Breaking the Silence: Mental Health and The Church with Jill Nash

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Welcome to Grace In the grind the podcast where we dive deep into the

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journeys of heart centered and purpose driven leaders and entrepreneurs.

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We'll pull back the curtain to explore the stories behind success, how people

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have navigated the toughest challenges, overcome their obstacles and found

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their way through the grind to build something truly impactful, whether you're

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a Christian leader looking for guidance or an entrepreneur seeking inspiration.

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We're here to equip and encourage you.

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So let's get started, and find the grace within the grind.

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This is Grace in the Grind, and now your host, Jim Burgoon.

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, thank you, Jill, for coming on grace in the grind, where we're going to,

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where we just talk about, finding grace in the messiness of navigating

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entrepreneurship and behind the scenes in a very biblical way.

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And my friend Jill here is somebody we connect on Facebook, very

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passionate about mental health.

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And I had made a post a while ago.

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The post I actually made was.

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right here.

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It says, please stop telling people that praise and gratitude

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will cure your depression.

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And that's something that really got Jill talking a little bit and we

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said, let's have this conversation.

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This is where we're going to start the conversation about faith, mental health,

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and just really Behind the scenes.

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And I'm just going to welcome my friend, Jill Nash to the podcast.

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Welcome Jill.

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Oh, thank you, Jim.

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Nice to be here.

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Tell me, tell the audience real quick, like a little synopsis of what you do.

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So they have context about your expertise.

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Okay.

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Just context.

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Short story is I used to run leadership seminars.

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We would average around, 500 people.

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We did it for 10 years.

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During one of those years, one of my top promoters of the events

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two weeks after committed suicide.

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And it made me think that in all these years of trying to transform our community

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through leadership, that there was a group sitting here that was, probably

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suffering from anxiety, depression or a variety of mental health issues.

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And this one person that I knew, I had no idea the way he was struggling.

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And once you commit suicide, there's no more hope.

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And so that was a catalyst for me to start looking for answers.

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Which is my nonprofit.

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We're still we just started back in 2020.

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So you can imagine that we're really just getting started a few years

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later, but our goal is really to help people with mental health.

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We want to raise funds to run a media campaign where people are

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scrolling on their phone, seven, eight hours a day, because we know not

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everybody's going to go into church.

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And we also know from just that one post that church is, could be a part of the

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solution, but it's not the whole solution.

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So we think if we can reach people right where they're at media, and we

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also go to events as well, then we can have mental health advocates that are

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trained and gear them and lead them in the direction and their next steps.

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step, whether it's a coach, whether it's a counselor, whether it's a

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local church that does have a mental health ministry, that's what we're

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doing is building up that armies just so we can direct people to get help.

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Thanks for sharing that and appreciate what you're doing as a,

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as somebody who's also in the world of leadership, John Maxwell team

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member, and just, seeing the passion.

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Transition of where people are really struggling.

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There's lots of people out there that, that really talk about how to build

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self development thing like that, but there's few people out there really

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diving into mental health and its ramifications on not just life, but our

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faith and what does that all look like?

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And so let's just jump in and start a great conversation around this.

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Now, the post that I mentioned just a few minutes ago, please

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stop telling people that praise and gratitude will cure their depression.

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So let's start with that and we'll branch off from there because I will

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tell you, interesting enough, I got both praise for that post and flack

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for that post because you gave me both.

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What, where did you fall into your thought process on that?

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Let's hear where you start with that.

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That drew you to that post and let's branch out from there, I'll share on a

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personal level, many years ago or two different times, I struggled with anxiety

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that was very debilitating to a point where I didn't leave my house for, I think

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seven weeks during one of those episodes.

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It was circumstantial.

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There's a lot of stuff going on in my life, but the bottom line is I, Felt like

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my faith was lacking and I felt again, I love my church, nothing against my church,

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but it was still, one of those things, let's pray more, let's do this more.

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Let's let, you love, nobody said you lack faith, but it's what I felt,

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and there really were no answers other than people go through this.

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And so I had to find the answers for myself and I did, fortunately it was a,

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I put together a team and just did a lot of research and did what worked for me.

