The Eric Metaxas Show - Brant Hansen

Episode Date: January 19, 2024

Brant Hansen returns with a new book: Life Is Hard. God Is Good. Let's Dance.: Experiencing Real Joy in a World Gone Mad

Folks, welcome to the Eric Mataxis show, sponsored by Legacy Precious Metals. There's never been a better time to invest in precious metals. Visit legacy p.m.investments.com. That's legacy p.m. Investments.com. Welcome to the Eric Mataxis show. Did you like your gravy thick and rich and loaded with creamy mushrooms? If no one was looking, would you chug the whole gravy boat? Chug, chug, chug, chug.

Stay tuned. Here comes Mr. Jugg-a-lose. himself, Eric Ma, Texas. Hey there, folks, welcome to the program. I believe it's Tuesday. And Albin, you are here to talk to me about all kinds of stuff. Now, my guest coming up is Brant Hanson. He's got a book out called Life is Hard, God is Good, Let's Dance.

I don't know what that's about, but I think I agree with it. But Brin Hanson, fantastic guest. In hour two, I think we have Doug Giles, who's a madman. That's a compliment. But right now, Albin, it's just us chickens. Yeah, first of all, I just want to offer my condolences from Ann and I for the passing of your father. He was a great guy. We got to meet him.

I just loved him. He was full of life. And as a patriarch of a great family, I'm just so happy he lived to be 96 years old. 96 and a half. There you go. He lived into the 2024, obviously. So I'm trying to think when you last saw my dad, that's amazing. Yeah, I think it was about seven months ago.

You were preaching at it. a church there near Danbury, remember? Oh my gosh, Albin. And that's where I met him. Yeah. And your mom. At the vineyard, at his vineyard church in Bethel, Connecticut, we go there whenever we can. His vineyard church in Bethel, Connecticut, I forgot that that's right. He was there and you were there. Yeah. And afterwards, we went to the diner where you were a bus boy or whatever for how many years. That's in my, if you read my book Fish Out of Water, there's a bleak story. There's a lot of bleak stories. These freaky, bleak stories. And we went to the diner, you, me, and my dad, and a few friends.

This is seven months ago. Like you mentioned, Fish Out of Water, it's about, in a sense, your dad. It's a tribute to your dad. It's beautiful stories about you growing up and him and some of the quirkiness of him. I mean, we both had old. Our fathers were of an age that they had this quirkiness about them that's kind of lost, I think, on some of the us older folks today. I don't know how quirky we are. It's been bleached out of us.

Well, no, I think, oh, man, it's amazing. Well, anybody, if you've seen my book Fish Out of Water, that is my dad on the cover at the Statue of Liberty. My mother took that photo. They were on a date at the Statue of Liberty in 1957, and that's my father. And it doesn't say it anywhere in the book. I meant to say it, but it doesn't say it anywhere. And my mom took the photo, and I asked prayers for my mom at this time. But that's such a blessing to think that you were.

She's still getting royalties from you for that photo. Yeah, she's getting nothing. She wasn't even named Anna Rose Metaxus. That was, she was Anna Rose Craigen when she took that photo. Well, there you go. Right? Wow. All right.

Well, so we got Brand Hanson coming up. Yeah. But right now, I guess I want to talk. First of all, I want to remind people, your book with a forward by Eric Mataxis, that would be me, is titled obvious. The title is. It should be obvious what the title is. And then it turns out the title actually is literally obvious. Yes.

The title is not literally obvious. The title is just obvious. but it's quite literally. And I broke it down into four sections. The real reason why I wrote it was because the biggest obvious thing to me recently in American history was the stolen election of my 2020. It was so damn obvious. You don't believe that evil people with no principles would steal.

No. What are you saying? See, that's the one thing. Fascists, they do a lot of bad things. We're seeing them do it in our country now. But one thing they do not do is steal elections. They would never steal an election. It's like bad guys in prison.

