Biden and Afghanistan

Episode #119

This episode discusses the poorly executed US withdrawal from Afghanistan and what we can do.

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

DISCLAIMER: The below transcript was automatically generated and has not been reviewed to ensure complete accuracy. Any references or quotes should be taken directly from the audio recording and not the below transcript.

(00:00): Preview

Well, on this episode, we are talking about current events. We have got some incredible things happening over in Afghanistan, and we’re going to talk about what’s going on there and Joe Biden. So let’s get into it right now.

(00:17): Intro

Hey, this is Ryan S. Howard. Thanks for tuning into my podcast. I call it your faith at work, because we want to get your faith out of the church and into the world. We want our faith to be active, and I’m here to help you get unstuck and fulfill all the God-given potential that you were created with. I’m going to help you find your God-given assignment so that you can advance the kingdom every single day. We’re going to do that and work in the culture and in life visit Ryan S howard.com to learn more boy,

(00:45): Episode

Oh boy, is there a lot going on a lot of people infuriated with what is happening, what has happened over in Afghanistan, and I am included in those people who are infuriated. So on this episode, I want to give you a quick overview of what’s going on. What’s happened, why it’s a big deal, and we’re going to talk about some of the fallout and well, just why it’s so crazy and absurd to be in the situation we are in, in a nutshell what happened was, you know, we’ve had this, a war over in Afghanistan. We can argue whether we should have been there and all of that. But you know, in 2001, September 11 we had the terror attack on the twin towers in New York and around the U S and since then we have been on this war, been in this war over in Afghanistan, and we’ve had lots of successes.

(01:49):

And we have had a lot of support for getting out of Afghanistan, lots of you know, pretty much everybody wants that. And Donald Trump, before he left office, as president was had a plan together, a plan for a strong exit to get everything out. We needed probably leave a little some forces behind just to monitor what’s going on there. And this plan was in place, but Joe Biden seems to have unilaterally decided to just remove the military, remove everybody, leave all the people behind thousands and thousands and thousands of us citizens and hundreds, a hundred million or billion dollars worth of military assets, equipment over there. They left. And now, well there, we had the first death in 18 months. That’s just infuriating. And so this is a big deal. Lots of people are very upset and, you know, on this podcast, I want to talk about helping you understand the times, you know, the, the men have is the sons of his, a car, and the Bible understood the times and they knew what they should do.

(03:07):

And so we sh we want to understand what’s going on here. And some, and I was just going to have a little conversation, some commentary on this, my take because I think it’s important that we know what’s going on and that we well, we have a biblical view of that. And if we need to take action, we take action. So let’s get into some of my take on this. You know, well, many agree. I mean, Trump said this, all lots of newscasters are saying this radio talk show, host everybody. This is the greatest foreign policy humiliation, possibly in history, at least in the last middle half deck, a half a century. And so it’s just, it shows either gross incompetence or just a an alternate, an all terrier motive. There had to be something there. He only had to leave some soldiers.

(04:07):

What he could have done was left the soldiers. There, got everything out that we needed to get out like the equipment like American citizens, contractors, all these sorts of people. And even those Afghanis Afghanistan people who helped and were translating and that were trustworthy. And we could, you know, that we had to take out as refugees or, or whatever they were classified as. And then if we wanted to get rid of, you know, we could have bombed the basis, we could have bombed the equipment, we could have destroyed all the stuff. So there’d be no technology left behind and all of that. And you know, Trump said, this is not a withdrawal. This was a surrender. And who knows what’s going on there? It certainly seems that there’s something else motivating it, cause it just does not add up.

(05:00):

But we got out, this is very like I said, humiliating, and we had a deal in order to get out with honor to save face, to wrap everything up, keep lives intact. And now what they’ve done the way it’s been done again, unilaterally pretty much my Biden not with a lot of support withdraw this way, left a huge gap, huge hole. And the Taliban filled it in right away. They were in the president’s palace. They took pictures. They took a picture with ice cream, making fun of Joe Biden. I mean, just humiliating, huge, huge failure. And so even the president of Afghanistan fled with, I don’t know if it was millions, billions in cash. I mean, just unbelievable. And so this just really fell apart. And so it’s sort of hard to believe that, that this was incompetence. I mean, it just seems it could be, but it just seems that there has to be some ulterior motive.

(06:09):

And I would suspect that, you know, maybe Biden’s beholden to someone or perhaps China wanted this to happen. You know, this certainly weakens America and opens the door for them to step up as a world leader in Russia as well. But back to these assets, you know, we had a hundred billion dollars worth of military assets. That’s per general Flynn. These are taxpayer funded equipment. Yep. And you know, we had 25,000 troops in DC for weeks hanging out in parking garages to, you know, for January six stuff. And that was really to maximize the politics of that. And we couldn’t leave troops in Afghanistan to, you know, even guarantee the safe exit of people in equipment. Like I said, so instead he took the military out first without an extraction plan for all the people and equipment. And you know, if you look back now just one week earlier, I believe it was July 8th 2021.

(07:14):

He said, there’ll be no rooftop evacuation. There’ll be no everything’s under control. It’s, it’s all good. And literally the next week, that’s literally what happened. It was a rooftop evacuation from the embassy. And, you know, the, the administration has tried to sort of save face by kind of downplaying some of it. But there’s none of that. Now the dust has settled on that. And while we’ve seen bombs going off now and you have, it’s just unbelievable, you know, at the airport and them giving directions on how to get out and, and the state department, it’s just, it’s a mess. And now the military is going back to try and help. And now they’ve got an impossible mission that w you know, what a waste, I mean, I can’t believe it, right. We take the military out and then let that void happen.