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So I just think where I fall is I feel like the church is huge and a part of it

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because we need people praying for us.

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And I do think there are times when maybe somebody needs deliverance.

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I believe in that.

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I've seen people, but I don't think you can put everybody in that box.

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I think there's people that very practically may need medication.

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They may need, a psychiatrist, a psychologist, but the key

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is finding the right person.

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So I feel like they work together.

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Yeah, I agree.

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And I, oh, my gosh, you were going to undo Pandora's box here because,

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there is like one of these things.

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Interesting enough, That not everything needs to be delivered.

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I love how you said something said in that, because we do live in a body.

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We do have the flesh and we do live in a sin for world.

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And there is a such thing as mental illness that not everything's a

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demon, not everything's a spirit.

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And it frustrates me because we've been in, um, walking with Jesus now for 25

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years ish, maybe 26, 27, and my wife is diagnosed with some mental illness.

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I have some mental illness in the realm of depression, things like that.

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You mentioned anxiety.

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And running in a lot more charismatic circles, interesting enough, it

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was all, the answer was always, you need to go to deliverance.

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You need to pray more.

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And if it's if you weren't delivered somehow, like you said, you didn't

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have the faith to be delivered.

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And I find that to be a cop out, such a cop out because you

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can't be delivered from trauma.

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Trauma has happened, right?

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You need to be processed through it.

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You can be delivered from a lot of things.

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But you have to be processed through certain things.

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And I think in a lot of churches, they're under equipped to deal with the

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rebel, the prevalence of mental health.

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So I really appreciate you bringing that out because that's something

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I've been talking about for, oh my gosh, as long as I've been walking

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with Jesus and my wife was diagnosed.

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So where has your experience been?

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Like, have you, do you go back to churches now and educate on this?

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Or do you get a lot of like resistance?

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Like, where is, where are you at this?

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Oh my gosh, this is like one of the most exciting topics.

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Like I'm really excited just to be discussing this.

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But so I just found something new, which isn't new.

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It's new to me.

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It will help local churches and some local churches are doing it.

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Not my community.

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Let me just tell you a little bit about that.

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There is a platform called glue.

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Are you familiar with it?

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G L O never heard of it.

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Are you familiar with the, he gets us campaign by any chance?

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I am.

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I have mixed feelings about it.

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But

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they're not the ones that do that, but they, but.

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He gets us uses their platform.

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So anyway, I went on their platform.

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It is a free platform for any nonprofit or any church.

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They like do free texting and they offer a lot of incredible services.

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But one of the things is they're tied in and I forget the name of

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the group, but it's a, National Christian counseling group.

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I thought they were there just like you type in your zip

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code and you find a counselor.

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But I found out instead what they're doing is they are training

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churches or other groups like mine.

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Like I'm taking people through this right now to be mental health advocates

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or to be mental health coaches.

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And they are the ones who are training and equipping Bye churches

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to have a mental health ministry.

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So right now I'm in the process of going through, I'm think I'm halfway

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through on how to develop a team because like again, I don't think my church

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is probably quite ready for that.

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So I thought, you know what, I'm just going to go ahead and develop

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a team and see if I can be available for our local church by equipping

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people that can direct people.

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So they already have 4, 000 coaches nationwide.

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So that's what our answer is.

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So my hope is.

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I will do something here locally, but then I'm going to look for those churches.

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I just joined their Facebook group.

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I'm going to find out some of the other churches who are already doing it.

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Because when we do our media campaigns outside of Gainesville, I've got to

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start where I'm at, which is in Florida.

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But that's my hope is that I can go ahead and do these mental health

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ad campaigns and lead people to the mental health ministries that are

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already at some of these churches.

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That's awesome.

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I am too over here in Florida.

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So we definitely need a lot of mental health things here as well

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as anywhere else in the country, but that's a great platform.

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I had never heard of that.

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And I think that's a beautiful platform.

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And I'm going to vet it out.

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And for you guys who are listening, I'm going to throw it in the show notes

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once it's vetted to make sure that, we always want to check everything and

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then have access to it in the notes.

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So have you found like there's been a lot of resistance?

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I know you said my church isn't ready for that.

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What is resistance have you faced in this realm?

