Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 471 | Things May Change If We Make These 3 Commitments

Episode Date: August 16, 2021

Today, we're taking a break from going over the news (because that's really stressful) to offer some encouragement to the many of us who are feeling down about the direction of our country. When in doubt, open your Bible. God offers us encouragement and security in the knowledge that He is in complete control of what's going on, and already knows how things will play out. In addition to reflecting on Scripture, there are practical things we can keep in mind each day to make sure we're mentally and spiritually healthy: Love God, love others, and live not by lies. --- Today's Sponsors: Annie's Kit Clubs: there's no better way to relax & recharge than by getting in touch with your creative side & making something beautiful. Annie's Creative Woman Club makes it easy by sending instructions & special supplies you need to make a picture-perfect project. Go to AnniesKitClubs.com/ALLIE & save 50% on your first kit today! Alliance Defending Freedom has been standing up for religious liberty, the sanctity of life, freedom of speech, marriage, & parental rights in America's highest courts. Join the growing number of Americans standing in solidarity to defend freedom and liberty and get your copy of Generational Wins, absolutely free at ADFLegal.org/ALLIE --- Past Episodes Mentioned: Ep 134: End Times https://apple.co/3jXzRB4 Ep 283: Are We In the End Times? Part 1: How We Interpret Revelation Matters | Guest: Jeff Durbin https://apple.co/2UnJkZD Ep 285: Is the End Near? End Times: Part 2 | Guests: Jeff Durbin & Joel Webbon https://apple.co/3jWpJIQ --- Buy Allie's book, You're Not Enough (& That's Okay): Escaping the Toxic Culture of Self-Love: https://alliebethstuckey.com/book Relatable merchandise: https://shop.blazemedia.com/collections/allie-stuckey

Hey, this is Steve Day. If you're listening to Allie, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political. They're moral, spiritual, and rooted in what we believe is true about God, humanity, and reality itself. On the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day and tested against first principles, faith, truth, and objective reality. We don't just chase narratives and we don't offer false comfort.

We ask the hard questions and follow the answers wherever they leave, even when it's unpopular. This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos. If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed, you can watch this D-Day show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts. I hope you'll join us. Hey guys. Welcome to Relatable. Happy Monday. Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.

I hope that you were able to rest, that you were able to unplug, that you were able to do something fun, maybe even laugh at something. Things have been super heavy recently. We're going to talk a little bit about that today. I'm not going to get into all the news that I want to talk about because I want to give you some encouragement instead. I want to uplift you a little bit, especially after Thursday's episode. I got a lot of awesome feedback from you guys, a ton of you. We're sharing it. And I do think it's such an important episode to listen to or watch.

So if you haven't done that yet, I highly recommend you do. For us to get a big picture look at everything that's going on and why over the past year and a half in particular, But now I want to take this episode to encourage you and to give you some perspective and to remind you that everything is going to be okay. We're going to talk about Afghanistan. I think tomorrow, not going to lie to you. The reason why we're not talking about it today is because I don't know enough to give you an honest analysis. I mean, I understand what happened and why this is such a massive failure. but there's so much history, so much context here, so much that I think demands and expertise

that I don't have on that subject. And we are going to have to make sure that we have an expert that does come on to break it all down for us and tell us why it matters. So we're working on getting that guest. Hopefully we will have her slash him tomorrow. But today, like I said, I want to bring things close to home. I want to remind us of what is true to give us hope to uplift us. And let me tell you why. Let me set it up for you. I know most of you know kind of where we are. I don't even have to give you any more context in this moment that we're in our country. But I'm going to anyway, I'm going to validate some of the feelings that you have and then hopefully lift us out of those feelings of, I guess they could be described as despair that

a lot of us have. It is a scary time. If you have been paying attention at all, you know, that we have likely in our nation reached some kind of breaking point. I know that might sound hyperbolic and I really wish it were. I actually hope that it is. I hope that I'm wrong. I hope that things can swing back and that we as a people learn to love liberty again. There are days when I see the possibility of that. And then there are days when I don't see any possibility of that whatsoever. I went to dinner last night with a friend, a friend who, shares my same views, but is it political? She's not consuming the news all day. She works a non-political job with non-political, but, you know, left-leaning people. And we talked about this heaviness that we

both feel, just this sense of sadness, that things are never going to be the same again, that the America that we grew up in will never go back, that the America that our children are going to grow up in, it just won't be the same as the one that we want to. new. And it was really hard to hear her talk about this, especially because I would like to chalk up my feelings, my feelings of sadness and just like hopelessness about the state of the country to me having this job, like having to consume so much news and talk about it. But if people outside of my line of work feel this way too, if you guys feel this way too, that means that it's real. Now, not everyone feels this way. Not all of your friends.

