Ep. 87 I Love Cotton Candy

[00:00:00] Speaker A: I mean, I go back to our Bible college days myself, and that was my experience. I was in a place of meeting that rubber meets the road. Like, what am I doing in life? What's my purpose? What does it mean to go into any sort of ministry? What does that look like for me personally? I needed somebody to walk me through that. I just needed to be able to ask questions and learn. [00:00:22] Speaker B: Right. [00:00:22] Speaker A: And so where should I go while I went to my theology professor? [00:00:27] Speaker B: Right. It makes sense. Right. [00:00:28] Speaker A: It seems like. But. But the theology was just a bunch of head knowledge. It wasn't anything that I could apply to my life. And so it was really of no help to me. He couldn't help me because all he could do is give me those answers not related to life. And then it made me think, was I any help to people as I ministered to them? Hello, we welcome you to. Let's talk Life. Life in Christ and how that intersects. Right, really with daily life. And it does beautifully because of. Of Union Christ in me, the hope of Glory, Colossians 1:27 and today's episode I titled I Love Cotton Candy. It's a great title, isn't it? [00:01:10] Speaker B: Carl, what is it that you love about cotton candy? [00:01:13] Speaker A: Man, I just, I. I love sugar. I guess I'm too much of a sweet tooth, so. I mean, I don't have. I don't have cotton candy very often, but when you, when you see it, when it's there, well, typically you're buying it for the kids and it's like, man, I'm sneaking a little bit here. A little. It can be a lot more than I should because I love it. [00:01:32] Speaker B: And, and, and how does it feel? Like, like eating it? How do you feel after you eat it? Is it the same? Nope. [00:01:41] Speaker A: If. If it gives you a stomachache because you usually eat too much of it, it's sticky, it's gross, it's. Everything after it is. Is terrible. [00:01:49] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:01:51] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:01:51] Speaker B: Oh, my goodness. My. My favorite cotton candy story has got to be. Me and Jennifer, before sons, we took these two girls to this state fair and they love the cotton candy. [00:02:05] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [00:02:06] Speaker B: But. But before we got the cotton candy, we went to this petting zoo and they were letting the animals like, lick them everywhere. Lick their hands. And then they had the cotton candy and they didn't realize. They didn't wash their hands. And it was, it was pretty. It was pretty funny moment. They survived. They didn't get sick. No diseases. But yeah, cotton candy just. Yeah. You know, I prefer other things, but yeah. So, so it tastes good, but there's no substance. [00:02:33] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:02:34] Speaker B: And it leaves you feeling, like, icky. [00:02:37] Speaker A: It's a good way to put it, for sure. [00:02:40] Speaker B: And. [00:02:40] Speaker A: And that's exactly where. Where it's coming from. I wrote it down as a title just because I thought I was really intrigued by it. Just from our text message. [00:02:48] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:02:49] Speaker A: I had just mentioned that. Yeah. Not much is happening today, but I just had a call with one guy that's just going through the ringer, you know, like, struggling with things in life. And you wrote back, like, yeah, real theology is what you are. That's. It's. [00:03:02] Speaker B: Yes. [00:03:02] Speaker A: Where the rubber meets the road. It's real theology, not cotton candy. And I wrote back saying, but I love cotton candy. But it is, it's true. It's like, it tastes so good, but then you regret it and then you're, you know, hands are sticky and you're, you know, you give it to kids and everything is sticky. You know, it's like, okay, this is. Then they're bouncing off the walls. So in any case, like, going back to that thought. Real theology, not cotton candy. I mean, what is. What is. This is the question, I guess, is what is real theology? [00:03:34] Speaker B: Yeah, I. I got so excited because Christ is. Life is not just for. Solely something that I can read and have a knowledge of, but Christ's life is, like, real. Like, this is. This is the real stuff of life. That there's going to be rough days, that there's going to be hard seasons, there's going to be. It is. Life is tough. Right. You know, so. So this idea that, oh, life is good, life is tough, and God is good, and both are true. And so I was encouraging you of just saying, man, this is. This is when the rubber meets the road is can what I believe