(08:11):

Let it get filled with Taliban terrorists who by the way, are on Twitter. Apparently not violating their terms of you know, using their platform, but Trump’s not allowed on Twitter, but, you know, once this happened, I mean, you know, now we can see it clearly. There’s no covering anything up and now the military is coming back in. And so it’s just a bunch of waste. And so, w you know, we’ve kind of said either we’ve got an issue with intelligence or some other problem there. And, and like I said, another agenda perhaps you know, in some were even talking about, well, now China and Russia can get that equipment. And, you know, if, if Taliban doesn’t know how to operate it, they can certainly sell it or perhaps there’s agreements already in place with that. But, you know, th th when Biden came on, first of all, he was delayed in, in addressing the nation.

(09:13):

And it, which was just very, just really didn’t, it’s not strong leadership. It doesn’t look like strong leadership, and I’m not here just to bash, but it it’s really, it’s, it’s horrible. I mean, it’s really, there’s really no good thing to say about what’s happened. And, you know, when he came out, he just gave excuses. I mean, he didn’t need to give excuses. He basically blamed Trump and the Afghans literally. I mean, that is it. If you watch the speech blaming Trump, blaming Afghans, taking no responsibility, he should have talked about what’s happening in the future. Why his plan for the COBOL, for the airport, you know, what’s going to happen, what we should expect, why Americans should feel safe, you know, why we shouldn’t feel like there’s going to be another nine 11 why we, you know, why we should feel safe, that, that our people are going to get out of there.

(10:13):

And it’s, that’s not at all what he did. That’s that was the, that should have been the gist of what he said was this happened whatever reason, but this is what is going to happen. Now, this is what you can expect is that’s what a leader should have done. And she has inspired hope should have given us direction on what’s going to happen. But none of that just came out and kind of threw the blame game out there with Trump and the Afghans. So, you know, Hey, this is sort of infuriating and many people not being attention. And I haven’t until, you know, the last, you know, five, 10 years last 10 years or so, but Biden’s been wrong on every single foreign policy in his almost 50 years of government. He’s been on the wrong side and now can the allies, can our allies trust the U S did they know what was going to happen?

(11:04):

I mean, leaving thousands of people behind and now, I mean, we talk about women’s rights and just within the limits of Islam, that’s a whole nother topic, but that’s what they said. They said, oh, women’s rights within the limits of Islam. Well, if you know anything about that, that, you know, that means no rights. I mean, that, I heard one guy compare, I think Rob Carson from the Newsmax daily podcast, he said, that’s like Hitler honoring the rights of the Jews under the Hitler policy. That’s like, there’s no rights. So this is this, like I said, maybe the, one of the worst, the worst foreign policy blunder in history. And then the fact that, that the white house came out and even said, well, we have the assurance of the Taliban that everyone will get safely to the airport.

(12:00):

I mean, to even say that is just absurd to even, oh yeah, we’re going to make an agreement. And they’re going to know, the only way to negotiate with him is, is like Trump did, which is with force a show of force you, that they do not want a peaceful or agreement. Their goal is to take over everything that is not going to happen. They’re not going to honor their word they’re right now. W well, what they ended up with right afterward was a hostage, possibly one of the worst hostage situations that’s ever happened. I think they said it was six to 10,000 citizens, their non-military. So and apparently there was a, a June recommendation back in from about evacuating Afghanistan, from the Pentagon and they, that was ignored. So just a very sad thing to have happened. Many people are distraught because of the 20 years that seems to have been wasted and the lives that have been lost.

(13:08):

And again, we can have another conversation about whether we should have even been there, but certainly we needed to get out and there is a way to do it, and it was not done the right way. In fact, now we’re going back and having to deal with this impossible situation. Like I said, so well, that’s, what’s going on. We’re going to see what comes. We just can pray for the grace of God to have no more deaths over there. Unnecessary. I mean, there is just, it’s such a sad, horrible situation, but Hey, we need to know what’s going on. We know God’s in charge and so what should we do? Well, we need to make sure we have the right leaders in office. I mean, this should have never happened. And we can talk about election integrity and all of that. Again, another topic whether he’s even the rightful person to be in office.

(13:56):

Many of us say no, but you know, there’s a lot more to come on that. And so let’s be praying. Let’s be believing God for good things. Let’s stay positive and be praying for the families of those who have, are really in the midst of this. And, you know, we are also seeing this glimmer of hope because Christians are emboldened, you know, Christians throughout the world are emboldened and stepping up. And I was talking to a guy today that they have a global ministry and they are teaching about suffering because here in America, suffering is not the same as over in Afghanistan for Christians or Pakistan or, or you know, different parts of Africa. I mean, it’s just clearly not the same. And, but the gospel will go forward. The Afghan Christians are committed to spreading the gospel. And there’s a lot of people that need hope right now.