are going to feel this way, I would say especially people on the other side of the aisle, or maybe they feel this way, but for different reasons. There are people who still think of all of the government restrictions for the virus as something that is really for our good, that vaccine passports are amazing innovations and mandates are beautiful manifestations of public health policy who think the DHS openly calling those who question COVID restrictions a terror threat to the country, that that's right. on target that one day the politicians will allow us to live and travel and dying freely again. They might be sad about some other stuff that's going on.

But as far as the encroachments on our liberty that you and I see, they just don't care about it and they actually see it as good. And many of those people are still bunkered in their homes with their children whom they refuse to send to school. And they really feel that everything would go back to normal if those darned right-wingers would just stop politicizing this and do what they do. I mean, they really think that somehow the people inhibiting their happiness or the people advocating for liberty and not the politicians who have destroyed freedoms and businesses and livelihoods and people's will to live for the past year while flouting all of the rules themselves. I mean, this group of people, I would say maybe half the country, maybe maybe a little less.

They are unable, it seems, to understand how it is possible for someone like me to say, yes, the virus is real. Yes, it can be very serious and deadly. And I don't think we should pretend otherwise. I don't lack any compassion for the healthcare workers who have been dealing with this. I don't lack any sympathy for the people who have lost loved ones from this at all. I know some people who have lost loved ones from this. But I also have to say many of the things that we are being told by our powers that be don't make sense. They don't align with scientific data from around the world.

And also, there are a thousand other things that can. threaten and kill you as an individual and destroy society as a whole and we are doing a cruel disservice to ourselves and our neighbor by failing to realize that. So they want you to believe that that stance, the people on the other side of this issue, they want you to believe that that stance is extreme or that it's dangerous. And it's just not. Like I'm here to tell you to validate for you that it's not. That is normal. It is thoughtful. It is well-rounded. It is kind. It is loving it is compassionate to think about the other risks and the other consequences intended or not that we face, especially when it comes to public policy that is encouraging people to stay

masked and indoors. It is not wise, I will say, to believe in grand conspiracy theories that can't be fact-checked, but it is wise absolutely to question state-sponsored messages and measures done in the name of safety, always. It is wise to consider those intended and unintended consequences of public policy implemented in the name of safety. It is wise to support transparency and truth and freedom. And those of you who understand that, as I do, may be feeling really scared about what's to come, painfully nostalgic for pre-2020 America, pre-2015 America, when it seems like things just started to kind of go downhill as far as our national cohesiveness goes. The cultural, the moral, the sexual revolutions have just been going

at breakneck speed for the past five years. And now we are facing truly unprecedented threats from foreign adversaries that are more powerful than ever before, much thanks to our terrible foreign policy decisions over the past couple decades, but especially over the past few months. And let me just say, as an aside, one thing that really bothers me right now, maybe it shouldn't. I'm willing to admit that maybe it shouldn't bother me, but it does bother me, is that you see so many people. And typically, I would say it's like in the female, like Christian online community who spent every day after the George Floyd incident last summer in the months leading up to the election talking about politics, something they don't usually

talk about, but they were talking about politics all the time. And they usually weren't using specific terms, but just like referencing justice and equity and equality and decency and voting, very vaguely yet very, very, very passionately and relentlessly, all of the sudden they became activist after being supposedly apolitical for a very long time. And yet now, over the past few months since the election and since the inauguration, like they're not talking about any of those issues anymore, at least not as loudly, at least not in relation to our elected officials. So you hear a peep out of them when there's a story that elicits, you know, some kind of media contrived hysteria, something about an interaction with the police or maybe Palestine or when there's

a chance to talk about racism. They, you know, speak up a little bit about this. But they're not talking with as much vigor as they were just a year ago about the problems this country faces. And guess what? Kids are still in cages. Like violent crime is skyrocketed. The economy is in serious trouble. We have an absentee president. All these things really matter. Like politics still matter. They didn't stop mattering when you stopped caring about them or when it stopped being cool to post about them. And so it's mostly radio silence from these same people who decided they were activists a year ago who were crying out Micah 6-8 when it was trendy and now really have nothing to say. Now it's, oh man, I'm just so tired of politics.