stand up to? I'm experiencing. So for most of my life, what I experienced and what I thought I believed, because I really didn't. But what I thought I believed were two different things, and never two shall they meet. Right. That's my experiences and the knowledge of scriptures, and they were not compatible. I couldn't understand how the tough things in my life and the struggles and the failures and the hurts and the pains and what the Bible talks about, they. I couldn't figure it out. [00:04:39] Speaker A: Right, right. [00:04:40] Speaker B: Couldn't figure it out. [00:04:41] Speaker A: Yeah, it's so good. I mean, I. I go back to our Bible college days myself, and that was my experience was like, Right. I was in a place of really needing that rubber meets the road. Like, what am I doing in Life, what's my purpose? What does it mean to, you know, go into any sort of ministry? What does that look like for me personally? I just needed somebody to walk me through that. I just needed to ask, be able to ask questions and learn. [00:05:09] Speaker B: Right. [00:05:10] Speaker A: And so where. Where should I go? Well, I went to my theology professor. [00:05:14] Speaker B: Right. It makes sense. Right. [00:05:16] Speaker A: It seems like, you know, but. But the theology was just a bunch of head knowledge. It wasn't anything that I could apply to my life. And so it was really of no help to me. He couldn't help me because all he could do is give me theological answers and not related to life. And then it made me think, how was I any help to people as I ministered to him? And this is kind of my conclusion is, is the answer is yes? You know, even that professor, when I think about it, he helped me recognize it took me a lot longer maybe than it should have. [00:05:49] Speaker B: Right. [00:05:49] Speaker A: But it helped me to realize that there's not life in all of this knowledge. There's not life and just knowing about all these things of God in the Bible. [00:05:58] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:05:59] Speaker A: But there is life in coming to know the God of the Bible, the author. That's. Yeah, that's what Frank Friedman says. He. Yeah, with this all weekend. And it was such a blessing to have a little conference with them at our church and be able to spend some extra time with them. But he says, how many of you go to the bookstore and you find a book and you read that book and, and you're reading the book in order to get to know the author. There's no, there's no textbook. You're not, you're not learning math in order to know the author of the book of the textbook. [00:06:29] Speaker B: Right. [00:06:30] Speaker A: You're not reading some novel to get to know the author of the. Of the text. So, so, so contrary to our thinking, to read the Bible in order to know the author of the Bible. But that's exactly what it is. [00:06:41] Speaker B: Wow. [00:06:42] Speaker A: And it's so relatable. [00:06:43] Speaker B: Right. [00:06:44] Speaker A: And it applies to every single day. Life. [00:06:46] Speaker B: Yes. [00:06:48] Speaker A: It's a beautiful reality. [00:06:50] Speaker B: Oh, so good, man. [00:06:51] Speaker A: So good. Yeah. So, man, what a. What a weekend. I feel really exhausted. [00:06:57] Speaker B: Yeah. What were you doing, man? [00:07:00] Speaker A: Everything. Everything. I was just, you know, when, when you have one of your mentors even too, just coming into town and doing a conference. [00:07:07] Speaker B: Right. [00:07:08] Speaker A: We just took opportunity. You know, he came in Thursday, we had a little meet and greet with him just to hang out. And then Friday night, the conference actually kicked off, but we spent all afternoon on Friday just doing Recordings with them, asking them questions, pondering stuff with them and. [00:07:22] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:07:23] Speaker A: Just gleaning wisdom from them. So we sat for like five hours just recording stuff, you know, a few different videos within that five hour time and just in between. And so it's just a lot of beautiful stuff. And so just a couple of really long days and. But, but so, so healthy. Because it wasn't just theology. And that's what's so beautiful about it. And that's how, that's why I thought this cotton candy thing just really relates. This weekend wasn't cotton candy. [00:07:47] Speaker B: Right. [00:07:48] Speaker A: He really just shared that, you know, faith is born out of, out of need. And when you really have need, you're not. This is, this is the reality. You're not running the cotton candy. When you really have a desperate need, you're not running to things that don't. Don't really sat. You're actually looking