Couple Things with Shawn and Andrew - 267 | are we lucky?

Episode Date: July 2, 2025

In today's episode we got to sit down, walk down memory lane and reminisce about how crazy the timeline of our lives has been. It’s wild to think if one thing was slightly off,  our whole lives could look entirely different. We truly wouldn’t change a thing :) Let us know what topics you want us to cover in the comments below, we’re gearing up to film some highly requested episodes! 🙂 The books we are reading, including "fluke" mentioned at the end of this episode ▶ https://www.amazon.com/shop/shawnjohnsoneast/list/LJALQY5VSMTD?ref_=aipsflist Love you guys! Shawn and Andrew Get 15% off your order of Chomps meat sticks at Chomps.com with code SHAWN https://www.chomps.com/SHAWN Beam Kids is now available online at https://www.shopbeam.com/COUPLETHINGS Take advantage of our exclusive discount of up to 40% off using code COUPLETHINGS Follow our podcast Instagram  ▶ https://www.instagram.com/shawnandandrewpods/ Subscribe to our newsletter  ▶ https://www.familymade.com/newsletter Follow My Instagram ▶ https://www.instagram.com/ShawnJohnson Follow My Tik Tok ▶ https://www.tiktok.com/@shawnjohnson Shop My LTK Page ▶ https://www.shopltk.com/explore/shawnjohnson  Like the Facebook page! ▶ https://www.facebook.com/ShawnJohnson Follow Andrew’s Instagram ▶ https://www.instagram.com/AndrewDEast Andrew’s Tik Tok ▶ https://www.tiktok.com/@andrewdeast?lang=en (00:00) how we work over here   (01:33) why i feel fortunate in life…   (06:35) today’s featured comment   (06:58) shawn’s all in… let’s get started   (14:14) we’ve lived through the greatest tech boom of the century   (15:55) medicine has never been better   (16:30) poverty is rapidly declining   (17:03) we have incredible education and personal freedoms   (18:37) but we’ve also lived through some dark times…   (19:34) our timing was “lucky” when we met   (28:28) not agreeing on what “luck” is   (29:47) being in nashville — is that luck?   (31:40) applying luck to the outcome vs. the process   (34:43) shawn working with her coach — was that luck?   (36:44) andrew’s personal timeline didn’t happen — was that luck?   (38:58) marrying young — was that luck?   (39:45) starting social media when we did — was that luck?   (40:52) i feel fortunate for when our kids were born   (41:06) i feel fortunate for where i was when my house burned down   (41:55) i feel fortunate for when you went to the olympics   (42:20) my football career ended — that feels fortunate   (42:50) i’m grateful for my team   (44:06) i’m grateful for my vandy experience and the timing of our wedding   (44:30) i feel fortunate that our growth came slowly… and that things didn’t happen how we thought they would   (45:17) “flukes” and letting things unfold Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's up, everybody? Welcome back to a couple things. With Sean and Andrew. Today's topic is, our timing was the luckiest. I'm very excited about this. This is another one of those that you had everything to do with it, and I had nothing. And I, let's see where it goes. So let me tell you how we work over here.

Yeah. We have a wonderful team who is very patient with us, and pretty much what we'll do is we'll have brainstorming sessions for short form video, for YouTube videos, for podcast, and we'll throw some ideas at the wall, and then it'll sit there as a list. and we'll kind of just sort through which ones come most naturally and are easiest to produce, as they say. So then once we have those ideas,

producing them looks like making a little outline, talking through like the intro, what's the flow of the show going to be, how can we make it a compelling storyline, give it a story arc, make sure that it makes sense, the flow of the whole thing. And this one has been on our ideal list

for two years, I think. This is an idea you had. Why do you feel so compelled to talk about I'm good luck because I think it goes against everything you believe this is why I'm excited this is why I'm excited to unpack all of that okay but essentially what I have because this is a daunting subject to just think about man I do feel like we've had the luckiest timing ever so what are specific examples of that and why do I feel that way and then how do I make this logical so no promises but we have put some effort into scripting why I feel fortunate in life.