I'm so tired of the news. Let's just unplug and be happy. But those same people who say that they don't care what's going on in the news and in culture now, I can guarantee you just wait a year from now right before the midterm. when there's another big crisis that Democrats use to jit up outrage against Republicans and gives people the opportunity to virtue signal on social media, they will be experts and activists again. They won't pay attention until there are social media points to score and they'll lecture the rest of us about how we don't care enough about the issues at hand. Let's not be those people.

I include myself in that. Like, let's not be those people. We can't just bury our heads in the sand until the next black square trend comes along. There are policies being implemented now that affects you and your neighbor. There are things happening now that demands your attention and comprehension and preparedness. They're not trending. They don't come associated with any virtue signaling points. They're not going to win you any friends or any accolades if you care and talk about them. But they matter. As we always say on this podcast, politics matter because policies matter because people matter even when it is not an election year. But at the same time, and I totally understand this, So I agree with the people who say, you know, we just need to take a step back and not be obsessed

with this. We can't allow ourselves to be totally inundated by the news. We can't be consumed with headlines, with social media commentary. We can't be sucked into every new narrative. I mean, that really robs our joy. And you know why? I talked about this on Instagram the other day, because it places a burden on us that we were never meant to carry. I posted Psalm 6.5.000. I think it was on Friday that says power belongs to God. Let me read you all of verse 11 and 12. Once God has spoken, twice have I heard this, that power belongs to God and that to you, O Lord, belongs steadfast love, for you will render a man according to his work. Reading the news makes us feel like power belongs and must belong to us,

because it makes us feel omniscient, omnipresent, knowing everything, being everywhere at once. We see images of pain and suffering halfway around the world, and we're expected to think something about it, to say something about it, to do something about it, to passionately care about it. So we're made to feel that we're omnipotent, too. Like, it didn't used to be that way either. The most that you could do was read about something happening elsewhere in the newspaper, but there was no expectation for everyone to have a stance on it and a responsibility for it. There are lots of things that I love about technology and social media.

I think a lot of people spend a lot of time railing on those things. And there are reasons too. There are also reasons to love it. But one thing that I will criticize it for is that unhealthy aspect of making us feel like we have to be everywhere, know everything, and do everything about everything. I personally fight that burden that makes me feel like I need to talk to you guys about everything, that I have to care about everything, try to understand and then explain everything, give you guys action items for how to address everything.

And it's super overwhelming. And it can be really demoralizing. Like, I felt very demoralized just to be honest over the past, like, week or so because there's so much I want to talk about and want you to do. to care about and want me to care about and want to do something about. But I have to make myself refocus and I have to remember a few things that I'm going to remind you of to. Power doesn't belong to me. It belongs to God as Psalm 6211 says, I cannot control anything, much less what's happening hundreds or thousands of miles away from me. I am not responsible for becoming an expert on everything.

I am not called to say something or do something about everything. I do not have the capacity to care about everything. And neither do you. Someone asked me what I think about the hashtag free Britney thing. Someone asked me this on Instagram. And I know everyone has an opinion on that, like right, left, and center. And we're all supposed to care about it. And that's great if you do care about it.

I'm not slamming that. I mean, maybe that's important for different reasons for you. maybe you love Britney Spears. I mean, I wish the best for Britney, her family, all the good stuff. But the truth is, I am at total capacity for things to care about. Total capacity. I'm at the brim. And that free Britney just doesn't make the list. And I don't know if it ever will make the list. Maybe at some point something will get knocked off the list and free Brittany will get on my list of things to care about. But I just don't right now. We have to recognize both our calling and our compliance. capacity. So we have to recognize our loves and our limits, our priorities, and our parameters.

So in other words, we have to decide what are the few things that we really care about? What are the things that we feel passionate to become experts in, to stand up for, to work for, to talk about, to do, and focus on that or those things, multiple, without becoming ceaselessly distracted by everything else? Now, that doesn't mean that we shouldn't try to know about things that are going on in the news and around the world. Obviously, I think that's important. But we can't give our heart to all of them. We simply do not have the power to bear that burden.