You know, snitches get stitches. They could do, they can be rapists and murders, but if they snitch, that's it. We draw the line. Yeah, we draw the line of snitching. They don't steal anything. And I didn't get a chance to talk with you on January 6th or at least that week, which was the third anniversary, where the left is saying that that was the insurrection. But there was the gateway.

Yeah, the gateway pundon had an interview with some of the people from the prison. had been there, you know, basically three years. Some of them didn't even have trial dates and all this sort of thing. And they've rest assured that the left has said, we're going to arrest another eight of 900 people just for walking around the lawn, okay? And nothing says we did not steal an election than arresting those that protested it and saying like, and you can't do anything about it. I want to be clear, ladies and gentlemen, this is evil.

Evil, evil, evil in America. The idea that the left in America and a number of rhinos would do something this evil should make you angry. It should make you want to fight it with everything you have. If you're intimidated and you say, oh, they're going to come after me. You're part of the problem. You need to stand up for what is right and good and true and trust God is with you. Right. And the injustice that these people are behind bars, at least one of whom is a friend of mine, John Strand,

I know that he did nothing. And do you think that I'm just going to sit by and say, oh, well, that's the way it goes. It is evil. It is evil that this would happen in the United States of America. Patriots have died, that we would be free, that we would govern ourselves. This president is evil. His administration is evil. And we need to call a spade a spade a spade.

When you're evil, when you're doing this kind of stuff, knowingly, this is incredibly wicked. This is not a difference of opinion, which I respect people's difference of opinion. This is wickedness. Yeah, you're not allowed to have a difference of opinion with them. Now, over the weekend at Americanthinker.com, Americanthinker.com, there's a great cartoon about this. It was the velvet rope insurrectionists. There's a picture of, this is actually from a photo from the Capitol.

You know, the cameras inside the Capitol, and all of those insurrectionists are staying inside the velvet rope as they go to riot inside the chambers. Yeah, maybe they're not insurrectionists if they were following the velvet rope, ladies and gentlemen. Did you ever think of that? Where can people see this cartoon album? Americanthinker.com.

It came out on Sunday. So you'll see the cartoons there. If you back up a few cartoons, you're going to see it at Americanthinker.com. Great articles over there as well. Americanthinker.com. One of the things I want to mention, because I listened in at the Gateway Pundon on January 6th,

and they had people calling in from prison, the number one thing that they wanted to get across, And this is important because I have it in my book. The last section has about 14 chapters based on this concept. The insurrection happened on November 5th. Remember November 5th, 2020, the 5th, the 6th, I'm sorry, November 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th. The protesting of the insurrection happened January 6th. This is the idea that these guys, this is a simple idea they're trying to get across to us.

We were protesting the insurrection, the usurpion of our government. That's what we were there to protest, stop the steel. But they flipped it. They flipped the script, and that's what they like to do. We believe in fighting lawfully. We believe in throwing the bums out. Joe Biden is a bum. His administration, they're bums.

But we don't believe in insurrection. We believe in doing things the right way, according to the actual law. law and the left does not. And we need to acknowledge that. We need to call them out on what they're doing. Look, I didn't used to want to be political. And I got to tell you, folks, at this point, I wrote about it in my book, Letter to the American Church. If you need convincing of why it's biblical to get involved politically, read a letter to the American Church. Give it to your pastor. If your pastor's not already on this page, find another church because the hour is late. It's 2024. We need to fight for what is right and good and true to save this nation for God's purposes.

Not for us. If Christians say, I don't want to get political, it's a good thing Jesus didn't get political, you know, at his time, and the apostles didn't get political. They didn't get involved in what was going on politically. Yeah, they didn't call out evil or anything like that. They were just good teachers and they loved everyone. They didn't take a step.

They were just petting the children. The funny thing is, if the Biden administration, even if they stole and when they stole the election, if they would have just gotten in and just kept things going well and they weren't arresting their adversaries and trying to interfere with the 2024 election and all that. Most of us would have said, okay, yeah, maybe they stole the election. But you know what?