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And what does that look like?

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Oh, it's hard to say.

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Cause I think churches are busy.

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I think they all are like, they have their own agenda.

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Even if they think mental health is an issue.

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I think I can't really speak for my church, like why they might

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be resistant other than maybe the busyness of life, or maybe they

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still think spiritual is enough.

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I know that they will lead people.

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We have a couple, we have one psychiatrist.

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That's a part of our church.

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We have one or two psychologists, so I'm sure they refer some of

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that out, but it's not known.

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Like I'm thinking, why not have a mental health team?

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That is known.

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So I'm not sure, other than I would just have to guess busyness and maybe

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it's not the top of their priority.

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Maybe they don't maybe they don't see the big issue, I've not, I've chosen

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not to have that conversation right now.

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Just because I, when I've been there for 30 years, so you just know, I

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said, it's it's I don't want to, I certainly don't want to put them down

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because they're a beautiful church.

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They love people very well, so there's so many good things, but I think I've

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just got, even with leadership, even when I did my leadership seminars,

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anything I do, I always find it hard.

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To really work with the local church.

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If I'm bringing something in that maybe doesn't fit with

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something they're already doing.

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I got you.

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Does that make sense?

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No, it makes perfect sense.

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And I love it because you're trying to just come in and,

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come alongside their mission.

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And I think that's something very important.

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And I think that's also being sensitive to the Holy spirit in

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the midst of that, because Yeah.

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So go ahead.

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No, I was just going to say to me, it's really just as simple as, Hey, let me

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go ahead and get some people trained.

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I'll be trained, we'll train a few others, let's go offer our services

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and let's get in some success stories.

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Because I think when you have those success stories.

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Then it speaks.

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And then they're like, Oh, that's what you meant.

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Oh yeah, I can do that.

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And also just like you said, you want to vet, like this, like when I talked

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about glue, you want to vet that.

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They're like, they don't know about this organization.

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I'm part of, they believe in me as a person, but they're going to be careful.

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They're going to protect their sheep as well.

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So cause that's what I thought once I go through it, they have.

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A whole video series for the church.

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So that's going to be one of my goals is when I feel like it's the timing,

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I'm going to show them that first video.

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If I can just get one pastor to look at that video.

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And then as I do events, like I'm planning an event it'll

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probably be September, October.

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And I thought, if I can just get a few churches together, we've done

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that with all our leadership seminars, so why not for mental health?

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Right.

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So that's what I want to do is just, if you just bring people together and

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they see the need and they see the connection, I think they just have to

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see it and hear some success stories and then they'll probably get on board.

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That's my guess.

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That's, we'll be praying for that because I think there are two,

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I've noticed two margins that are underserved that I think is a

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travesty, the mental health community.

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And the special needs community.

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They are two places that the church can do an amazing thing.

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And there are churches out there that are doing amazing things, but I think

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more and more need to be trained to operate in those two margins.

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I think those are some incredible opportunities for ministry.

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And so I'm definitely in support of what you're doing.

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So then that comes down to this, like really interesting, this

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quick question out of curiosity.

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Because I know there's a fine line between coaching and therapy, and I know that some

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of the listeners that all my listeners are generally entrepreneurs, and there

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are many of them probably are coaches, and they are afraid to enter into this

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territory because, there is laws that says I can't therapize or do therapy.

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Without a license.

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So how do you keep that separate?

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And how do you make sure that you're not therapy, but you're coaching

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through the training that I'm taking because they're very specific

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in what you can and can't do.

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And they give you like the system to follow from, from what I'm learning.

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Because I don't want to cross that line.

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I'm not a therapist.

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I'm a great listener.

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I'm very empathetic.

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But I want to be really clear when I'm talking to people, I'm going to lead them

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to where I feel like they need to be.

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And then it's up to them.

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So that's why I'm thankful.

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And I'll send you the name.

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It's a, like I said, I don't know why I can't remember it.

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And sorry, this keeps beeping.

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I don't know how to shut my texts off on here.

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And I thought I had that conversation off.

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It's a bunch of women in my, I have a women's group and they're all like

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texting each other, but I will send you the name of that organization, which

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is probably more important than glue.