(14:52):

I mean, everybody needs, hope. Everybody needs the truth, but it right now times like this has really highlighted. What, what is your hope really in what are you really relying on? And now’s the time to double down relying on Christ, sharing him, sharing God, sharing Christ, what he did for people to die for them so that they could have a relationship with God, be renewed, be filled with the holy spirit and enjoy eternity starting now in this life with God. So that brings us to the close. We want to make sure we understand the times and we don’t need to be obsessed with it, but we want to know what’s going on so that we can be informed. We can be praying and we can be believing God for good things. And we can be reaching out and supporting and knowing what we should do, because we understand the times when we have that relationship with God through the holy spirit. All right. Well, thank you so much for joining. God bless you. And we’ll see in the next episode,

(15:45): Outro

If you enjoyed this podcast, be sure to subscribe and you can help spread the word by giving us a five star review and sharing it with your friends. Visit Ryan S howard.com to learn more about how you can advance God’s kingdom every day.

 

Is Your Self-Image Helping or Hurting You?

Episode #118

This episode will challenge you to look closer at how you see yourself so you can show up as your best self every single day.

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

DISCLAIMER: The below transcript was automatically generated and has not been reviewed to ensure complete accuracy. Any references or quotes should be taken directly from the audio recording and not the below transcript.

(00:00): Preview

Hey, on this episode, we are talking about self-image and we’re going to dive a little deeper past what you might tell me or someone else, what you think of yourself into what you’re actually thinking about yourself and the kind of stories you’re dwelling on and thinking about. And I think this is going to be a key to unlocking you showing up as the best version of you every single day. So let’s get into it right now.

(00:24): Intro

Hey, this is Ryan S. Howard, thanks for tuning into my podcast. I call it your faith at work, because we want to get your faith out of the church and into the world. We want our faith to be active, and I’m here to help you get unstuck and fulfill all the God-given potential that you were created with. I’m going to help you find your God-given assignment so that you can advance the kingdom every single day. We’re going to do that and work in the culture and in life, visit Ryan S howard.com to learn more, welcome to another episode. And

(00:55):

We are diving a little deeper into a topic that is maybe more important than, you know, and it might be something lingering under the surface that could use a little attention and make a huge difference. Just like that little tweak on their golf swing or whatever it is that you might be doing. So when we think about self image, you know, image is something that we see everywhere. You know, it’s, it’s part of a performance in your work. It’s part of, you know, how others see you. It’s, you know what we have on social media and all that. And what’s going on there with image and we have branding, we have all sorts of things, but the most important that affects everything is your self-image. How do you see yourself? And as I mentioned in the introduction, I think that your quick answer, if I say, how do you see yourself?

(01:46):

I think your quick answer may be different than how you treat yourself or how you maybe talk to yourself. And I mean, that just like the kinds of thoughts you have about yourself and whether you actually talk to yourself or not, it’s the thoughts you have that you’re dwelling on about yourself, maybe about your past, that sort of thing. And so that’s what I want to dig into. So right now just capture, what do you think about yourself? I mean, how do you see yourself? Do you see yourself as someone who is dependable as someone who shows up with someone who’s follows through on commitments and when a man or woman of integrity, someone who has their word follows through on their word, someone who’s on time or someone who’s always late. Do you see yourself as someone who never meets their commitments or just always hitting snooze?

(02:34):

And you know, I’m a night owl and I’m, can’t be a morning person. And I just always fail to get up and I want to do all this, but I just can’t seem to get started and I can’t get anything going. And I’d try all these things and I keep failing and, oh my past this, my past that, and I don’t know what the future’s gonna be like, how do you see yourself? I mean, what comes to mind? Is it generally positive or is it generally negative? And if you think about the kind of thoughts that you just allow, and we can’t control all the thoughts that come in, but we can control what we dwell on. We can control the thoughts that stay. We absolutely have that, you know, we need to have a renewed mind. That’s what Paul says and God’s word. We need to have a renewed mind.

(03:16):

We need to have our thoughts, sit on things above what God thinks. So now if you’ve got a picture of what you think of yourself now, think of a time when you maybe didn’t do something the way you wanted to do it. What did you say to yourself? I mean, what were you thinking? Were you thinking, wow, I did it again. Look at that. I failed again. I just can’t get anything off the ground or I just can’t follow through on this thing. I mean, are you kind of beating yourself up and do you dwell on it or do you, does it make you think about other times when you made the mistake or when you didn’t follow through or whatever that particular thing may be, or maybe you got into it with a coworker or a friend or a spouse and you just it’s like, well, here we go again with whatever it is.

(04:03):

Or maybe you have some emotional trigger or something, whatever it is. I mean, what, where do you go with that? Do you dwell on it? Do you, is it a negative space that you go to, or do you just kind of say shut it off and say, you know what, I’m not gonna, I’m not gonna go there one way that you can and really test what your saying to yourself and thinking of yourself is if you had the same situation that you’re criticizing yourself of, or that you may be beating yourself up over, if a friend came to you, you or a family member or someone from work and said, look, this is going on. Or you, you saw them doing that thing or not doing that thing. What would you say to them? I mean, would you be, would you talk to them the way that you talk to yourself where you’re criticizing and reminding them of everything that they, every other time they ever did it and getting, beating them up on it and all that?

(04:53):

Or would you maybe be a little more couraging? You know, I mean, think about that. How do you treat others? How do you treat yourself? And so why not treat yourself that way? Because really, if you think about it, what do you think is going to lead to a better result? I mean, if you, you see yourself positively as someone who does is that way or not that way, and you know, in the positive, the way you want to be, or someone who you’re just have a negative opinion, you’re just negative on yourself all the time. I mean, who is, which one is more likely to achieve what God has for them, which one? And which one we can even get into that. What does God think of you? How does he see you? He’s not surprised by him. So I want to challenge you this week to really capture what it is.