Everything's still going okay, and we'll get them in 2024. But already, of course, none of the only did they steal 2020, they've already had the gears in motion for 2020, 2024. Yeah. Well, we've got to be clear. If you don't believe in God's principles, why wouldn't you steal? These people, they're not patriots. They don't believe in the American way.

they believe in winning at all costs. And that's what statist authoritarians have done since the beginning of time. It's what criminals have done since the beginning of time. You do whatever you can do because you don't believe that there's a God who's going to hold you accountable. You don't believe in principles. And that's what we're dealing with. We need to be realistic, folks. This election was stolen.

And no amount of intimidation is going to get me or Albin or a lot of people to shut up about it because I feel like it would be blasphemous to keep your mouth shut at a time when When lives are on the line, when our nation is on the line. Alvin, we've got to have you back this week again. Okay. And if you're not convinced, it's always obvious. When you get obvious. The details are easy to read.

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I once had the idea to write a book with the title, Life is Hard, God is Good, Let's Dance. And I thought, what a dumb title. But it turns out that a friend of mine, Brent Hansen, has written a book with exactly that title. And Brant Hansen, I just want to take back the unpleasant comment from seconds ago. I don't know what I was thinking. Your book is titled, Life is Hard, God is Good, Let's Dance, experiencing real joy in a world gone mad. Brent Hansen, that may be the longest title since Bonhoeffer, Pastor Martyr Prophet Spy. What were you thinking?

You know what? I'm just being straight up with you. My wife got a T-shirt like 30 years ago that said life is hard, God is good, let's dance. And I was like, I guess a good name for a book. So I guess I should write a book titled I'm With Stupid. Right. I haven't done that yet, but that's a follow-up to this. So I'm just going to go through all the shirts.

T-shirts are all the best titles. Moby Dick, Sound of the Fury. Obviously Melville got that off of a T-shirt because where would you come up with Moby Dick or the whale unless you had seen it on a t-shirt. Yes, in Massachusetts. So life is hard, God is good, let's dance, experiencing real joy in a world gone mad. Now, you, I neglected to say,

are a nationally syndicated radio host and podcaster. You work with Cure International. But what possessed you to write a book with this title? What's the fundamental message of the title of the book? It's about being at peace because people aren't. As you know, people are overrun with anxiety in this culture. And I don't want to live that way myself. And I don't think we have to live that way.

And so I'm actually, I tried to make the book funny. But as you know, that's always the eye of a beholder. That cannot work or it works depending on the reader. Well, the good news is you actually. are funny, so I believe that the book is funny, even though I haven't read it yet, but you have the ability to be funny when you're talking about serious stuff. And you just said something, I want to be, I don't want to forget. You said a lot of people are living with a lot of anxiety, and you said, I don't think we have to live that way. And I want to be clear, what you really

mean is God, it is not God's will that we live that way. And if something is not God's will, it means he will give the power to do his will. And the scripture says, be anxious for nothing, but in all things by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving, make your request known unto God. So what that means is that in life we will have reasons to be anxious, plenty reasons. And God says, okay, when that happens,

you have to choose not to be anxious, but to do what I tell you to do. But he won't force us. is our choice. It is your choice. And what's genius about that verse that you have memorized, which is pretty impressive, I'd say, but like that verse is gratitude is at odds with anxiety. This is something you can walk out in your own life.

Like gratitude and anxiety are very difficult to coexist. So we're told repeatedly to be thankful. So this is a very concrete, it's not like a religious pie in the sky thing. It's something you can actually do is to capture your thoughts about what you're anxious about. realize I can't control everything and then tell God what you're thankful for and then let him deal with it. So I read, I was listening, I didn't finish the book, but the book by Tim Ferriss, the four-hour work week.

I don't know if you ever read that, but he was talking about how to be super efficient or whatever. I got the T-shirt. Okay, good. Okay, so that's the first step. But the thing is, he was talking about how he outsources everything to his personal assistant in India, and that makes him very efficient. Like all his dental appointments, she arranges this, she's, you know, all this stuff.