And let me tell you now why I think that's an important podcast episode. Okay. Because we talk about faith and we talk about gratitude. We talk about having curiosity, kind of staying in the game, immersing yourself, engaging in life. And I think part of that is like this general excitement and I, optimism in how you wake up every day. And when an event happens, when a reality happens, there's a lot of different ways that you can digest that or perceive that.

And so my whole premise with this episode and with what I want to achieve in our marriage and with our kids is to just say, hey, let's choose the most optimistic, most hopeful iteration of perceiving this reality because God is faithful and that's what I believe and this goes actually back to when we interviewed Ben and Corley and she said I don't know what next year is going to look like but it's going to be the best year yet the way that struck me is like

dude that's just having faith and it doesn't matter what happens it's just this underlying choice that you make to say it's going to be good But this brings me to my question, Andrew, of the title for this episode, which you chose. Yeah. Our timing was the luckiest.

Do you believe in luck? No. Luck is not the word I feel. Why? I would say if I was going to put the most accurate title to this, I think it's God has been so faithful to us. But some people don't feel that way. And they just call it luck. So I think as we digest and go through some of these,

hopefully people will be able to self-reflect and say, dang, yeah, no, I thought that was a hard thing at the time. But then five years later, I realized that that was a good thing. Because that's what a lot of these are that I've put on here. I hope this all makes sense. But this is a revelation that marriage has given me to where we talk about the beneficial adversary concept and I used to get so caught up on being frustrated that Sean wasn't she wasn't seeing things the way I was seeing them and I was like why don't you you're not being realistic or

you're not you're not seeing this right and then I realized no there's actually just multiple ways to see things which then increased my appreciation for faith and just a high level thing of why I think faith creates luck or at least a feeling of luck which I think whatever like you don't have to use these exact words but you see what I'm saying that I think faith anchors you to something that's permanent unashakable it's this idea that this is not the end of the story and that this may be hard but I believe that there's purpose in the pain and there's purpose through this I think that having this type of faith give suffering meaning we did the whole episode on grief and how man there's really actually beautiful aspects to

to grief and the idea that you lose people you know it's like it makes you appreciate the time that you have with the people that are around you right now um and look the bible says that it doesn't it doesn't minimize the reality of grief or hardship but it reframes it like in romans five it says we rejoice in our sufferings knowing that suffering produces endurance endurance endurance produces character and character produces hope i think that that outcome of suffering producing hope is a choice. So do you view it like that? I think faith grounds optimism and reality.

It's not like this delusional, hey, I'm being ignorant to what's actually going on. It's actually just I'm choosing to see things a certain way. In our marriage, I choose to see you as the generous, wonderful, disciplined person that you are. And I don't choose to see you as, you know, the moments that we're at our weakest. Are you scrolling through this, nervous? I'm trying to track, yeah. Okay, okay. I'm curious.

This episode, I hope, will counter cynicism with optimism. Okay? And in some ways, that's like a courageous choice. But what are you curious about? No, I'm just curious how you've kind of flipped it immediately. We're going to go through some specific cases, and I'm excited to also go through high-level reasons why I think we're lucky, or reasons that God has been faithful, okay? Yeah. But first, we have a featured comment.

Go to scroll the top. You got this. Featured comment is from Truth, Truth, 52, 63. Thanks, guys. I love this show. You've helped me so much find my way to helping my. marriage of 24 years. Thank you so much. Well, I love comments like that. Truth, truth. Okay. You ready for this? Yeah. I'm all in here, baby. Okay. Okay. Here is why I think

that we, and by we, I mean Sean and I, and also you listening, are the luckiest, okay? We're going to go through these, and a lot of these may apply to you. So let's start with the What year were you born? 92. I was born in 1991. One thing that I think is cool and lucky or fortunate, we got to see the turn of a century. Think about that. Yeah.