(05:42):

Yes. Because this is something that I had a disconnect between what I, what I believed I thought about myself or what I was telling, you know, what, the way I kind of would have expressed it to you or to someone else. But then actually, if I looked at what I was saying to myself about how I was going about things, and I have this such a high level of kind of expectation, and if it doesn’t get something perfect, you know, then I just don’t do it, or I don’t start it. Or, you know, if it’s not, and, and that’s not that’s not a endearing, that’s not a good thing because they ended up doing very, you ended up doing very little because you have these high expectations. So that’s something that I saw in myself where it’s like, I need to get rid of that.

(06:27):

I need to get rid of, they need to deal with that. Because when I did make a mistake, what I would do is I would just beat myself up. So for example, I started a new morning routine and I was getting up at five 30 or 6:00 AM every day for a few weeks. And then finally, one day I overslept, I woke up at like six 20 something and I went downstairs. I started beating myself up over man. I was doing so good and this and that. And then I just kinda caught myself and I would have went into a, you know, I don’t know, 10 minutes or something, or maybe soaked on it all day. Like, I can’t believe I did to get like how stupid, you know? So I just said, you know, I caught myself, I actually recognize it. And I said, I’m just not going to do that.

(07:09):

I’m just going to move on. I’m going to get back into it and do my new routine. And that was it. And you know what, instead of kicking the bricks over and then starting over, I actually built on top of the bricks that were already there. That’s what we need to do with our foundation. So if we keep beating ourselves up over mistakes, well, then that we’re not gonna have a good image of ourself. We’re not going to have a good opinion of ourself. I mean, if you think of it, are you a leader you would want to follow? You know, I had a tough time answering that before, you know, where it’s like, man, I just, no, no, I would not. I mean, yeah, I kind of out here, it looks pretty good from but I kinda know what I think of myself now that I’ve started thinking about it, you know, and I’ve started and I’ve dealt with all this stuff cause they had to go.

(07:56):

Cause I realized how much it was holding me back and limiting me this, this is a mindset thing because what are you saying? What stories are you telling yourself? You know, are you always reminding yourself of failures or are you, are you pushing those to the side and reminding yourself of just moving forward, you know, and sticking with your routines and sticking with what you’re doing and maybe it’s time to get some routines that may be something that you need some help with, but what do you think of yourself? So just take some time this week and really pay attention to what you’re saying to yourself. Like what, what stories are you drilling on? What thoughts are you letting stay in your mind? And if they serve you, if they are uplifting, if they bring you peace and joy and they help set you up for the next thing or what you’re doing and help you be present, then, then by all means, keep them that’s what you want.

(08:46):

Is there a God honoring and rights that keep them, but if they are not helping you, if they’re dragging you down, if they’re making you upset, if it’s you’re dreading something, if you’re just, if it’s leading to negative, you go, we call it self-talk. But negative just opinion of yourself, whether you’re speaking it or just thinking it, does it serve you and help you get to where you want to go. If it does you keep it, if not, you get rid of it, get it, get it out of here. So I think, you know, if you can take some time, especially this week and just really take note, observe, pay attention. What are you saying to yourself? I mean, what stories are you telling? What are you drawing on? What are you allowing in your mind? And I think that as you start to siphon off these negative things and start to bring in and double down, the more positive thinking about yourself, you’re going to show up differently.

(09:40):

You’re going to be a better version of yourself and you can get your cup full and so that you can be pouring into others. And so you want to be the best version of yourself every single day. So, all right, I want to invite you before you go to send a text message to 3, 3, 7, 7, 7, and send the words, faith at work. I’m going to send you a free 21 day devotional. That’s going to help you jumpstart this introspective life, help you get to that next stage. And we’ll get you on the email list as well. So, all right, that’ll do it for this week. Have a great week and we’ll see in the next episode, God bless.

(10:15): Outro

If you enjoyed this podcast, be sure to subscribe and you can help spread the word by giving us a five star review and sharing it with your friends. Visit Ryan S howard.com to learn more about how you can advance God’s kingdom every day.

 

Take A Stand Against Leftism

Episode #117

This episode discusses how we must take a stand against Leftism and what’s at stake if we don’t act now.

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Also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, RSS Feed, and others.

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

DISCLAIMER: The below transcript was automatically generated and has not been reviewed to ensure complete accuracy. Any references or quotes should be taken directly from the audio recording and not the below transcript.

(00:00): Introduction

On this week’s episode, we’re talking about how we got to take a stand against the radical leftism that’s happening today. And I’m going to talk about what you can do at the end. Stick around. Let’s get into it right now. Hey, this

(00:14):

Is Ryan S. Howard. Thanks for tuning into my podcast. I call it your faith at work, because we want to get your faith out of the church and into the world. We want our faith to be active, and I’m here to help you get unstuck and fulfill all the God-given potential that you were created with. I’m going to help you find your God-given assignment so that you can advance the kingdom every single day. We’re going to do that and work in the culture and in life. Visit Ryan S howard.com to learn more well. Hello,

(00:43): Episode

Welcome to another episode. We are getting into some current events and some hot topics on this episode and the title. It says everything, you know, we want, we need to stand up against this wild leftism before it’s too late. And I want to talk a little bit about kind of what’s going on. And just a few high-level things. Here are some themes of what we’ve been seeing. And fortunately, some of the activity we are seeing from parents and community members who have just simply had enough, they’ve had enough and it’s time to step up. So if the last year and a half has shown us anything, it has taught us that it really matters who we elect as our leaders and politics and government have really taken center stage in every sphere of society all over the place. And we see how much the media can control the narrative.