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Glue is the platform.

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Okay.

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But the one that, and you may want to vet them, but I think what you

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really want to vet is this, national Christian mental health, group.

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That's probably where the vetting comes in.

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So anyway, I don't know if that answered your question, but no, it does.

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Cause you said the training will support that.

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And cause I do know there's, I have a bunch of friends who are

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coaches invest this space and they said the rules are pretty.

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Solidly black and white.

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And they don't, they really try like hard not to cross lines.

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And I know there's some apprehension, maybe anxiety in that.

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So then going down so for the average person who may or may not be a coach

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may or may not, or may even have some.

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Issues, depression, anxiety, ADHD, any of that.

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What are some things that you can say, Hey, here's how they can support the

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community, be part of the community without maybe even joy without wanting to

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join or be a coach, how can people still support, like just the average person,

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just the average person, like maybe the average church goer, by listening to

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people and not judging them, hearing their story, recognizing somebody's pain.

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Mental health is still something that most find uncomfortable to deal with.

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I've known people that are depressed and they won't say they're depressed

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because like that, it's okay to say you have a sore throat, but is it

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okay to say that you're depressed?

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I think it's harder for men as well.

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So I think literally just being in tune with the Holy Spirit in your life and

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being willing to have that conversation.

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And I think just empathizing with somebody, showing

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compassion, and just listening.

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It's okay if you don't have the answer.

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I think listening and just validating somebody is important.

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Oh, that's, those are good things.

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So it's just basically be a good Christian guys.

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I think it's so funny because like, when we talk about the Bible, we,

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you hear a lot of churches, really go into the greatest things in spiritual

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warfare, the weapons of our warfare or not carnival might be pulling down a

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stronghold, strongholds and all that.

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And then you hear them going into talking a lot about Prayer and praise

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and just doing the things that'll fight.

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But I think one of the biggest things that is missed is in Galatians

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where it says, walk in love.

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Yes.

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The most powerful thing we have as a Christian is to walk in love.

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And that's everything that sums up everything you just said.

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Even in John, first John, it talks about, and they'll know us by our love.

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And guys it's really for the listeners.

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It's really comes down to be present and walk in love.

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And I think that's two things that were absent in a lot of my wife's and

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Eyes journey through mental health, through mental illness and being in

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the church because we've done this for 25 years, walking with Jesus and

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mental health plus and we've done most of it, 99 percent of it alone.

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See now, Jim, this is that, oh, that's so sad because here's the thing.

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Yeah.

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Thank God that you are still a Christian walking with God and you and your

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wife are working this out together.

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But if the church, meaning the people, not just the physical, obviously not the

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physical building, but if the church is not the answer or part of the answer, then

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people are going to go to the world and they're going to probably find the answers

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that they may not be looking for, oh gosh.

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Yeah.

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I see it all the time.

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And again, I'm careful what I say, like I went to a meeting.

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A business meetings of last year was around table

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discussion around mental health.

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You had the psychiatrist from different hospitals and people who have private

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practices and it was our local chamber and they were going to, try to be the answer.

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They were trying to be a catalyst and it was nice.

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They were going to have a quarterly meeting and they were going to do that.

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And it did, it didn't happen.

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The ball, it I don't want to say the ball was dropped, but.

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And somebody dropped the ball.

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I don't know who dropped the ball.

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But in meeting those people, as it's obviously not all Christian

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because it's through the chamber.

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It's just going to be everybody who's a part.

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And my concern is again, without, I'm not saying a non Christian can't help

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somebody, but I know that I've been through counseling when I was a teenager.

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And I know that I went through some counseling as an

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adult and it was pretty bad.

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It did more damage.

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And again, and I don't want to say just because you send somebody

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to a Christian counselor means it's the right thing either.

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It doesn't mean they're good, so I think anybody like what you said, how you're

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going to vet like the organization I'm talking about, anybody who is given

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a recommendation should do a little bit of vetting themselves, make sure.

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And if you're going to see somebody and it doesn't feel right, or if it

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doesn't line up with scripture, I've had Christian friends that are counselors

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and then they say some stuff and I'm like, That is not scriptural, so anyway,

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I'm getting a little bit off topic, but I think that vetting part that you

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said, I don't think you're, I don't think you're getting off topic at all.