We are not God. And it's also about removing our ego and humbling ourselves. Like, we have to humble ourselves knowing that God has called us to certain things and God has called others to other things. And he doesn't need any of us to do any of the things that he wants. to do. So what do you know for sure that you are called to do? And maybe you don't know yet. Maybe that's something that you need to pray about, that you need to ask wisdom for. God promises you wisdom. You know for sure, though, one thing you know for sure that you don't even have to wonder about, Matthew 22, 37 through 39, that you are to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind,

soul, and strength. And from that love, you are then to love your neighbor as yourself. Now, as we talk about in my book, that loving your neighbor as yourself doesn't mean, and much more eloquently, C.S. Lewis talks about it in mere Christianity doesn't necessarily mean liking your neighbor. It doesn't mean an affection. Some people think that, okay, if Jesus tells me to love my neighbor as myself, that means that I have to like myself and be confident in myself before I can go out and love other people. That's not the kind of love that he's talking about. He is not saying that affection for yourself, as a prerequisite for going out and loving other people. I mean, think about how much time we would waste trying to, you know, like how we look in our reflection before we went out to go and serve those who need our help. The kind of love he's talking about is the love that we're born with, this love that results in a kind of instinctive self-preservation and care for ourselves and drive to meet our own needs, like with the same natural drive that we have to be. meet our own needs. We are to be driven to meet the needs of other people. That's the kind of love

that he's talking about. So that we know, that we have to love God and that we have to love people. And I add another one to that. So there are three things that I try to commit myself to, very imperfectly, of course, because I'm a fallible person like everyone else. But I try to apply these things and commit to these things. And I encourage you to as well. The number one thing, of course is love God. Number two, love others. And number three, as we've talked about many times, the title of Rod Dreher's book, Live Not by Lies. So love God, love people, live not by lies. So what that means is, number one, I will seek God as my source of wisdom, as my source of truth, direction, strength, morality. I will, by his grace, obey him fully and completely. Number two, I will

look at the people that God has placed in my life and I will pay attention to them and their needs. I will seek to encourage them, to edify them, to serve them where I see an opportunity. And this takes a lot of grace-driven effort. The natural propensity for all of us every day is selfishness. It takes the Holy Spirit to help us improve in this self-sacrifice for the good of other people daily. And number three, I will try my best, again by the power of the Holy Spirit, to refuse to say or do that which I know is not true, simply because it sounds good or is popular or is inoffensive, I will not purposely perpetuate false narratives. That doesn't mean that I don't get

it wrong. That doesn't mean that I don't accidentally do that. But I will try, by the grace of God, with all of my might, never to do that. I will not use terminology or newfangled definitions that do not correlate with biblical reality or with reality or biblical morality. I will not sacrifice truth for the sake of a superficial form of empathy. The goal will never be to intentionally shock or offend or hurt feelings. It's never my goal. The goal will be to simply insist that two and two make four. I do that for obedience to God. I do that for love for other people and for sanity for myself. So all three of these things require me to be in God's word, which, to be perfectly honest with you, is more consistent for me some weeks than others. Like last week, for example,

it was very inconsistent. And I felt it. I felt the heaviness and the sadness and the anxiety. characterize my thoughts. I felt the burden that I must know and fix everything to be everywhere at once. God's word is necessary for me to know how to love God, how to love people, and how to love truth. Prayer is necessary for me to know how to do those things and to be empowered to do those things. Talking to other people who are on this same journey is necessary for me to gain encouragement and perspective. And that can be really hard because I don't want to burden people with my anxieties and my worries, especially people that don't do my same job. I don't want my friends to think or people in my Sunday school class to think that I always want to talk about politics or that

I always want to talk about the news because I really don't. But I do feel the need to kind of, you have to have people to unload your burdens onto and your cares onto. Ultimately, we do that on the Lord. We cast our cares on him because he cares for us, scripture says. But we also have to have community and people around us who are willing to bear those burdens and to speak life and encouragement into us. And I think that's really hard in this day and age when real true, profound connections to real Christian friends and Christian community, even within the church, is really lacking. Like, it's really lacking. I'm guilty of it. Most people I know, honestly, are guilty of it. I don't know any church that is perfect at this, but gosh, like that is

where the church can stand out right now and forming real. and profound in meaningful connections with people. People are hungry for that. We're starving for that. And if anything has been proven over the past year and a half, it's that human beings need that. We need that to survive and thrive. So we need all of these things to accomplish what I believe to be three priorities for the Christian life, love God, love others, and to live not by lies. It gives us the perspective that we need and perspective when we are drowning what feels like in the depths of despair about our own lives or about the future of the country is so crucial. And speaking of perspective, speaking of God's word, I want to read to you a few verses that help

us remember our place in all of this. Job 42, too, you've heard me quote this very many times on this podcast. I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours, God, can be thwarted. So God doesn't need us. He may choose to use us. but nothing we do or don't do can inhibit him even a little bit. Jeremiah 3217, Ah, Lord God, it is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm, nothing is too hard for you. God can do all things.