He said one day he was really worried about something, and this is not coming at it from religious perspective at all. We said one day he was really worried and he actually asked his PA, like, I need you to worry about this for me today. And it was a joke, he said. But the weird thing was, he said it worked. Like outsourcing his worry actually helped him. And I thought that is so interesting because the biblical wisdom, it's Old Testament and New Testament, is literally to outsource your word, to cast your cares on God because he cares for you.

Obviously, the assistant in India can't do anything, but God actually can. Well, you know something, this is part of this, because there's more to it than just doing this, right? You have to structure your life. I mean, I married a woman who believes this stuff. And because I married a woman who believes this stuff, she encourages me along these lines. We need to encourage each other along these lines. A lot of times on my own, I will veer off. And I need the people around me to help me, just as I want to help those people.

And so surrounding yourself with people who understand what the Bible says, who understand God's will, that's part of how we deal with this stuff. If you're hanging out with people who don't buy this stuff, it's going to be much tougher for you. If you're trying to quit smoking and everybody around you is lighten up, it's going to be tough. So part of living out God's will is surrounding yourself with people that are on board with that,

that they're on the same process with you and they're reminding you of the scripture. Wait, look, this is what God says. We need to remind each other. That's everything. What you are paying, attention to is everything. You are becoming what you're paying attention to. I mean, your attention is everything. I can't underline that enough. So who you're hanging out with or who you're hanging out

with virtually, like all of the information streams that are coming into your head, it shouldn't be a mystery if it's nonstop barrage of news and information that you don't turn out to be an anxious mess. That's not a mystery. I'm amazed at how people, how people fill their heads with anxiety and stuff. I watch very little news because it's depressing, because I already know what's going on. My question is, can I do something about it? And I'd like to spend my time doing something about it, praying about it, taking action about it, talking about it on this program. But just to fill my mind with all the horrible stuff that's out there, you know, there's another scripture where the Lord commands us in Philippians' same chapter, I think, as the one I just quoted, but to, you know,

whatsoever things are good and noble and true to think on these things. Why does God say that? He says that because he knows that when we focus on what is good and beautiful and true and noble and praiseworthy, it does something to us. It's not just to avoid the ugly stuff. It's to help us deal with the ugly stuff. And that's genius because what's really interesting, I was reading an article, I think it was New York Times, about clearing your mind in a yoga way or in a meditation way. And they said it actually makes people more anxious over time. First of all, shame on you for reading the New York Times.

Number one, shame on you. Number two, can you please repeat what you were just saying because I'm not sure that I understood? So it said that it actually makes it worse because you can't clear your mind. And I think what's really interesting is that that scripture that you were just talking about is like whatever is true, starts with true.

It's not just happy, sloppy optimism, right? whatever's true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, you fill your mind with that stuff instead. It's not a clearing of your mind. It's being able to bring truth back into the picture. If you actually trust God and God we trust, if you actually trust His goodness, you don't have to have all the answers. You don't know how everything's going to work out, but you actually just trust his character. You're dealing from a pretty strong hand because you know ultimately, no matter what happens, you're safe. ultimately.

This is Jesus taking his disciples out on that lake. That was his idea. He knew the storm was coming and he was asleep. Like it was a test for them. They failed it. But he's trying to tell them even if the ship goes down, do you realize you're okay with me? Like, you can actually trust me.

This is a great hand to play with in life because you can become lighthearted. You can be in the moment with your family and friends. You realize you don't. control a lot of stuff. You can just focus on today. You don't have to borrow trouble from tomorrow. Like, this is a much better way to live and it's a lot more fun. So this book is called Life is Hard, God is Good, Let's Dance, experiencing real joy in the world gone mad. So what is in the book? Are there stories in the book? There's a lot of stories. So the thing you said about me working with cure, these are hospitals. People should visit these. They're permanent surgical hospitals for kids that

have correctable disabilities around the world and the poorest places. And it's all done, I'm coming at this from a Christian perspective too, but it's all done in the name of Jesus. So they charge them nothing. And these kids get to get up and run, dance, walk, play for the first time in their lives. They're eight-year-old girls,

16-year-old boys, by the thousands. And they get to hear that they're not a curse or a monster that God actually loves them. That's what these hospitals do. Top-notch, neuro, and orthopedic surgeons. Can we get some cure hospitals? in the United States of America, that would be a sweet step up.

