're at in life with what I've got in my life right now. I'm sure there are other people right now that I'd happily trade spots with where they're at in life, with what I've got in my life right now. I'm sure there are other people right now that I'd happily trade spots with for their life. Everyone has problems. Everyone has struggles. Just all depends on the bucket of struggles you have for today and for the next week or two. So I am grateful, I am. I don't. I'm not happy that I'm going through a rough, a rough social media thing right now. But man oh man, I'm built for this, I'm made for this. I can do this. Thank you for listening to my, my little spiel here. That's where we're at, that's where we're going. Let's rock and roll.