His ultimate purposes cannot be thwarted. His sovereign will cannot be changed. Nothing is too hard for him. Nothing means nothing. nothing throws him off his game nothing surprises him nothing takes him aback nothing confuses him nothing hinders him nothing is a mystery to him nothing and no one can foil his plans he is not waiting to see what's going to happen he is not curious about what's coming around the corner he doesn't come in after the mess to clean it up he is completely and totally in control of everything

and as we already said he doesn't need us but he does choose to use us and he does in his sovereignty and in his total and complete power, omniscience, omnipresence, he does call us to certain things. In general, I believe, as we've already established, those things to be love God, love others, and don't lie. The second two are really products of the first, but because some people really think that loving God simply means being nice to people, I think it's necessary to explicitly point the second two out. So here's what this looks like. And I can't get into specifics exactly because I don't know what, I don't know what your life looks like, but who is right in front of you to love and how are you to love them?

The truth is you don't have to look very far for your neighbor. And we don't have to think of sophisticated ways to love them. It's our spouses. It's our kids. It's our friends. It's our, it's our coworkers. It's our communities. It's our church. Like we serve them. we encourage them, we seek to meet their needs. That can mean words of encouragement. It could mean prayer for them with them. It could be making them dinner. That's something that we really like to do and that people really appreciate if someone

is going through like a hard time or a busy time or a stressful time or an exciting time. Easing one burden by just like making them food or sending them food. That's a really easy way to love people. Like all the ways that you would like to be loved, you show that love to those that God is placed in front of you, you steward the resources that God has already given you, not that you imagine that God will give you a year from now, but the ones that you have right now, you steward them for His glory, trusting that he is going to take care of you. And yes, there are times, I would say especially right now, as we seem to be on the precipice

of losing some of our liberties, there are times when loving the people in your life and loving your city and loving your state and loving your country, which I think we are called to do means caring about a few issues that affect them and that you are also passionate about. So are you passionate about the education policies in your area? I think, you know, we all should be to a certain extent. But if you're especially passionate about that, get involved, campaign with someone that you believe in running for the school board. Run yourself if that's something you feel called to do. Are you passionate about vulnerable moms and families? Volunteer at your local pro-life pregnancy center. Are you seeing some kind of policy putting an undue burden on your community?

You should meet with your representatives. You should learn about that. Learn about the alternatives. You should talk about it with people. You should get people to care about it by raising up the subject in conversation. You should raise, as we say on this podcast, a respectful ruckus about it, get other people to join you. We're collectively, vote, of course. That doesn't solve all of our problems.

But I do believe that we are not called to just sit on our hands. hands in all of this, that we are called to do something about the things that God has put on our heart by serving in some way, by speaking up. And that might characterize one season of your life or one day of your week or one day of your month. It might not characterize every day or your entire life. It might not be your full mission and your 24-7 calling. And that's okay. Like most of your life may be done doing very mundane seeming things. Like do not think that God can't be glorified in the mundane. He absolutely is.

Like our entire lives every second are meant for his glory. And he can be glorified in everything we do, whether it's seen by the world or not. Whether it makes waves or a ripple, whether it's shouted to a nation or whispered to your family, whether personal, professional or political. we can make a difference. Colossius 317, and whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God, the Father, through him. And I've got some more practical tips for you guys. Hey, this is Steve Day.

If you're listening to Allie, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political. They're moral, spiritual, and rooted in what we believe is true about God, humanity, and reality itself. On the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day and test. against first principles, faith, truth, and objective reality. We don't just chase narratives and we don't offer false comfort. We ask the hard questions and follow the answers wherever they leave, even when it's unpopular. This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos. If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed,

you can watch this D-Day show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts. I hope you'll join us. All right. So some practical tips. I kind of gave you some practical tips. Some more practical tips, I guess. People ask me all the time, like, what do we do? Feels like the country's going in this terrible direction. It feels like things can't turn around. And as I've already said, I can totally empathize with that feeling. I feel like that myself sometimes. And in addition to just knowing that this life is not where our hope lies, that we kind of have to, I think as Americans, I, at least, I can't speak for everyone. But I think that we assume that things are always going, that history is always going to write its course. our lifetimes that, okay, by the next election, things will be better, and just a few years, things will be better, or if this goes away, or if this changes, things will be better.