That would be a sweet step up from where we are. Because no joke, that's, I mean, healing has a lot to do with what you're hearing and with the attitude around you. So that's so beautiful that at these hospitals, what is the website for cure? It's cure.org. It's just literally cure.org. I'm telling you. Yeah.

We're going to a break. We'll be talking more about it. but the website is cure.org. I'm talking to Brant Hansen. The new book is called Life is Hard. God is good. Let's dance. Legacy precious metals has a revolutionary, new online platform that allows you to invest in real gold and silver online.

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Go to Nutrametics. That's N-U-T-R-A-M-E-D. D-I-X.com. Neutrametics.com. Use the code Eric for 15% off. Again, Neutrametics, N-U-T-R-A-M-E-D-I-X.com. Neutrametics.com, use the code Eric for 15% off. Welcome back. We're talking to Brantanson, his real name. And the title of the book is Life is Hard. God is Good. Let's Dance. Experiencing Real Joy in a World Gone Mad. Brandt, you were just talking about, you are very involved with Cure International and the hospitals that share the love of God while they're doing these extraordinary medical procedures. How many countries is Cure International in?

Well, it's got eight permanent hospitals, but it draws from about 30 or 40 countries because people come from all around because no one else is doing like neurosurgeries for free to take tumors off of. kids, heads, like, and people will come as far as, well, they'll do anything to save their kids, right? Well, it's just so beautiful. But, and so how does that relate to, to your book, Life is Heart, God is Good, Let's Dance? Well, I tell a lot of stories that I've seen visiting these hospitals, because it's the most beautiful thing. And a lot of people lose faith, like the faith that can give them peace, actual peace.

They lose it because they're like, oh, where is God? now, look at this tragedy, look at this other thing. I'm like, you know what? I'll show you where he is. I'll show you. I'll take you to one of these hospitals. Like, you get to see healing happen. Like, God is still using his people to heal. It's not on CNN. It's not on Fox. It's not on they're not, but by, I think they heal 25,000 kids a year. And it's all done in the name of Jesus and it's all for free, top-notch medical care. Like, to me, that makes a lot of sense. So as somebody who's a skeptic by nature and has gone through a lot of religious hypocrisy and stuff, when I get to see this, man, it's like, okay, this makes sense to me. And it's so beautiful because it's the

kingdom of God, right? Like Jesus is saying, you want to see the kingdom and he heals people, healing. It's like heaven is breaking through. I'm giving you an advanced trailer of what heaven looks like. And that's literally what these hospitals look like. And there's literally dancing. There's dance parties in the hospital with the kids. Sometimes they're in wheelchairs, sometimes they're, you using canes or you have to hold them when you're that they crank up the music and it's the most joyful thing and it's so beautiful it's that kind of stuff I'm like if the kingdom looks like that that's great news and being able to actually have a trust for a god like that is really helpful in life it gives you the peace that you need i'm not kidding we need hospitals like that

in america i don't know who's listening but god is calling you uh to get involved in that because we we forget we used to have hospitals hospitals like that. We used to have Catholic hospitals like that, where the presence of God is at the center of why they're doing what they're doing. And let's be clear, it was Christians that created the concept of hospitals, ladies and gentlemen. It was Christians. It flows out of our Christian faith that we want to do good and we want to help people who can't give us back anything. They can't pay us back, but we want to bless them. That's what cure is about. That's the what it is to live the Christian life. And it's just a beautiful, beautiful thing. And we need to stop.