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And the reason I don't think so is I think that you brought up a great point.

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Just because somebody calls themselves a Christian doesn't

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mean they understand the Bible.

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And I think that's a huge thing and why people should vet.

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I think that's great wisdom.

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So you don't need to apologize.

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Cause that's not off topic at all in this conversation.

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I wish more people would spend more time in their Bible and understand

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the truths of the Bible to be able to help, cause quite frankly, like when

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we're in therapy, the worldly therapy it's really behavioral modification

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and that's not what God's about.

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God's about transformation.

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And you can behavioral modify all day long, but it doesn't change the heart

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and God's a God who changes the heart.

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And so understanding scripture is what transforms the world is

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great at changing your behavior.

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God is great at changing your heart.

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And I think that's the big difference.

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And I love that direction.

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I could talk for hours on that one alone.

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My goodness.

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So then why do you think even in the Christian realm is there's such a stigma?

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Around mental health.

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Gosh, it's a great question because even as much as I talk about it, I

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hesitate to talk to people sometimes.

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I'm not always, I'm open with you because of, where you're at and I'm

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open with some people, but I still wouldn't hesitate if I had a sore

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throat, I don't care who I tell, but if I'm going to say, Hey, I suffered with

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anxiety and I, or I did this I'm going to be careful who I tell because of it.

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I don't, I wish I had that answer.

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It really.

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Also I could say I know my son keeps telling me I have

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ADHD, which I probably do.

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I still haven't been diagnosed.

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He was diagnosed.

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And for a while I didn't know that was really a thing.

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Apparently is.

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Cause when I went through all the questions, and all that stuff,

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I'm like isn't that normal?

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And I started asking people who didn't have ADHD and they're

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like, No, that's not normal.

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I'm like yeah, I've done this my whole life.

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This is normal.

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So maybe that's it.

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It's not.

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It's so out of the norm that if it's and because people judge, we

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live in this perfect and people judge and that's what people fear.

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People don't judge you if you're sick, but they judge you if

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you have mental health issues.

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Yeah, so one of the big conversations around that, tell you a story real quick

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and then something I've told my wife over and over what I've told my wife, I said,

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if we, if one of us got cancer, we'd have hundreds of people here at the door, but

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because we deal with mental health issues.

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We have nobody coming up and I think that comes down to people

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just don't know what to do.

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And they're afraid of it.

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Like they don't understand a lot of it.

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I remember when we were planning a church, this was, oh gosh, 2009, 2010, somewhere

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like it was about 15 years ago, 10, 15 years ago, right about the time my

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wife was getting officially diagnosed.

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And I remember going to my bishop and I was like, Hey man, like you're in charge

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of 2, 500 churches in 2, 500 churches.

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There's a lot of churches to be in charge of.

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And I said, do you have any other people, pastors, laymen, whatever,

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who are dealing with anything on any level that we're dealing with?

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Because we have, we want to be, have somebody to support somebody to talk to.

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And he looked at me in it and I'll never forget that look.

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And he looked at me.

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He said, Jimmy said in all the churches that I'm in charge of,

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he said, you two are the only ones to come forth and say anything.

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Wow.

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Wow.

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Yeah.

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And I was like, that blew me away.

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That blew me away.

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And then even he didn't know how to support.

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That time, cause we were church planners and planning a church and

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being recently diagnosed based because she had a suicide attempt at that time.

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Just was a level of crazy at the time.

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And I'm used crazy, not in Oh, you're crazy.

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But like just the amount of chaos that was happening.

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And not understanding it, man, and when I say we were alone, like there was

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nobody really there, maybe one or two people, but nobody really was there.

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And so it creates this, like I said, the stigma is there and

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what you're doing is so important.

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So I appreciate you, your ministry what God has called you to, because it's a

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margin that I'm hyper passionate about.

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I said, can I ask you a question?

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You can ask anything I want.

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So in your, with your experience with your wife, with yourself and, or with others.

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Do you think that most mental health problems stem from trauma or is more

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of it something that you're just born with and it's more of a like

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physical and psychological component?