for the meat. [00:08:04] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:08:04] Speaker A: You're looking for what is. What is true. [00:08:07] Speaker B: What is true. What is real. [00:08:09] Speaker A: Yeah. So. And that's where this whole, you know, cotton candy thing and coming off of this weekend and all of it just brought me to. Is that, that meat, meat and not milk kind of mentality, which is just really intriguing. And I don't know how you, how you feel about this. And I have, you know, some other. I kind of dug into this a little bit deeper because this is what, this is what God always does. It takes me on this rabbit trail. [00:08:30] Speaker B: Right. [00:08:30] Speaker A: Of like, oh, okay, well, this takes me to this thought. And what does that mean? [00:08:33] Speaker B: What does this word. Right, right. [00:08:35] Speaker A: But spiritually speaking, it's like we want to mature. We want to go from just drinking milk to eating meat. But at the same time there's this mention of having the faith of a child. [00:08:46] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:08:46] Speaker A: And it's like, okay, so how do these two things relate? [00:08:50] Speaker B: Right. [00:08:51] Speaker A: And so it's just really interesting. And I don't know how what that sparks for you, Carl, but that's something [00:08:58] Speaker B: that I just say this, that, that what I used to think was me isn't the meat. [00:09:02] Speaker A: Wow. Sure. [00:09:05] Speaker B: Christ is life, you know, when Christ who is our light, when Christ who has our life appears. Paul says in Colossians 3. [00:09:11] Speaker A: Yep. [00:09:12] Speaker B: So the meat, the substance, the man, Christ. [00:09:17] Speaker A: Right. [00:09:18] Speaker B: Christ is the substance. Christ in me. [00:09:20] Speaker A: Yep. Right. Yeah. It's so, it's so good. I mean, scripture really is pretty clear. Like scripture brings us to maturity and understanding. That's the meat. Maturity and understanding. But when it comes to being childlike, it's not childlike. In our understanding, it's childlike in our trust. [00:09:40] Speaker B: Yes. [00:09:40] Speaker A: Childlike in our. [00:09:41] Speaker B: Right. [00:09:42] Speaker A: It's a childlike faith. [00:09:44] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:09:44] Speaker A: So my understanding. [00:09:46] Speaker B: Yes. [00:09:47] Speaker A: Is maturing all the time and becoming, you know, more to understand and know Christ as life. Knowing who I am, knowing the finished work of Christ. [00:09:58] Speaker B: Right. [00:09:58] Speaker A: Knowing my identity in Christ and then learning to live from that reality. And as I learn to live from that reality, then I step into living like a child in my trust and that I can take this leap and I know that my father's going to catch me. And it's just such a different, just like you said, totally different than how I used to process things. [00:10:19] Speaker B: Yeah. It. With, with children. And again, you, you know, you've talked about starting over with three kids under the age of four. [00:10:28] Speaker A: Yeah, whatever. Five. [00:10:31] Speaker B: So you're, you're seeing it again, the curiosity, the mystery, the simple trust of a child for, for you as a dad. Right. [00:10:43] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:10:43] Speaker B: And. And we lose that, you know, even, even as we journey through, while the heart wholehearted, living with these gatherings for pastors and. [00:10:52] Speaker A: Right. [00:10:53] Speaker B: And so forth. I just really love the reminder that I have to sit as a son before anything else. Yeah. That before anything else I have to set aside. These are very hard for pastors. These are very hard for ministry leaders that we think it's all up to us. It's all on us to fix it or, or to, to grow it or to manage it or whatever it is, church ministry. And. And so we don't have time to sit and be curious. We don't have time to sit and wonder. We don't have the time to sit and, and marvel at the mystery of God and that. And maybe in Western church or American church, that is dangerous. [00:11:36] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:11:36] Speaker B: Because we lose the spiritual, even though we think we are being spiritual, if that makes sense. [00:11:42] Speaker A: Yeah, no, it does. It does completely. It just reminds me of what we're going to be doing here in a month or so from now and going through the wild at heart stuff. And part of the bottle heart is beauty. [00:11:56] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:11:57] Speaker A: And when I think about beauty, it just. What it triggers in me is thinking of like