I mean, it's been a big thing for me when I wrote my book is atheism dead and I began to see the just the insane evidence for God from science and archaeology. I just thought, you know what? Even Christians we need to rejigger our thinking. Like the reality of God is so clear, so overwhelming that all of reality needs to bow to God's reality. It shouldn't just be in these little Christian, these little church places or whatever. It needs to bleed out into everything, into hospitals, into our communities, because it's true. Because this is, it's true. It's not just true for Christians. It's true. Well, a lot of people are, you know, they talk about deconstructing their faith or they're leaving. I'm like, man, I'm not leaving this. I am not. I've got my,

I know there's a lot of hypocrisy. I know there's a lot of stuff that's messed up. But the kingdom of God is too beautiful. Like when you see something like that, I'm like, I'm not leaving this. It's too good. So that's what I was trying to do in the book to tell stories like that about the individual kids I've met and the operating rooms I've been in. And like they're so compelling.

Each one of these kids' stories is like a movie. So I decided to tell that to illustrate what God is actually doing in the world and why he's worthy of being trusted. When you're being told that so many things. things are bad and horrible. Like, he's still doing stuff. And it is obvious when you tune into it, but everybody else is trying to distract you from it. He's actually good and he actually can be trusted.

Well, again, there are a lot of people that they think of themselves as Christians, but if you push him, you say, do you believe this or this, they give you the, well, like, that's their way of saying, no, I don't. But they don't want to say, no, I don't. They just want to say, well, it's complicated. folks there's a time when you need to be crystal clear the word of god tells us god loves us it tells us to rejoice in him always to give thanks in all circumstances these are god's commands to us why because he loves us and because he knows some stuff that we don't know fully but he's trying to let us

know like if you knew what i know if you knew what i know you would have a different attitude about what you're going through right now. He does that to help us, not to condemn us, to encourage us. I love that. I love that because if you think about it, I think there may be a day at the end of our lives or something we can look back when we see the whole story, when we might say, you know what, I never actually needed to be worried. I never did. I think that's entirely plausible. And I think it's going to happen. Jesus himself, like you're saying, he knows stuff. Like he knows. He's got the big picture, and he's saying, you do not need to be worried. Like, how amazing is that?

So I have to believe that's true. And so if I do feel anxious, I should be able to, like Jeremiah and Lamentations or David and Psalms, able to talk to my own emotions and say, why are you so downcast? Why are you so anxious? Put your trust in God. He's actually trustworthy. I'm actually safe with him. We will continue the title of the book.

Brand new book. Life is hard. God is good. Let's Dance. The author is Brandt Hans. and we'll be right back. It's the same thing. Are you tired of not getting a good night's sleep?

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You can also find deep discounts in all My Pillo products, including the My Pillo 2.0 mattress topper and my pillow towel sets. Don't wait any longer to get the best sleep of your life. Take advantage of this amazing offer. Go to MyPillow.com and click on the radio podcast square and use promo code Eric at checkout. Don't wait any longer to get the best sleep of your life. Call 800-978-30577 or go to MyPil. Now and use promo code Eric. Brand Hansen is my guest.

Brand new book titled Life is Hard, God is Good, Let's Dance. Your books are readable. Your last book was titled Unoffendable. It sold 200,000, more than 200,000 copies. You have millions of listeners on your Brandt Hanson show, on 200 radio stations. You know how to communicate. and obviously that's important because sometimes you pick up a book and you start reading and eh, it doesn't really pull you in.

But you have the ability to do that. Now, can you think of any stories in the book that you could tell now? I don't know. Oh, well, sure. Like, I could tell about any number of the kids I've interacted with. Let's just show what God's doing in the world. I tell one story about one of the first kids I saw 17-year-old girls. girl who had never been out of her house, basically, because she had a cleft palate, which

if you're in the U.S. that's taken care of Lickety Split. But she's treated like a monster by her own family in the community. They think she's cursed. Okay. Now, I want to interrupt. I got to tell you, ladies and gentlemen, if you live in America, okay, you don't understand. We have a biblical worldview in America. If you're not a Christian, you have a biblical worldview when it comes to disabilities. But in a lot of the world, when you have a disability or you've got something wrong with you, they have a pagan view. They look at you and they say, you are cursed. And it is to damn someone, to curse someone. And those people are crushed by what they're receiving from this community that doesn't have a biblical worldview. So when the Christian worldview comes into