(01:43):

And we sort of see a crisis of critical thinking is what I call it in America today at least, but also globally. And, you know, we see free speech under attack. We see leftist policies advancing everywhere. We look and as I said, many are finally waking up. You know, we’ve seen what it looks like to have great leadership and poor leadership and big tech is, has been given far too much power and too much control. We’ve seen canceled coal, cancel culture, thriving. We’ve seen, we even saw censorship of the president of the United States when Donald Trump was in office. Think about that for a minute. That is the wildest thing. I mean, censoring the president of the leader of the free world, the number one most powerful person on earth at the time for the president of the United States. That is just dumbfounding.

(02:41):

I mean, it’s, it’s it’s kinda makes you speechless, but it happened and for not very good reasons, actually not good reasons at all. Sort of incoherent reasons is what we heard, but the way he was treated way, Donald Trump has been treated should shock everybody, including those who oppose him. You know, it goes without saying, I believe that you know, those who stand against Trump, if they saw the behavior of people toward someone that they did support, like the tech silencing and slandering and that sort of treatment, there is no way they would be okay with that the way they are okay with it with Donald Trump. And many of these people, you know, you see these TV shows where they go and they talk and ask people and they can’t say anything beyond the headline. They just get into the deep, they can’t get into any details of why Trump’s racist or why it’s a problem or any of that.

(03:35):

Well, we also see, we have seen so much hypocrisy with politicians and regulators, not even following their own advice, which just shows the lack of conviction or the insincerity was just, is just absurd to me where they have rules for the, but not for me, for example California, governor Gavin Newsome, make it, all these orders that you can’t be in restaurants and all this. And then what happens. He’s caught eaten with a group of people, a larger group of people, and then California, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, the leader of the house right now. Doesn’t, you know, shuts down all the businesses and can’t go get your hair cut. And what does she do? She goes to a salon and gets her hair, did hair done just amazing. And then you got the Texas house Democrats where they flew on a plane together, talking about it.

(04:28):

You got any masks and you got all this stuff and then they fly and they have a picture with no mass sun. That’s just incredible. Well, we also see the politicization of science with policies and guidance that are ever-changing even contradicting. You know, we have a massive lack of evidence-based justification for a lot of what’s happening right now. It is just absurd, the type of direction we’re being given and how it’s always changing. And this Dr. Fowchee, he consistently changes his guidance with no explanations for things that are clearly conflicting with former guidance. For example masks are not effective. And then he’s now he says, you need to wear masks. You need to wear two masks. You need to wear a mask. If you’re older than two years old or in three, or if you’re under 12, you need to this, that this, that, and there’s zero studies that they reference for any of this.

(05:25):

And I say, blitz possession of science. And it’s kind of junk science because it’s not really based on the scientific method. I mean, we see, I say junk science says trust me, but real science says, test me, you know, we, we should be able to challenge it and say, well, how did you come to that conclusion? And not just have somebody say, well, you denying science, you’re denying science, but no science, literally the entire purpose is I have a theory and now you’ve got to try and disprove that theory. That is the scientific method that’s of what is in science. That’s what we, what we do in science. And, you know, moving on it’s it’s even, even this leftism is in our culture is moving into the church, the Christian Church. So many leaders of these big churches in these national leaders are, are going along with this, even against their own probably their own convictions.

(06:24):

They’re going against it, just because it’s that the culture is going and it’s sneaking in. And that’s, well, a lot of the, even the, the Christian academics today, the Christian universities are, are going left. I mean, there’s all kinds of stuff. There’s a documentary coming out called enemies within the church go to their website, enemies within the church.com it’s already they already have lots of interviews for things that are happening there. And we mentioned cancel culture. You know, Steve Strang has a book coming out God and cancel culture, and you can get that at online, but it’s coming out talking about the craziness of all this that’s happening. And, you know, we’ve seen you know, after elections people, you know, generally don’t really see much change to their daily life. I mean, in general, after elections, but here lately, we’ve seen lots of change. We’ve see the consequences of who we elect and the power they have. And maybe even more accurate to say the power that they’ve taken and it’s beyond what they are really allowed. You know, the constitution doesn’t restrict citizens, the constitution restricts government. What they can do the government’s job is to promote good and punish evil, get rid of evil, promote good. That’s the government’s job in general as promoting good and, you know, getting rid of evil, protecting its citizens. That’s a part of it and all these things. So you know what though the time is now, you know, if we don’t stand up and stop this leftist push in every sphere of society there, it’s going to destroy the nation. It won’t be unrecognized.

(08:06):

It will be unrecognizable. We won’t recognize America. We won’t have individual freedom, free speech, limited government fiscal responsibility, which is kind of already bye-bye. We won’t have critical thinking. We won’t have the rule of law, religious freedom, traditional families, all of thing of the past. And if we don’t stand up, but fortunately people are standing up. That’s the good news. People are standing up and taking action and fighting back because they’re seeing, you know, these agendas are nothing new. They’ve been here all along. And they’re finally coming to the surface where we can clearly see what they are. They’re no longer hidden. And once you see it, you can’t unsee it. It’s everywhere. This left’s agenda. And it’s just about this kind of controlling things. And, you know, it’s removing freedoms, it’s giving more government control. It’s not what America was founded on and it’s not what America needs.