sitting at a bonfire and just staring at a fire. Like you're kind of mesmerized by it. [00:12:07] Speaker B: Right. [00:12:08] Speaker A: Go to the ocean right here near me and just watching the waves crash or watching the sunset. Just a lot of things that. Just the night sky or just the sky in general, you know, like. [00:12:18] Speaker B: Yeah, right. [00:12:18] Speaker A: Just there's things that are just mesmerizing. And I think that when you can really see God and see yourself through the lens of who you are in Christ. There's a beauty there that just kind of is mesmerizing. You're just amazed by it. You're in awe of God. It brings you to the point of thankfulness and joy and rejoicing and praising God. It's very beautiful. [00:12:42] Speaker B: And so even this, even that question you asked at the beginning, which is, what is real theology? Yeah, maybe. Maybe a great reminder. Is the Word real? [00:12:55] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:12:55] Speaker B: What is real? Yeah. And so it's, it's. It's, you know, theology, the study of God and, and everyone's got a different opinion on their take on, on theology. [00:13:07] Speaker A: Sure. [00:13:08] Speaker B: But I just love what is real. What is real. [00:13:11] Speaker A: You know, I love that the Word [00:13:14] Speaker B: of God is living inactive and the Word of God is a person. Jesus. [00:13:19] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:13:20] Speaker B: And. And so it's. So as we've been talking offline or off camera or we actually were on camera off, recording that weird experience. God like he is to be experienced daily, you know, all throughout the day. Right. If Christ is in me, then this is an experience. This journey, this faith journey is real and this is. [00:13:42] Speaker A: Right. [00:13:43] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:13:43] Speaker A: It's so beautiful. Frank shared a little bit more of his testimony than I've ever even heard of her tidbits of it. [00:13:50] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:13:50] Speaker A: So he started the whole weekend out with, you know, I want you to know who. Who I am that's bringing this message this weekend so that, you know where I'm coming from and what I've been through. And there's some. Some deep stuff, you know, that he shared. And then he concluded that whole thing with this thought. It's. It's really out of his. One of his books. It's called Finding God in the Gray in the Difficult Things and the Difficult Seasons. I think that book really is mostly his testimony. He's processed through that. But he says this, the main idea. Grace sat down with me till I could walk again. Grace sat down with me until I could walk again. And I shared that with you earlier. And I just. It's like. It's so contrary to our thinking. [00:14:31] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:14:32] Speaker A: Especially in. Maybe it's the North American. Maybe it's the Western just whatever it is mindset that we tell, like our sons or boys or men, like not just get over it. [00:14:43] Speaker B: Just. Yeah. Oh, yeah. [00:14:44] Speaker A: You know. [00:14:44] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:14:45] Speaker A: Just fight through those feelings and just get over it and, you know, things will get better or we. We'll. We'll use, you know, this too will pass all the time. [00:14:54] Speaker B: Cliches. He. He. Frank loves cliches. I heard, right. No, no. He hates him just the same as you. And I hate him. [00:15:01] Speaker A: Yeah, right. Absolutely. And so, and I, I just love this because, you know, Frank is, is the guy that has really instilled in my mind that Grace is a person. [00:15:12] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:15:13] Speaker A: And. And in this statement, Grace sat down with me. It's like, this isn't some theological doctrine that's sitting down with me because there's nothing theological in, in knowledge and in learning that's going to sit down with me. And here I was, even as a college student, saying, I need someone to sit down with me. And the theology professor couldn't help me. [00:15:34] Speaker B: Yes. [00:15:35] Speaker A: Because theology doesn't help. [00:15:37] Speaker B: Right. [00:15:37] Speaker A: It certainly, it helps us to understand certain things about Scripture, but it's not going to give us an experiential understanding and knowledge, and it's not, it's not going to be relational at all. And so to go through your darkest moments in life and to have Jesus. [00:15:52] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:15:52] Speaker A: Part of the Godhead sit down with you, and he doesn't just sit down with you to