this situation and says to this girl with a cleft palate, no, no, God loves you. You are not a monster. You are not cursed. That is huge news, even if they can't heal the cleft palate, just that idea, that biblical idea, which most Americans and people in the West totally take this for granted, that around the world, they have this pagan view of disabilities, of all kinds of things, which is wicked folks. It is wicked. It's not just a different point of view. It's wicked.

And only the good news of Jesus Christ comes into that situation and tells that person, no, you are beloved of God. Can we imagine how healing that alone would be? But please continue the story. So this girl had never left her house. She'd never gone to school. She was extremely shy. I met her before the operation. I was in the OR and watched the operations.

Just to cleft palate. it. But again, you're right. Totally right. Like around the world, the typical view is if you have any kind of disability, you're a monster. You're cursed. And then the moms are blamed. You must have done something immoral. So your ancestors

or the gods are blaming you. And now you've got this monster on you. So this girl gets this operation done. She's out in the children's ward. I was with her and her mom. She'd had it done. Her lip is still, it's swollen, but now

it's whole immediately. So you can see the sutures, but she looks totally different, man. Unrecognizable. And I didn't have a mirror. So I wrote about this in the book. I didn't have a mirror. So I thought, wait a second.

I had my phone. I want her to see herself because she looks totally different. And I turned the camera thing around on the phone, you know, where you can see yourself. And she, I handed it to her and she just stared and stared and stared. She would not stare. stop. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. Her face is whole for the first time. She's told

not that she's a monster, but that God actually loves her. And then her face is healed and she's beautiful. I'm like, that's the kingdom of God breaking through. You get goosebumps when you see it. And it happens over and over and over at these hospitals. So that's why I'm so sold on it. That's why I wanted to tell stories about it and actually explain how great the party is that the kingdom of God is when you actually understand what it is. Well, you know, we forget. I don't forget because I'm Greek, but like there are plenty of Greeks

who would say, oh, I'm Greek Orthodox, I was baptized in Greek Orthodox Church. I go to the Greek Orthodox Church. They have this pagan view in the village. They have this view that you're cursed. They have this pagan thinking. They have not redeemed all of their thinking and all of their views.

So there are plenty Christians, including in America, all of us, to some extent, have not really converted every part of us. We still have these pockets of lies, satanic lies, where we believe things that are not true. And it's God's will that we turn over every thought to him. And so I think of people living in mountain villages in Albania or Italy or Greece, who they have this kind of pagan worldview in their villages. Now, we know that that happens in India, it happens in Africa, but I'm talking about countries that you think, like, well, they're Christian, there's a church. No, they still have these pagan world views. And how

much more is that true in America? We may not believe that. We maybe got the memo that you're not cursed if you have a disability. But there are lies that we believe and that we promote about things and about people and about ourselves. And, you know, so God wants us to be in this process of thoroughly converting ourselves. It's called sanctification, but we have to get involved. We have to desire it. We have to say, I'm going to choose to believe what God says. And that's not natural. That's a supernatural thing. You have to ask God to help you along these lines. And reading a book like this, I imagine we'll do that. I hope so. I hope it's funny too. Again, we'll see. But there's a light touch.

And I appreciated there's a reviewer that doesn't always like Christian books, but the review said, this book has a lasting impact and a light touch. And that's what I wanted. Because I feel kind of like Forrest Gump tripping through life and getting to travel and stuff and see things. Like, I don't, I didn't plan that. And I think it's neat how God made that happen. I don't have a big vision for my life. Like, I need to become this or that.