(09:03):

And in fact, when you work those things out to their logical end, that’s socialism to Marxism and communism, that’s government control of the means of production, no private ownership, no. I mean, just look at the next step in everything we’re doing, pay people to stay home, you know, make it difficult for companies to hire people. You know, all of these things I’m bringing up, we could do endless episodes on, and we will be getting into a lot of details on that, on this show on this podcast. But, you know, we see the attacks coming in the culture, we see fake news. We see these social justice, activists, organizations, and even legislation and regulation, all of these things coming up, but we are seeing parents stand up against it. We are seeing you know, as these true agendas come out, even in education and they’re exposed for example they are indoctrinating our students with this leftist ideology, CRT or critical race theory, which is a part of the bigger, critical theory, which is just a racist theory that just literally is based on skin, color and segregation.

(10:09):

And it’s just a very it’s a horrible, horrible theory. It just teaches racism literally and confuses origins of, and our history. And it’s just absurd. We also have gender confusion. That’s being put into our schools and taught in these public schools and you know, all of this is it being done instead of just providing an education, strengthened their ability to learn and think critically. And this has been happening for a long time. And now it’s just becoming more, obviously agregious and that’s what’s happening. And finally, we have people standing up saying, this is unacceptable. This doesn’t make any sense. And this government overreach is becoming more and more clear by the day. And well at the forefront of that agenda is election fraud. We haven’t even talked about that yet, but this whole thing, we have this symposium for Michael and Dell, all kinds of just irrefutable evidence, this data, and it’s just irrefutable what’s happened.

(11:13):

So lots of more to come on that. So, but what about you? I mean, but what can we do about this? What can you do? I mean, what should you do? What must you do? Well, we need to use our voice. You can use your voice to take a stand. You know, the Bible says, we need to understand the times like the men have this a car and they understood the times and they knew what they should do, and that’s where we need to be. So I gave you a very high 30,000 foot overview of what’s going on. All of this stuff is traceable directly back to, you know, unbiblical, it’s unbiblical, governing unbiblical you know, these things in culture and all this stuff. And we, the church are called to stand up, to speak up. And especially those of us who are spirit filled are to be the voice of God here on earth.

(11:59):

And we stand up and we do the things and that’s all over the Bible. Look at Daniel, look at Joseph, look at all these, look at John the Baptist. Look at Paul. All these people were persecuted well because they did what was right and Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, same thing. But everyone should be interested in politics today. You know, everyone who was not paying attention, all of a sudden now should have an interest because they can now see the direct impact that political leadership has on their lives. And, you know, but we can make a difference. You can make a difference with even just a little effort. You can learn more about the what’s going on in your local area,

(12:38):

The education curriculum you can go to the school board meetings. You can go and take a stand there, say what you think you can contact your political representatives. You can get a group of people to come together. Other parents in your neighborhood. You can even pull your kids out of school and come up with another option there with homeschooling that’s, that’s just growing. We could do another episode on that too. That’s growing template or put them in private school. Other things like that. You can help real conservatives get elected and people who really will stand for what matters. And not just what’s politically convenient. You can take a stand for your real beliefs. You can talk to your fellow church members and your church leadership. If you see any of it going on, any of this leftist stuff, creeping in, talk about it, but you can do it in a respectful way.

(13:27):

You know, that we just, what we see online. And then people want to shout you down or shot people down. And that doesn’t mean our, our personal relationships have to be like that. That doesn’t mean that’s how we engage. You know, there’s a biblical way to do this. But there’s a righteous anger, and we got to stand up because the church has been silent too long. And, you know, w w we need to be challenging the thinking of others and asking why it’s this Socratic reasoning. Well, how did you come to that conclusion? Why do you think that, why do you think this? And that’s kind of exposing the shallow level of critical thinking. And now that’s not the case for everybody, but many, many it is, and we can go a little deeper and challenge challenged them to do that. So that’s just a few things that we can do to make a difference that you can do to take, take a stand and, and help play a part in getting our culture and our government back on track. So lots more to come, lots more to talk about, but that’s just a nice primer to get us started. We need to take action before it’s too late to stand up against leftism. So what is it that you will do?

(14:35): Outro

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Stand Up Against Leftism Before it’s Too Late

If the last year-and-a-half has taught us anything, it has taught us that it matters who we elect as leaders. It seems that politics and government have taken centerstage in every sphere of society.

Free speech is under attack and Leftist policies are advancing every where we look. Many are finally waking up to the reality of what has been happening behind closed doors.

We have seen the importance of having strong leadership and we have seen the devastating effects of poor leadership. We have seen the value of leaders with good and righteous motives and the destruction caused by leaders with self-centered, corrupt and greedy motives.

Big Tech has been given far too much power and control. It has allowed cancel culture to thrive, including censorship of the President of the United States of America.

The way Donald Trump has been treated should shock everyone, including those who oppose him. It goes without saying that those against standing Trump would never accept the same tech silencing and slandering treatment of someone they supported.

We have seen rabid hypocrisy that has been put on display from politicians like California Governor, Gavin Newson, California Congresswoman, Nanci Pelosi, and Texas House Democrats.

We have seen the politicization of ‘science’ with policies and guidance that are ever-changing, even contradicting and have a massive lack of evidence-based justification. Leaders like Dr. Fauci consistently changing their guidance with no explanation for clear conflicts with former guidance.

Sadly, the rampant Leftism in our culture today is even making its way into the Christian church.

Following typical elections, most people rarely notice a change to their daily lives. But everyone can now seen the consequences of who we elect and the power they have. Or perhaps more accurately, the power they have taken.