We were born in the 1900s. And now it's the 2000s. That's kind of cool. So lucky. That's cool. So fortunate. I was looking at the Ancestry.com family tree goes back to 1600s. Those people didn't see the turn of a century.

Those poor guys lived to the 1600s and then 1700s. They never got to see a two at the end of the year. They get to see a turn of a century. Is that right now? You just said century. Decade. No. What's the one in between?

What's 100 years? Yeah. Isn't it a decade? No, that's 10 years. Wow. Millennium? No, that's 1,000. So it's century.

I guess so. Turn of a century and a millennial. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Millennium. So. Not millennial.

That's us. We're a millennial. We're millennialsals, but millennian. Millennium. Millennium. Are we struggling like this? It is mourning and we're rolling into this. But here's some things that come with being born in this era.

Yeah. It is the peak of global peace. Some would argue not. Are there wars going on? Yes. Are there tragedies going on? Yes. Is it the fewest tragedies that have ever been going on?

I don't know. What are we defining as tragedy? Are less people getting murdered and worse? This is the whole point of the episode, is what? There is no data on here proving that we are within. Sean, World War I, World War II, Vietnam. That doesn't encompass the entire historical timeline. there are the fewest wars going on today than there's ever been but that doesn't mean there's

the fewest like tragedies happening okay you're right there are what do you mean like psychological tragedies like the the depression rate that is yeah that's a tragedy I guess but I'm saying murder or war okay I need to see the data here I don't believe it well you don't believe what I don't believe that right now we are living in the most peaceful era in history we are living in the most peaceful era in history

what are you defining this by what are you show me your proof okay fine let's do it you want me to dig in here we go I want you to dig in here we go

least violent time in history is post 1990 era okay here we go but this is my point with statistics is that you could say you can make them paint whatever picture you want them to you can and so my point with the episode is choose the optimistic one okay this is a complex and debated point all right there are declining violent death rates okay particularly since the end of world war two

there's a shifting focus on violence and despite overall declines to your point there are still active conflicts and humanitarian crisis yes but that might be just a natural part of humanity okay

there's a guy Stephen Pinker who would say it's not the most peaceful time but here we go violent death per 100,000 people despite high rates of violent death in comparison with population size non-state groups

are an average no more less violent than those living in organized societies here we go here we go here we go I'm trying to get the data here. You know when you're on the go your hunger goes from one to ten. and you want something satisfying, not sugary, not messy,

and definitely not something that's going to leave you crashing an hour later. Yes. That's exactly why I keep chomps meat sticks with me pretty much every single place I go. When we found out we could work with chomps, we were pumped because we genuinely eat chomps all the time and keep them stocked at our office, our home, and our pantry. Everyone loves them. Our kids, our team, and us too. Each meat stick is packed with 10 or more grams of high quality protein and zero sugar.

again, zero sugar, which honestly feels like a miracle when something tastes this good. They're made with herbs and spices you can literally see in every bite. My personal favorite right now is the jalapeno beef. It's delicious. It's got the perfect kick and the flavor is honestly really good. We turned our whole family onto eating chomps. And what we love the most is that choms doesn't cut any corners. They use 100% grass-fed and finished beef and venison and antibiotic-free turkey.

You can really taste a difference. It's that high quality. They're also shelf stable, which means no fridge, no melting, no stickiness. Just toss one in your bag and go. It's amazing. Get 15% off plus free shipping on your next order of Chomsmeat sticks at chomps.com with code Sean. Again, that's code Sean for 15% off plus free shipping at chomps.com. There is less violent crime per capita.

There's less wars, less deaths by violent means per capita. The data says that since 1800, more than 37 million people worldwide have died while actively fighting. in wars, okay? Fewer people died in recent conflicts in recent decades than in most of the 20th century. And just the idea of conventional wars where you throw dead bodies at dead bodies, that kind of error is over. Now we still have wars, but it's all in drones and boats and bombs, right? World War I had 7 million people die.