People will be more sane. They'll be more normal. And yes, I do think that we've seen the pendulum swing on a variety of political and social, cultural, religious theological issues throughout America's history and throughout world history, and that is true. But we can't hang our hat on that. Like, we can't trust in that because we don't actually know if that is true. And depending on your eschatology, you may believe that it is absolutely inevitable that things

are just going to go to hell in a handbasket until Jesus comes back. We've talked about eschatology. I'll actually link my end times podcast episodes in the description to this podcast. So you can go listen to those. But the fact of the matter is, like, we don't actually know. We don't know if Jesus is coming back tomorrow. We don't know if he's coming back in a few weeks. We don't know if he's coming back in a thousand years from now.

Yes, there are some things that we know have to happen before that, but we don't actually know how or when it's going to go down. At the same time, I understand people's like apocalyptic feelings about that. And they're wondering, okay, well, do we even care about the direction that the country goes? Like, are we even, are we just distracting ourselves with politics? Should we just remove ourselves from everything that's going on in the political and civic sphere? And just focus on what's happening in our homes. And as I've kind of already touched on, and as I've explained many times on this podcast, I don't think that's the answer. I do think a way to love a way to love your neighbor is to care about the policies that are implemented and the things that are going on that I think looking after the welfare of the nation that you are in is a very godly thing to do.

I think it's a very loving thing to do. Now, I know that there are people who think that you shouldn't love your country, but I think loving your country and having a certain level of patriotism and a certain fondness for your country's, culture and its ideals is a very biblical thing to do, and it can compel you to seek the good and seek the welfare of your fellow citizens. I think that's a very good thing. And so we do those things. We pursue those things without trusting in elected officials to usher in our version of utopia. Elected officials are never going to be able to fix anything, no matter the political party. They're corrupt people. both parties. There are bad policies in both parties. Now you guys know where I land on that. I don't

think that it's morally equivalent. But the fact of the matter is is that neither party, no politician is going to be able to save us in the way that we want to be saved. They're not going to be able to make the changes that we want to be implemented to achieve whatever we think our vision is of some kind of great and glorious and moral nation. It's just not going to happen. So while I don't know if things will swing back in a different direction and if things will go a different way as far as politics and culture goes, I do know 100% that my hope can't be in that because I just don't know and that's not where the Lord tells us to put our hope. Like where my hope is is that there will be a perfect ruler or there is a perfect ruler already.

He already rules in perfect justice and righteousness. But one, day evil will be no more. One day there will be no more wickedness. There will be no more injustice. There will be no more oppression. There will be no more unfairness. There will, there will be nothing to worry about. There will be no stress. There will be no concern. There will be no sorrow, sadness, sickness, deceit, propaganda. None of that will exist. That is where my hope lies that we are on, we are sojourners on a very, very quick temporal journey here on earth and eternity will be gladness and freedom forever and ever. And yet, while we're here, there are, there's cause for concern and there are things to do. I think a strategy that could work,

depending on your definition of work, it can, it can either buy you time or it can help you create a community in which you are protected and your freedoms are protected and how you want to live in accordance in your values is protected. And I think that you should polar utilize, and prioritize. So those are the three things that I encourage you to do. And what I mean by that is that if you live in a blue area that is solidly blue and you are pretty sure that you being there isn't really going to turn the tide, like it's not going to change things, then I would move somewhere red. Like I would move to a red state. I'd move to a red city and I would make it redder. A lot of you ask me, should I move out of California and move to a red state like Oklahoma?

or Idaho or South Carolina or Texas or Florida, I say yes. That's not possible for everyone. So I'm not saying that everyone has to do that. I am saying that if you can do that, if there's any way that you can do that, you will be amazed at how much better your life is being around people that care about liberty and have the same values that you do. And so I would encourage you to polarize. I do not mean that you can't or shouldn't have relationships with people who politically disagree with you. think that it's very important. I think that we should allow ourselves to be challenged by people who disagree with us on a variety of issues. But I'm talking about creating a life for you and your

family and hopefully your children in which your freedom and the values that you want to live by are protected. That's not possible everywhere in this country, which is really, it's sad that you have to, that you can move to a different state and live not just a slightly different life, but a radically more free life. And so every single person, I've not talked to one conservative that moved from Oregon or Washington or California to a conservative state and regretted it. Like every message that I get about that is like, oh, it's the best decision of my life. I'm so much happier.