say, hey, get back up, get through it, get over it. He sits down with you until. This is how it concludes. Until I could walk again. [00:16:05] Speaker B: Yeah. However long there's healing there, however long it takes, it's so healing. [00:16:09] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. So it's just so beautiful. And that, that's what we do with people, right. We. We meet people where they're at. Our job isn't to fix. Our job is to love. And that's who we are as believers, is to just shine that light of love to other people. And if I'm, if I'm the one that's trying to fix you and I'm taking you on as a project, how are you gonna feel? You're not gonna feel like I'm sitting down with you. It's like, no, you're gonna feel like I'm your project, and that's a sad place to be. So. Yeah, it's just kind of related, too, to another thing that he talked about that we as adults, you know, we're maturing and maturing, maturing. Or even as kids, you know, you're growing up and then you get to this point where, okay, you receive, you believe and you receive Christ. And then it's a journey of learning to be a child. So it's, it's interesting. It's an interesting concept to think about. [00:17:03] Speaker B: Right. [00:17:04] Speaker A: And so you're still adulting, you're still growing in your responsibilities in life and understanding things, but you're able to even do all those things as a child. As a child being able to take a step out in faith. And when I think about it, I think about just my own story. You know, like, first of all, just a revelation in part came and it brought me to a point. I brought a stirring in my life that brought me to resigning from church and working in the church. And then greater revelation came and it brought me to another leap of faith, of moving from the place that I've lived my whole entire life. Moving away from family, moving away from all the security and all the things I thought, well, this is where I have connections and ministry. [00:17:46] Speaker B: Right. [00:17:47] Speaker A: And moving to Florida to where I had zero, you know, connections into ministry. But God has taken care of every single one of those things. But it was a leap of faith. And, and that, it's, that's experientially. That was a childlike faith, a childlike step, a childlike leap. [00:18:03] Speaker B: Right. [00:18:03] Speaker A: Right into the unknown. [00:18:05] Speaker B: Right. [00:18:05] Speaker A: Where I had to trust the Father and it's exactly where he wants us to be. [00:18:09] Speaker B: And even in your life, you can look back and see the brokenness and the rough days and the rough seasons where. [00:18:17] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:18:17] Speaker B: Go back to that phrase, grace sits with me. [00:18:21] Speaker A: Yes. [00:18:22] Speaker B: Or sat with me. [00:18:24] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:18:24] Speaker B: Until I could walk again. Right. You saw it. [00:18:27] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. And. And then we're able to, to do that with people. [00:18:32] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:18:33] Speaker A: To where what they're seeing, what they're seeing, like, they might see. It's like, oh, but. But it was you that sat with me. But, but there's something so much deeper. [00:18:41] Speaker B: Right. [00:18:43] Speaker A: Like, whoa. We're expressing. We're expressions of Christ in us. He's the light. [00:18:49] Speaker B: Right. [00:18:50] Speaker A: So when we're loving other people, it's, it's, it's the love of God that they're experiencing because it's God in me. It's Christ in me. The Holy Spirit working. So there's, there's so much beauty there, man. Where to go next? I have. I have so many things going through my mind just from an incredible weekend. [00:19:12] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:19:13] Speaker A: It's hard to process it all. Like, you just. This is where you have to take that time to just rest and just to let God soak it. [00:19:19] Speaker B: Right. [00:19:20] Speaker A: And just, Just to ponder and to ask. Because I'm, I'm looking at just my notes of things that he shared about so many things, about saints versus sinners, about, you know, being up on those, those eagles wings. That verse out of Isaiah is so incredible, the way that he explains that, because it says, those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength. And he says such terrible translations here. He says the word wait is actually, it actually means braided. And I'll just put my fingers together to mean braided, but like there's this braiding going on between. Like we're braided together. And that does take