World War II, 21 million people died. and three quarters of all war deaths since 1800 happened in those two wars right here's a little chart that shows you

World War I, World War II and then all these little dots are the deaths since then okay and you see all the dots before then since the 1800s so lucky yes

then we don't have to live through like this savage wartime that's lucky I think that's important Number two We've lived through I think with Percipitous timing

The greatest technological leap In history Agreed And we didn't We did not grow up with phones So we have We didn't grow up with We

We didn't really grow up with internet No we had dial up You remember that? But we dial up was even Like when we were what 10 years old? Yeah, maybe, like 12 or 13. Yeah.

But we've benefited from all the technology. Like we were kids. We had healthy childhoods that weren't destroyed by technology. We still used paper maps in our cars. Yeah, yeah. We still learned handwriting in school. But now we're at the age that our kids are young enough to also not be in that first wave of technology.

So we didn't have to deal with that technology and the unknowns with it. but we've benefited from it. And now our kids don't have to catch the negative ramifications of that either. Meaning, if you had kids 10 years ago, like when social media was just coming out and smartphones, no one knew the negative side effects of that. So the fact that Drew is now five,

we have not yet had to deal with that issue, yet there's all this data coming out that will help us navigate that in a way better, healthier way for her. You know what I'm saying? I think that's fortunate. it is fortunate while all the while still benefiting from the technology which is just I just think the timing of that is insane it's amazing again this is high level we're going to dial in to Sean and I's specific story later medicine has never been better okay

childhood mortality is at historic low in 1800 44% of children died before the age of five today that's under 4% globally and less than half a percent in development and countries. Amazing. Hygiene, surgeries, wearables, antibiotics,

all the stuff. That's fortunate. It is. The life span. 44% of children used to die before the age of five. I think that's insane.

Number four, global poverty is declining rapidly. In 1990, right before we were born, a year before I was born nearly 37% of the world lived in extreme poverty

today that's less than 9% amazing okay are you in on this yeah there's still work to be done yes but it used to be more than one third of the global population was now it's less than 1 and 10

let's still do work right we have insane education online you have access to the Best teachers, again, benefiting from the technology, which I think then trickles over into the poverty issues and into the other things that we'll talk about.

Previously, knowledge was gate kept, right? Now it's open to everybody. It's democratized. Personal freedoms, we're in the golden age of. There's more religious, racial, and gender equality. Now than ever before, I'm not saying it's perfect. There's still work to be done. um you can travel freely speak freely and start your own business in ways you couldn't our parents

we can too like american americans yeah there are a lot of people who cannot speak freely yeah are you saying as americans as americans we can travel speak freely and yes but also as a percentage of the global population it's less oppressive in that sense less and we're also young enough to see what comes next everyone's talking about AI disruption we're going to have lived through all that

again without I don't know like we're at this pivot point which I think is cool okay it is really cool we're this bridge generation I think so yeah that's the high level stuff do you have anything to add there

I think On the opposite side of that, we have also lived through 9-11. Okay. Housing crisis. The 2008 economic crash. Yeah. Global pandemic. Yeah.

An era of fast change. Yes. Like, there has been a lot we've also lived through. Yes. Are we moping around with those? Or are we moving forward in optimism? or faith okay this is kind of my point there are there have been tough things that have happened yes but we're also living in the best time ever and that's that's going to continue to

be the case so there's always going to be good things happening and always going to be tough things happening which one are you going to focus on you want to talk about some specific stories Sure. Okay. So I think about our timing was lucky of when we met and how old we were. It wasn't lucky. Okay, what word do you want to use? Same thing.

Faith. There's such a contradiction in all of them. I don't view it as a contradiction. I'm viewing luck as thank you God for this timing. and I'm shortening it with luck but you can adjust adjust the saying adjust the word

I think it's literally ordained say more I don't think luck had anything to do with it I think to stand on a podium and say I was lucky is not being grateful

for God's hand in everything. I see it as exactly the opposite. But again, I guess I'm defining luck as God had a hand in this. That is, it's my mental opening of like, wow. Yeah, but if you believe in luck, you believe that he didn't have a hand.