And I think that'll be true for you too. I encourage red states and red areas to get even redder than they already are and to solidify your hold on that. And so the second one then is to localize. So care about the problems that your community is facing. As we've already talked about, get involved with what's going on in the schools. Even if you homeschool or send your kids to private school, you're still a taxpayer. Like, you already know how I feel about public school. But you should still be involved and what is being taught there in the mandates and restrictions that are being that are being placed there because you have a vested interest in the community and like I said, you have a monetary

interest too because you pay taxes. And so get involved on the local level. You should seek to influence in every sphere in which God has placed you with the values in the worldview that you have. Now, for some reason, like people on the left freak out when people say that. But everyone does that. Like, that's what a representative democracy is. That's what every single politician and any involved citizen does. Like, you enter into a space and you try to influence it with the values and ideas and ideals that you have. The only people that are scared to do that are not progressives or conservatives or conservatives

and Christians who have been lied to and have been told that by a conservative, and a Christian speaking up about their values or trying to shape their workplace or community or school or whatever with their values, that that's, you know, some kind of crazy authoritarianism and some, you're just some religious nut job. Okay, well, the progressives are now redefining what gender and sexuality and morality and reality look like for your kindergartner. So how'd that work out? Don't buy that lie. Every single person, no more. matter their religious beliefs, no matter their political backgrounds are trying to influence the space, trying to influence the space that they occupy. And so you, Christian, conservative, should be doing

the same thing, unabashedly, respectfully, kindly. But you should absolutely be trying to implement your worldview and your values. And that value might just be freedom. I think that's what it is for most people. It's not that I want you to live how I live. That's not what I want. That's not what conservatives want. That is like a fantasy by some people on the left, that I want you to be forced to be a Christian or forced to live a Christian lifestyle. That's not true at all. Like my, that is not my value. My value is liberty. And I could get into all of the, you know, different ideas for governance and for society that I have, but mostly, like, I want you to respect that I want to live and raise my family how I want to. And I will respect how you want to raise your family. And I'm not speaking

about some kind of libertarianism because I don't call myself a libertarian. Obviously, I believe in some kind of moral foundation for the laws that we have. But that's not the same as a theocracy. Me saying, hey, I'm going to join the school board and I'm going to try to move it in a direction that I want to move it in is literally what everyone does. So polarize, localized, prioritize, pick the things that you care about. I don't even know if those three things are in order. But pick the things that you care about in your local community and lead them, influence them, get other people to care about them. I think that is the strategy that we have to employ right now. I personally think like life is too short to live next to tyrants and to be controlled by the petty

tyrants that run some of our states and cities and to be in constant fear of your life because so many of our best cities have been run by these progressive policies that have led to a rise in violent crime and increased homelessness and public drug use and all of these terrible things that really just drive down quality of life. Life is too short to live among that. And so move to a place that shares your values. Try to support people that share your value, support businesses that share your value, start a business in accordance with your values. provide services in accordance to your values. There's a growing market for that because as conservatives are, you know, lumped into this other group that is no longer kind of like welcomed in polite

society, there's still going to be a market for goods and services and businesses and all that stuff. And so that's what I encourage you to do. Now, some people say, well, that's not being salt in light. That's not being a witness. Not all Republicans are Christians. Like I actually, think that, I mean, there's a large percentage probably of Republicans who aren't true Christians and who, because republicanism and Christianity or sometimes seen as synonymous, there are probably, that's probably like a bigger danger, I would say, in the Republican Party that there are a lot of people who just believe that they're Christians who are not. So just because you live in a red area and they align with your values as far as freedom goes, doesn't mean that there's not an opportunity

to share the gospel with those people. And it doesn't mean. that you're not going to be able to communicate to people who live in blue states and things like that. So I don't really buy that argument. So that's what I say. I say polarize in, I'm talking about in the sense of where you live and where you move to and then localize and prioritize. I don't mean polarize in the sense that you shouldn't be able to have a conversation with someone on the other side of the aisle just to clarify. I want to read this quote that I think is super comforting. Well, there's actually two quotes that are super comforting.