Things are just happened. And I'm just trying to do each day. and then let God have the pathway that he makes for me. So I'm astonished, and some of the book is about that. I think you can live that way, where you're just like, I'm just going to be concerned myself with today and try to be faithful with it, and then see what God does with the rest of this stuff. And I think it's a much easier way to live with a childlike, joyful existence,

where you actually have peace that in our culture, people are not at peace, especially peace activists, like at personal peace. Oh, those are the most vicious of them all. We'll be right back, folks. I'm talking to Brand Hansen, brand new book, Life is Hard, God is Good, Let's Dance. Welcome back, talking to Brand Hanson, brand new book, Life is Hard, God is Good, Let's Dance,

experiencing real joy in a world gone mad. Brandt, you said that part of it has to do with gratitude and over and over in the scripture, God is telling us for our own good, be grateful, doesn't come naturally. What is your, what do you have to say about gratitude? So I thought this is really interesting. I heard some neuroscientists talking about this who are believers. And they said a lot of times when we're grateful, we make a list.

Like, okay, I'm going to be grateful, grateful for this, that, the other thing we make a list, which is fine. But they said there's another way to do it. And that is to picture moments in your life that you're really. really glad happened. That like just the golden sterling moments. Like maybe it's the birth of a child. Maybe it's a, maybe it's a time in nature where you were just overwhelmed with what you were looking at.

Maybe it's the first time you met your wife. Just, just some moments. And then they said, like, write that down on your notes app on your phone. And spend like 30 seconds just being grateful that that thing happened. And they said it's really effective because it involves. involves both sides of your brain, not just the categorical analytical side, because it becomes emotional. And that's good, because we are emotional beings. But there's something about entering into that sort of a gratitude. They said you can add things to that list on your phone. And when you're

feeling anxious, you go to that list and you think about these things you're so grateful for. This is a very biblical approach to anxiety. It's very smart. How is that different from the list? I feel like I'm not getting the difference between it. Because you're invoking, well, because you're invoking more of an artistic, emotional thing, when you're just kind of camped out thinking about,

like for 30 seconds, thinking about being in that room when they handed you your child for the first time. Like, or that first time you met your wife, for that time with your friend that you laughed your heads off. It hurt because you laughed so hard. Just thinking about that for 20 or 30 seconds

and being thankful. God, I'm so glad that happened. So it's just a different way to approach it. I thought it was a fresh thing. And having practiced that myself, too, I have to say, it is very effective. You're feeling nervous. You're feeling anxious, but you're reminding yourself with the goodness of God and all the track record that he has in your life of blessing you that we forget about when we have something to be nervous about.

You know what I mean? Does that make sense? Yeah, it makes sense. And again, I want to say, folks, you have to be part of a culture that practices this. if you're around negative people, you have to tell them, no, no, that's a lie. You maybe you don't want to say it's a lie. Say it however you want to say it, but do not allow people to speak lies into your head, into the atmosphere.

Do not allow that because it's really like saying, nah, God doesn't love you. That is a vile lie. And there are many times people say things like that. They just say things that are effectively vile lies. They're not true. Can I also add this, especially for older people, we need you at peace. Like generations always can look to the older people as for perspective, for peace, for a sense of well-being, regardless of people.

But instead, we got a lot of older people that are just doing news and information 24-7, and they are worked up because those channels, they can do some good things, I'm sure. but it's like you need to worry about this, you need to worry about this, you need to worry about this, you need to worry about this, you need to work, like, that's too much for a human being to handle. Hey, old, people, you listening? Seriously, no, this is what you're saying is absolutely true. You have the power of life and death in your tongue, and when you're bringing negativity to people around you, you're doing the devil's work.

Hate to hate to put it that way, but since we're out of time, we've got to cut to the chase. You may be a believer, but, you may be a believer, But if you're camped out watching news 24-7, you're not at peace yourself. And then you look at millennials and Gen Z. Like, why are they so anxious? Well, they're supposed to have a generation older than them that helps them not be anxious. Well, we're at a time. I can just say, folks, the book is brand new.

By Brand Hansen, it's called Life is Hard, God is Good. Let's Dance. Praise the Lord. Thank you, Brant Hansen. Thanks, man.