I'm saying that they're the same thing in my mind. Luck, by definition, is just a happenstance. Okay. God, having a hand in something, is truly, like, an intentional move of a higher power. And, like, it's, I feel like it's complete opposite. That's fascinating. Do you think that it was, like, God ordained that you won the Olympics? Are you divinely chosen for that?

that. I'm thinking there used to be kings who thought they were chosen by God, you know what I'm saying, which then leads to this, I am God and I am different and I am special. My use of the word luck is to say, man, God has been so good here and I'm not special at all. You know what I'm saying? Like I have a place here. I have stuff to do. I'm here for a purpose. Same. But I'm not like. I'm not like a divine character myself I'm not when all this stuff we're about to go through with our timing it's luck in the sense that

oh my gosh God is so good and thank you it's just like a gratitude I feel so lucky I feel so lucky as well but to dissect it on such detailed scale

I don't think luck had anything to do with it do I think God made me win a gold medal and like chose me paralleling that to like do you think

there are people walking around who feel as though God chose them to be king hear me out for a second I'm going to go bounce back and forth I do think there are people who walk around and think that God chose them to be king but I don't think they end up being king Okay

But I do think the ones who end up being king Good or bad To a certain extent We're meant to be there Okay I think I agree with you But how do they feel? So if I think I was made to be king And I'm not

Then I'm just bitter and upset That's a completely different thing To argue and talk through than what you said earlier. There's a difference between feeling lucky and thinking it was luck. You were saying your argument earlier was that you think it was luck.

You didn't say, I felt lucky. You said, did I believe that it was luck that got me a gold medal? Or God that got me a gold medal? I think it was God. Because if I were to walk down the context of like everything that happened in my life, I feel lucky, for sure.

That's what I'm talking about. But I don't believe luck had anything to do with it. I agree with you. I think this is another instance where we're saying the same thing. I am positioning luck as the glasses, the glasses through which to see God's goodness. And when I look back on my life, And I'm able to say, oh, I feel grateful or I feel God's presence or I see God's presence there.

I guess I shorthand that to I feel lucky. Yes. Not like, oh, that was just a random crazy like series of events. Yeah, but it almost is. Like actually, God used that random crazy series of events for good. I know, but even walking down the laundry list of things you listed it at the beginning of, I, it was lucky that we were born in 91. It was not lucky.

That's literally how God planned it. God planned us to be born then. But we are lucky to have been born in 1991. We are lucky to have been chosen to be born in 91, but it was not luck that caused it. I agree with you. How are we differing here? I think what we're differing is you have to acknowledge you are actually speaking of a feeling

rather than like an occurrence an action. You think you feel lucky that God has had an intentional hand in your life. Let me actually edit the word feeling and say I choose. God forbidding.

you talk about a feeling well because in this instance in this instance i think feelings are everything or whatever i'm about to describe which is it which is why i'm not going to use that word it's because i could never speak about it's i think choosing to see god's goodness or choosing to feel like god has been in your life that's not really a feeling though it's more of a choice It makes all the different. It makes all the difference. It does. But there is a lack of acknowledgement

and a belittling of faith if you try to justify where you are in life because of luck. I agree with you. Then why is this whole thing about luck? Because you have. And why do you keep saying, I feel lucky? And the parallel to kings

of like going back to saying do you think I was divinely chosen to win a gold mill yeah I don't know how I got so lucky

to be that person but yeah I think when he wrote out my life and my life script that's what he chose for me you said you're using both words concurrently

I'm doing it in my mind when you I'm doing it to like be specific as to what you've been talking about. Okay. In my mind, when you are able to acknowledge that, like,

hey, I want a gold medal or I played in the NFL, not because I worked harder than everybody else, and I'm better than everybody else, and God loves me more than everybody else, then you allow room for this type of humility of like, dang, I'm just grateful.