The time is now

If we don’t stand up and stop the Leftist push against every sphere of our society, we will be left with a destroyed nation that is unrecognizable. An America where individual freedom, free speech, limited government, fiscal responsibility, critical thinking, the rule of law, religious freedom and traditional families will be a thing of the past.

These are all explicit targets of the Left. The attacks are coming in the culture, in fake news, in social justice activist organizations, and even in legislation and regulation.

What’s next?

The good news is that many are standing up. They are taking action and fighting back. They are taking a stand for what is right and true.

The true agendas like those in education are being exposed. It has become clear that schools have prioritized indoctrinating students with leftest ideology, like CRT or gender confusion, rather than simply providing an education and strengthening their ability to learn and think critically.

Government overreach is becoming more and more clear by the day. And at the forefront of the agendas coming to light is election fraud.

What about you?

But what can you do? What should you do? What must you do?

We must use our voice. We must take a stand. We must understand the times we are in. We must get involved.

Everyone should be interested in politics today. Everyone who was not paying attention suddenly should have an interest because they can now see the direct impact that political leadership has on their lives.

A difference can be made with even a little effort. Learning more about local education curriculum. Going to a local school board meeting and taking a stand. Contacting your political representatives. Helping REAL conservatives get elected. Standing up for your real beliefs. Talking to fellow church members and leadership. Asking question that challenge the thinking of others. And searching for the truth beyond the headlines.

These are just a few of the ways that we can make a difference. We need to stand up and take action. The time to act is now.

What part will you play in helping get our culture and government back on track?

The Journey is the Destination

Episode #116

This episode discusses how we must learn to focus on the journey, not only the destination. It can be easy to get too focused on where we are going and where we have been. The problem is we loose sight of what we are doing right now. In this episode, you’ll hear some of the keys that are essential to shifting your mindset to seeing your journey as the destination.

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

DISCLAIMER: The below transcript was automatically generated and has not been reviewed to ensure complete accuracy. Any references or quotes should be taken directly from the audio recording and not the below transcript.

(00:00): Introduction

On this episode, I’m talking about how we got to learn to change our focus from only thinking about the destination and where we’re going to thinking about the journey and enjoying the process. So let’s get into it right now.

(00:12): Podcast Preview

Hey, this is Ryan S. Howard, thanks for tuning into my podcast. I call it your faith at work, because we want to get your faith out of the church and into the world. We want our faith to be active, and I’m here to help you get unstuck and fulfill all the God-given potential that you were created with. I’m going to help you find your God-given assignment so that you can advance the kingdom every single day. We’re going to do that and work in the culture and in life, visit Ryan S howard.com to learn more.

Episode

(00:41):

The journey is the destination that sounds maybe silly at first, but if you think about it, it’s quite profound. And I want to talk today about how we can get our mindset to be that way to where we’re not always just thinking about that next thing, but we’re actually enjoying what we’re, what we’re doing. And for many of us, including myself, we can kind of just get sidetracked. You know, I remember when I was a little kid I, my philosophy was you always gotta have something to look forward to. You know, we’re going to go on this trip, we’re going to go do this thing. We’re going to do that thing. And I remember just, oh, I would be excited whenever I’m thinking about that. And there’s some truth to that. You know, you can look forward to things, but that can’t be where we’re staking our hope and excitement that can’t be the source and maybe it’s relishing in something in the past or the way things used to be, or the way you used to be.

(01:37):

Well, these are things that aren’t helpful, either that now they can be helpful. They have their place, of course, but as far as where we’re staking our drive for life, our hope, our excitement, what we’re enjoying, what we want to be doing, that sort of thing. That’s not where we want it to want it to be. And a couple of things that we should really think about when we think about having the journey, be the destination, the first one is you will never arrive. I mean, your work will never be complete. Your you know, what you’re doing and accomplishing. I mean, it’s never going to be done, especially if you are someone who likes to grow and likes to learn and likes to get information and likes to have knowledge and understanding, it’s never going to be complete. And we will literally spend eternity doing that, getting to know Christ more and, and experiencing him and encountering him.

(02:31):

So one thing that you will always be on the path and so what’s enough. What will be enough? I mean, if you really think about it, when will you finally say, okay, that’s enough, I’m satisfied. I I’m enjoying that, you know, it’s like an event. And so it comes and goes. And so what we need to do is focus on enjoying the journey, the journey, what we’re doing, the process of, of living and the different things that we’re. And if we’re not enjoying it, it’s time to, to take a look at some of that. And you know, one of the keys to enjoying this is the second thing I want to talk about is, is being present. I mean, if you are living your life, always thinking that you should be somewhere else, or you should be doing something else, or, you know, you’re here playing with the kids or doing something at work, but your mind is on something else that you should be doing or that you’re forgetting about.

(03:24):

Or you just remembered, you know, not being present with what you’re doing can, can really Rob you of the joy and everything that, that you want to have and do. And so that’s one of the things that we really need to manage is what, what do we need to do to be present? And for me, it was, you know, I need to have a system in place and I just recently hired some more coaching to help me get a, a system in place in a framework so that I have that kind of consistency in my life and in my work and in this business and, and ministry, and every in my family leaders leader, leading my family and everything that I’m trying to do, you gotta have that in place. And that’s a topic for another episode, but what do you need to do to be present?