The first one is from C.S. Lewis. He wrote an essay in 1948 about living in an age where people feared an atomic bomb, which is an age that lasted quite a while, gave people living at that time, a sense of impending doom. And here is what he said. He said, in one way, we think a great deal. too much of the atomic bomb. How are we to live in an atomic age? I am tempted to reply, why, as you would have lived in the 16th century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age, when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat

any night, or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents. In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented, and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways. This is the first point to be made, and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb, when it comes, find us doing sensible and human things, praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children,

playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts, not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies, a microbe can do that, but they need not dominate our minds. That is a word for today. I mean, what do you want to bet that people living in who also perhaps lived through both world wars and the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl and who saw the continued totalitarianism throughout the world in the 20th century, even after the wars, also thought that surely they were living through the end times. I mean, they didn't face the same threats that we do. They didn't have a lot of the same problems that we do, but they didn't know that. They had no reason to think this wasn't the

worst of it. People in other nations who have never known freedom, who have always known tyranny and persecution and hardship, don't you think that they've believed that the Great Tribulation was at hand? Like, people have lived through what has seemed like apocalyptic struggles for all of human history. Now, like I said earlier, this may be it. This may be the end. And maybe things will never swing back and Jesus is going to return soon or maybe not. Like, maybe this is yet another bad cycle of human history and it will continue to cycle through as it always has. We don't know. And the point is we have to deal with what is before us right now. Like our responsibilities are not suspended because the world is going crazy. And our responsibilities are to love God,

to love our neighbor, to live not by lies. Three ways I think that we can do that in freedom is to polarize when it comes to where we live and where we spend our time and the businesses and the people and the organizations we support and to localize, to focus on the things that are right in front of us and to prioritize, to focus on only that which we are really passionate about and know something about and feel called to. Philippians 4 through 7 says, Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice, let your reasonableness.

reasonable. We have to be reasonable. Be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. So there's a sense of urgency here. Do not be anxious about anything. Wow, that's a really big blanket statement. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving. Let your request be made known to God and the peace of God. This is a promise which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. So God knew all of the things that we are going through right now, all of the things that we've been through, all the things that are going to happen, not just in the world, but also in your personal life. And still, he told us to rejoice. I mean, the Christians in Philippi, the Christians in some of these churches were going through hard times themselves. And God through Paul says, you are to rejoice always. You are to be reasonable always. You are to be grateful always. You're worried about something. Tell me about it. Present it to me. Literally tell me about it. Not like trying to belittle your. concerns, but literally God is saying, tell me about it. Cast your cares onto me. I care for you. In Matthew 10, Jesus talks about, we're not to worry about those who can throw, who can kill our body. We are to fear the one who can throw our body and our soul into hell.

Jesus tells us that not even a sparrow falls from the sky apart from, apart from the father's will. So if that is true, if he even controls the, the, the, plight and the flight of the sparrow, which can be sold, two can be sold for a penny, Jesus says, that how much more does he care about us? How much more is he seeing us? How much more is he attending to us? How much more is he going to carry our burdens and be in control of our lives? Now, I have one more really encouraging quotes to read to you that I hope just ends on a peaceful note for you guys. So this is a quote by John Newton that I saw shared over the weekend on Instagram that I really appreciate. And it goes like this, we can easily manage if we will only take

each day the burden appointed to it. But the load will be too heavy for us if we carry yesterday's burden over again today and then add the burden of tomorrow before we are required to bear it. I mean, that is so true that we are trying to bear the burden of yesterday and tomorrow. and he is saying this in a day before social media. And it's even more true today where we are actually, like it is demanded of us by social media and by the media in general to care about everything that's happened in all of history and might happen in all of the future at once and bringing it back full circle to what we said at the beginning.

We don't have the capacity to do that. We can care and should care about what's right in front of us. We should do what we can with what we are given and what we are called to. but we can only manage today's burden. That is what Jesus says to you, that it is sufficient. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. Let tomorrow worry about itself. We can't, there are things that we can do to prepare. I think that, you know, Proverbs 31 talks about that, the importance of wise and prudent preparation and planning and all of that, but we can't put our hope in what the future is going to look like. We also can't put our fear there either because we don't know what we do

know for sure is that God is completely in control. Nothing is too hard for him. All we can do is do the next right thing. All right. I hope that was an encouragement for you. I will see you guys back here tomorrow. Hey, this is Steve Day. If you're listening to Allie, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political. They're moral, spiritual, and rooted in what we believe is true about God, humanity and reality itself. On the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day and tested against first principles, faith, truth, and objective reality. We don't just chase narratives and we don't offer false comfort, we ask the hard questions and follow the answers wherever they leave, even when it's unpopular. This is a show for people who want honesty over

hype and clarity over chaos. If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed, you can watch this D-Day show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts. I hope you'll join us.