I'm just grateful that, like, whatever work I did do, which I don't know honestly is it more or less than anybody else that had my genetics I don't know but I'm glad that I did the work what however much that was I'm glad that I was in the positions I'm glad that I kept showing up and man you know what the dice rolled in my favor and when I say that I mean God showed up that's how I'm saying that I don't think I agree with, like, how you're trying to position it. It's a humility of, like, we've had so many good things happen in our life.

One, do we choose to see them? Two, are we taking all the credit for that? You know? No. But it has nothing to do with luck. Okay. And paralleling that to a king who's a bad person who walks around me and like, oh, God told me is not a fair representation of paralleling you and I's situation either.

So I don't think there's anything wrong with saying humbly, yeah, I do think God chose me to have the exact life I've lived. And I'm lucky that God put me in these positions. I'm lucky towards God. No. I even think it's such a nuance and it's such a tiny thing, but I am not lucky. I can feel lucky. But to even say, I am lucky, belittles God's intention for you.

I think that's such a serious, like so intense way. Because, okay, let's just transition to our specific stories. One, we've been in Nashville in this really pivotal time. Right? in the growth of the city and everything. Nashville is like a really fun place to be. Do you think that's by happenstance? And how would you say that?

How would you say that? Rephrase what I just said. I think it's absolutely mind-boggling. No, no, no, hold on. Hold on a second. I think your definition of the word lucky, hear me out here's why i feel so defensive of the word luck is i don't want at any point in my life to make god smaller than who he is i'm all for that and can i can i look at my life and be in

complete awe of like why me yeah and can i look at every single thing that has happened in my life and see that because I, like my whole story is like such a coincidental crazy happenstance of like one thing happened after another after another. And if it weren't for Chow moving to Des Moines, Iowa from Beijing, China. Yeah, that was number one on our list of personal stories that maybe we'll get. I would not have met you. That's, yeah.

And to say or use the word luck in my brain, the way I operate and like I'm connecting dots to a certain extent to me if I use that word that makes my faith not strong. In my mind it makes room for faith of like

and I feel the exact opposite. Well I'm glad we're having this definition of terms to be honest I think it's a good practice to apply luck to outcome and not to the process meaning sorry

no this is semantics at this point it is semantics but applying luck to an outcome belittles hard work in belittles God's hand what I'm trying to do luck is a lack of faith

okay are they interchangeable do they overlap anywhere I think I could part of me wants to argue that like yeah you could say you feel lucky but even that I think

to a certain extent is not embracing and valuing and feeling blessed for what you have been given and what you've worked for and how God has written your life. I think it's a very close equivalent to me. But let's keep going through these. So Sean mentioned Chow moving from China

to randomly Des Moines, Iowa, and then randomly her parents. You tell that story. You tell the story, Chow. How many of you parents out there like us, have said something along the lines of like, if you just take two bites of your vegetables, I'll let you have ice cream or whatever you want.

I can't even count how many times we have tried to bribe our kids, yes, I said it, to eat their veggies. And we are not proud of it because it really never worked. Which is exactly why Andrew and I co-founded Beam Kids. Yeah, those bribery days are over with Beam Kids. We're confident our kids are getting all their daily vitamins despite how many bites of veggies they actually take. And the best part is we recently launched our newest flavor,

which is cookie flavor. It's delicious. All you do is mix one scoop of Beam Kids all in one superfood powder with milk or water and boom, you've got a craveable

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and hello to Beam Kids. Made with no sugar added or artificial junk. You should try this. Totally kid-approved drink for yourself and see why so many kids ask their parents for it every single day. Our kids definitely ask for Beam Kids every day and we always say yes.