(04:11):

Maybe it’s just brain dump at the end of every day, get everything out, you know, what went well, what, what needs to go better? Take five minutes to start or 15 or whatever, and just, or all the things you have to do have a top of mind list. And then if anything is important right now, you do that. And just making sure you’re not you’re capturing those key things. So you want to be present. That’s the second thing. And you know, when we think about what is the destination, you know, Romans 8 29 says that, you know, we are being conformed into the image of Christ. We were predestined for that. That’s what

(04:43):

God is doing. If you know, Jesus Christ, you’re born again, that’s what’s happening. And that’s God’s will for you. That’s what God wants us to do. And that’s the destination. That’s where we’re going, okay, to be like Christ. But there is a process. There is a journey and we need to learn to enjoy that and to embrace that because so many things that the way God set this up, the way God created us is to be oriented toward a process towards development, towards growth, towards becoming more like him. These are all processes, you know, and there are stages along the way and milestones, and we need to celebrate those things, but we really need to enjoy the process. You know, Romans 8, 28, God uses all things for the good of those who love him. You know, he is developing you in what’s going on in your life right now. And if we’re sitting around always thinking, well, this needs to change.

(05:37):

And then I’ll be happier that needs person needs to this, or this situation needs to that. You know, whatever it is, is that really, I mean, because even if that thing did change, there’ll be something right behind it, because it’s a way of thinking. It’s a mindset, it’s a mentality. And I’m kind of preaching to myself here because these are some Epiphanes where, you know, there’s a difference between knowing something in your mind and knowing it in your heart and then taking action. You know, we kind of make a light decision and not really do anything with what we’ve learned or know, well, then nothing’s going to change. Nothing’s going to change. And another thing I did was I’m trying to get, if I’m trying to get a morning routine going and I carve out the time, but I’m not really intentional. I’m just kinda going through the motions.

(06:20):

I could spend four hours and not be in a good state, not being a good place and not have any, almost having almost no benefit from that morning routine. But if I’m intentional and I get there and I say, I’m going to get in a good state. I’m going to do these things. And even if I got 20 minutes, I can, I can get there. I can get ready for the day, you know, and just, just be intentional about it. And then I can enjoy the journey and I can enjoy what’s going on and make the changes that I see. And the thing is though, is, you know, you enjoy a roller coaster ride or maybe you do, but for some of us that, do you enjoy that? That’s part of like enjoying the journey, you know, you, as you go up and down and around and loops and all that, you’re really enjoying that.

(07:03):

You know, you’re not looking forward to the, and maybe you are, but you get to get off of it. The point is the journey is what we need to enjoy and it’s not. But what about the journey? What about it? I mean, is it the journey of people admiring you? Is it the journey of you know, getting all these accolades and accomplishments and achievements, or is it that you’re doing this journey with Christ? You know, if you really think about a relationship with your spouse or friends, you wouldn’t say that you’re in, you enjoy that relationship because you know, we’re going to achieve this thing a year from now, and I’m not really gonna enjoy this until we achieve that thing. And then I’ll be able to relax and breathe and, and, and enjoy the fact that we have this relationship. That’s absurd.

(07:51):

There, there’s no way that would be, that would fly. And it just sounds ridiculous to all of us. And it’s the same thing with Christ. It’s not, I mean, we need to enjoy the relationship, spending time with him doing the things, becoming like him, things that come up going to the word, seeing what he says about it and going deeper with him. Because when we do that, that puts us in a place where he can actually download the peace and the joy and give that to us. What can only come from him, this real peace, real joy that goes deep. And what I’ve learned is, you know, I have so much that I pile on top of it. My mind’s always busy. I’ve got all these things I’m trying to do. I got 50 steaks and in the fire at the same time and need to calm it down.

(08:34):

I need to get these things in order and be able to slow it down and enjoy that with the Lord. And now once I get that foundation in place, I’m enjoying that relationship with him and the journey. Then I can, I can add those 50 or a hundred state sticks in the fire where I can manage all of it, because God is giving me the capacity to it. And that comes out of my relationship with him. So what can you do? What change this comes to, what are you going to do about this? This is good information. But what are you going to do with it? What change are you going to make? What mindset shift do you need to have so that you can enjoy the journey so that you can not be only thinking about where you’re going or where you’ve been, but that you can actually just enjoy life, enjoy the journey with Christ.

(09:22):

I’m sure you’re well versed in setting goals, but maybe the action for you is to set a goal, not about a destination or something you want to achieve or accomplish, but a goal about the journey. What, what can you do to make sure that is a destination for you? That is an important goal for you, that you are in the moment and enjoying what you’re doing. So let me know what you’re going to do. And if you want help with that, I’ve got a free devotional 21 days, that’ll take you true kind of garden, getting some of these habits so that you can get to that place where you enjoy that journey of your life. And so you can get that by just texting faith at work 2, 3, 3, 7, 7, 7. I’m going to send you that right away. It’ll ask you for your email. It’ll send you a free download and you’ll have that. And you’ll be on your way. So make sure you do that. A text 3, 3, 7, 7, 7, just put the words, faith at work, and I’ll get that right over to you. So, all right. Well, I hope that was a blessing for you. Enjoy the journey, be present and really enjoy that time that you have here on earth with Christ. All right, God bless. And we’ll see, in the next episode,

(10:30): OUTRO

If you enjoyed this podcast, be sure to subscribe and you can help spread the word by giving us a five star review and sharing it with your friends. Visit Ryan S howard.com to learn more about how you can advance God’s kingdom every day.