time. And so I can understand why weight could possibly be right. But what's happening in the waiting is I'm learning to trust the Father and I'm. I'm living in this union. Right? And then, and then he says that the word restore is not, not good either. He said it's actually an exchange. It's not that I'm. And this is actually where Hudson Taylor first got coined that phrase, the exchange life. He was the first guy to do it. And this was the verse that he pulled that from. There has been this exchange. And so when I can recognize that, okay, I'm braided together, I have this, this union thing is happening. And then there's been this exchange that I'm not just restored, but my old life is dead. I've been crucified with Christ. That's dead and gone and I've been given new life and it's Christ life in me. There's been this exchange. Well now that makes sense that I can mount up on eagle's wings and swords. Right? The eagle just. That's, that's the life. It's just so beautiful and, and so, so much of what he shared really just came out of, out of identity. He went back to Eve often. Adam and Eve, but Eve was one of the, and I don't remember the, the Greek word for, for woman. Maybe you do. I, I don't know. But I thought it was really beautiful. Cuz here he, he pulled from the adulterous woman caught, caught in adultery, which all, all together we know is. Something's wrong here. There's. There's something going on that's. They're just trying to trap Jesus, of course, and, and so they use this woman and basically trap her as well. But he says in that passage, Jesus, after the whole thing is calmed down and people drop the stones and they walk away, he turns and he says, woman go and sin no more. And it's like that always sounds really kind of harsh like first of all saying woman, like we don't talk like that. [00:21:35] Speaker B: Yeah, I think he calls his mom that too. Right? [00:21:38] Speaker A: He does. But this is where the translation is super important. And this is where Frank really took it in my understanding to see he took it all the way back to Eve. Because she was called woman. [00:21:51] Speaker B: Right. [00:21:51] Speaker A: And woman there means because he, God, was creating man and woman in the garden where he had fellowship with God. And so woman there means princess, like you're the child, you're royalty, you're special. And so what he was saying to this adulterous woman, because she was a woman that was, you know, a prostitute and living this wild way. So. But he was saying woman, he was saying, princess, go and sin no more, because that's not who you are. That sin is not who you are. He was pulling from her identity, and she had this mentality of her identity was all the things that she had done and all the wickedness in her life that she didn't like. And she. I don't know where she was at. I don't know the whole story even of her life. Was she being transformed and starting to follow Jesus or was she still in that. You know, the woman at the well was still in, you know, the midst of it. But he's approaching even these women to say, no, that's not who you are. Yeah. And so it's just. It's so powerful to really recognize, you know, he. He was actually tapping into their true identity to recognize that. No, if you're trusting in me. [00:22:56] Speaker B: Right. [00:22:57] Speaker A: Your identity has been exchanged. Going back to even that Isaiah passage. [00:23:01] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:23:02] Speaker A: It's amazing. And we. We like to focus on, oh, no, it's the sin. Let's. And I pull out of the pastor saying, I'm going to try better to not sin anymore. And it's like, no, we're missing the whole thing. The reality is I can be thankful and I can praise God that I can. I can choose to not sin because sin is not who I am. I'm not a sinner. I am a saint. Solid man. There's just a lot of. A lot of exciting stuff to. For me to chew on here this next week. [00:23:29] Speaker B: Yeah. And then. And. And the chewing is not my cotton candy. [00:23:33] Speaker A: Yep. It's. It's stuff that actually lasts. It's a good, good conclusion right there. [00:23:39] Speaker B: That nourishes, that strengthens, that encourages. [00:23:43] Speaker A: Right. [00:23:44] Speaker B: The recenters refocuses. [00:23:47] Speaker A: Yep. [00:23:47] Speaker B: Right. This is. This is this stuff. [00:23:50] Speaker A: Yep. It's real life stuff. Going back to that statement too. It's just. It's what we all need and it's what we all have. [00:23:59] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:24:00] Speaker A: Those of us that are in Christ. So beautiful stuff. And that concludes our. Our episode for today. Did it not stop.