As a loyal listener to our podcast, you can also be the first to try Beam Kids' newest cookie flavor before it's gone. Head to ShopBeam.com slash Couple Things and use code Couple Things for 40% off plus two free gifts. Check it out. Honestly, it's delicious. It is. Chow was a... world champion gymnast in Beijing, China, and he had this American dream to move to the United States and open his own gym and be a coach and raise successful athletes. He was at a competition and met the head coach of University of Iowa and was offered a full-ride scholarship to the University of Iowa

in exchange for coaching their gymnastics team. He moved to Iowa City, Iowa for many years and was the coach there, was looking for a place to open his own gym, and found West Des Moines, Iowa. He ended up planting a gym there, and it happened to be five minutes from my house. I at the time was at a different gym, and my parents switched me to Chows when it opened. because it saved gas money and was a more affordable way for me to continue doing gymnastics at a young age

that my parents could figure out. And then you just think about the incredible idea that your two chemistry, the chemistry together, led to this incredible outcome. That is like lightning striking. And by that I mean, that is like

God sending lightning. It is a, God ordained incredible thing that I'll call luck that's wild that is a wild story that one of the best random coaches

who didn't have a name moved five minutes to your house and then you randomly stumbled upon this sport or your parents did that you were built for and then you had this coach five minutes away

bro that's insane saying. I would say that in my life, I think I've felt lucky that things haven't panned out on my timeline, meaning I signed to play college football in April when it's normal to sign in January or February. I did not feel lucky at the time. I didn't feel like God was making it happened at the time but as i look back on it i see god's faithfulness and how that was so lucky that it was because of the late signing day that i ended up at vandy and even though that first semester also did not feel great or didn't feel good we stuck it out and it's because of vandy that

we're in nashville it's because of nashville that we met it's because we met that we have these wonderful kids and the whole path just is blessed with God's faithfulness. I feel lucky. Let me read this. Go ahead. It says in a philosophical and religious context, luck is often viewed as a temporary, random, and uncontrollable event, while God's blessings are seen as a lasting, purposeful, and divinely orchestrated favor. Some people believe that relying on luck can detract from trusting in God's plan and providence as luck implies a lack of control and predictability. Notice how it says some people.

But that's how I view the future. I view life as like an adventure I'm stumbling through and like, oh, this is unpredictable. Yeah, it is unpredictable. Is there a plan? Yes. Is it predictable to me? No. So is it like, do I choose to feel like this is a planned out thing?

that is unpredictable, a.k.a. luck. Or do I view to, do I choose to view it as chaos and nonsense and purposelessness? I'm just arguing with this whole premise. Friken view it as something that is blessed and fun and has purpose. Another way I feel fortunate is we got married. young, but we experienced a lot before we got married, which I feel lucky about, like now, now having been nine years into marriage, if we met and got married at 35, I don't know, dude, it would not, I don't know if we would be as good of communicators. Like, you know, we've turned into such good communicators that, no, we're like, just, we've done

so much life together and I'm fortunate we met when we did I feel fortunate do you have any I feel fortunate I feel fortunate that we started social media when we did it became we started it because we loved it not because we could make a career out of it this was 2015 and then it became something that we could do full time and make a career I feel so fortunate the thing that we did because we loved it turned into over the course of us doing it

something that we could do as a job dang what a time to be alive I feel extremely fortunate you and I talk about this all the time like how are we so fortunate

and I feel so incredibly blessed but I think the most incredible thing about reading all of this and like saying it out loud is God did all of that. 100%. Thank you, God. I'm going to keep going through it

because now I'm just ripping. I feel fortunate that our kids were born in 2019 and 2021. that is before COVID and after COVID. Yeah. We both got to be in the hospital. We both got to have our parents in the hospital. That's freaking. Thank you, God.

I feel fortunate that my house burned down in freshman year of college. And it was a time in my life where me and the four siblings I have were kind of outdoing our own thing. And that event did not feel blessed or ordained. But the side effect was we all came back. back to Indianapolis and reconnected in incredible ways. And in my mind, I was this collector. I had all my trophies and jerseys and stuff. And it got burnt to the ground.

My gosh, that was a pivotal point in my life where I wanted to store up treasures where moth and russ do not destroy. That's when I went dreadlocks and Mexican ponchos and one t-shirt in my closet. I'm still a minimalist. I'm fortunate to you, went to the 2008 Olympics and didn't make to the 2012 Olympics.

Same. Why? Because instead of competing at the 2012 Olympics, I was covering it, and I was assigned to cover a cycling event where I was introduced to Guy East, and he set me up with his younger brother. Yes. I feel fortunate that my football career ended in 2019, in August, 2016. 2019. When do we have our first kid?

2019. October 2019. I got to be around every day as much as I needed to or wanted to. If I was playing football, we'd be bouncing around every weekend. Maybe you'd be in Nashville or Des Moines, and I would see you randomly. And I got to be with our newborns. You know what also I'm grateful for? What? the way

my map has been woven together if it weren't for my very first agent I would not have gone to the cycling event in 2012 wow

so my agent back in the day Cheryl Shade repped a few athletes in the 2008 games I was by myself in the village and she was always

she gave each other us each other's names and she said if you guys see each other in the village just know you have like friends and it was Taylor Finney who became a really good friend of mine and he was competing at the cycling event in 2012 and it was Taylor

who set me up in the sense of not as like romantic but he set up me and Guy East to be like co-parts so a guy could explain cycling for me. And I would not have been there if it weren't for Taylor and I wouldn't have known Taylor

if I weren't for Cheryl. It's amazing. I'm fortunate that when I showed up at Vandy which is a historically terrible college football team the time I was there we were the winningest team in the school's history.

I feel glad that our wedding was planned randomly on April 16th and not the 17th because it was the day before OTAs. We didn't have to miss any football, didn't put me in a weird place. I feel fortunate that our growth over everything, financially, on social media and all the ways,

mostly came slowly because I don't think we would be mature enough to handle, like an onslaught, massive wave of success. I feel... I just feel fortunate. Even like long snapping when I was coming up wasn't popular. That opened the door for me to get a college scholarship to be at Vandy, open the door for the pros to happen.

I feel fortunate that we didn't have to online date. Yeah. We miss that window. I'm reading this book called Fluke. I'll close out. We'll close out. I'll read this book called Fluke. It tells a story of a couple who goes on a honeymoon to Japan.

They go to the city, Kyoto, we're going to Kyoto. They loved it so much that this guy thought it was one of the treasures of the world. Fast forward a couple of years, World War II is happening, and he is the decision maker for where they're going to drop nuclear bombs. And Kyoto was top of the list, and it's this massive city, millions of people. And he, because he went on his honeymoon, as the decision maker said we're going to not bomb Kyoto. You think about all the lives that were saved because of this random act.

That's a powerful story. It is God's faithfulness. And it is this incredible, unpredictable, luck or mind-boggling way it unfolds that does have a purpose. And I am grateful for the, the randomness that has occurred in my life that while I'm in the moment might not feel, might not feel blessed. But you fast forward a little bit. You give God's timing.

If you give God's faithfulness time to unfold, it's amazing how you can look back one year, five year, 10 years later and say, weren't we so lucky I didn't get that job? wasn't God so good that we moved to this city as hard as that was? I agree. And that's my point here. That's a freaking choice. And I don't know what you're going through, but I do know that there are some blessings that might be right under your nose,

right around the corner that you're not seeing. And you might be missing out on some luck. You might be missing out on seeing God. that's all I have I appreciate it this was a good conversation I feel like I learned about you I think I learned about you too thanks for listening excited to get your opinion on this one we did one that was what was it uh marriage is not to make you happy oh gosh people were like you guys are saying the same same thing some people loved it and some we were like 58 minutes of almost getting the point not getting there maybe it's another one but we are exploring this

live. We tried to put thought into it, so it's organized, but I hope you liked it. Thanks for listening. I just feel like we need Darren to come sit down and tell us what we're saying. Yeah, it's probably fair. We'll bring in a pastor. If you made it this far, please subscribe with the like button, leave a comment on, no, how about this? Leave a comment on where you've seen God's faithfulness show up that might not have felt like faithfulness in the moment. So we have. I'm Andrew. I'm shot. Until next time.