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I think it's both.

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I think there's some things we're born with and some things that are

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environmental And all the reading and the experiences that I've had,

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I've, there have been some things like, so for instance, my wife

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was diagnosed with bipolarism.

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Bipolarism is the belief is believed to be inherited from prior.

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And we saw that in a lot of her dad, her mom, just different people.

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And so it really is this chemical thing happening that she just couldn't regulate.

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And she was diagnosed bipolar.

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And whereas some of the other diagnosis she has was all

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environmental, it was all trauma.

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And there was, those were triggered turned on the gene for that was

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turned on based on the level of trauma and her inability to cope with it.

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One of the interesting things in that happened was that during the last

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three years, We were told she had seven, six, six diagnosed conditions.

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And they said to her, five of them could be processed and you can eventually

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find some level of healing in these five, but this bipolar will never

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be healed because it's a genetic.

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Passer it's passed on genetically.

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It will never be healed.

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I think it was like two years later The lord healed her of that.

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Wow, that's awesome so it was funny because and this is where I think

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in christianity we get challenged by things because What the lord had

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told us and I do believe god speaks to us not audibly but you know

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Internally, this is for my listeners.

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So for you guys who are listening for christian non christian alike It was

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the one thing of the six conditions.

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It was the one thing they said, this could never change that.

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God said, watch me change it.

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I love it.

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Boom.

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To the point where the people who diagnosed her with it were

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like, we must've gotten it wrong.

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We have no evidence.

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And my wife's no.

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God healed this.

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Yeah, that's awesome.

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And so we saw that.

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But then the Lord also told us this, the Holy Spirit pressed upon our hearts

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and said, Hey, I've healed you of the thing they said couldn't be healed.

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Now I'm going to process you through the things that need to be processed.

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And that's your trauma.

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And I think there's this tension we have to live in that says we have to commit to

Speaker: 00:26:11

the process as much as the instantaneous.

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He is.

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And so where I think that there's trouble in the church is especially in charismatic

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churches, and I've been in charismatic churches for most of my time with Jesus.

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Is we want instantaneous healed, done, move on.

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And God's no, there are some things I'm going to process you.

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And I think it's a both ends.

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So I think your environment has a huge role to play in it.

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If you don't have supporting.

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Adults, if you don't have supporting systems and you live in neglect

Speaker: 00:26:44

or you were raised by a narcissist or something like that, you have a

Speaker: 00:26:48

higher tendency to develop something.

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Of course.

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But I do think there are certain ones, such as bipolar, that can also

Speaker: 00:26:57

be genetically passed on because we do live in a sinful world.

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And we do live in a place where the Bible talks about how we're

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going to get more and more sinful.

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The world is going to, basically decay more and more until the coming of Jesus.

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It's going to be like, I think it's going to be worse than the time of Noah.

Speaker: 00:27:14

So we see that there's greater sicknesses right now.

Speaker: 00:27:17

Nami says one out of every five people have a mental illness.

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They said something like 20, 30, 20, 50 in that range.

Speaker: 00:27:24

One about every four people in the world will have a mental illness.

Speaker: 00:27:29

So we're seeing a progression.

Speaker: 00:27:31

So I think it could be both, but I think God is in both and he can deliver you

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from what they say you can't be delivered.

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And he's going to process you and things that they say it's going

Speaker: 00:27:40

to take the rest of your life.

Speaker: 00:27:42

He is the healer and brings things that could be long, quicker, and

Speaker: 00:27:47

there's just different ways, but you gotta be submitted to the process.

Speaker: 00:27:51

God has you on, right?

Speaker: 00:27:53

And if you're submitted to that process, healing could take months or years,

Speaker: 00:27:58

or it could be the rest of your life.

Speaker: 00:28:00

But it's the best way because you're submitted.

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No, I think that's great.

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That's great.

Speaker: 00:28:06

Hey, I have another question.

Speaker: 00:28:07

Not a question.

Speaker: 00:28:09

I know we're like having this conversation.

Speaker: 00:28:10

You're going to be putting this on.

Speaker: 00:28:11

But you mentioned John Maxwell earlier.

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Yeah.

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That you're a part of his team.

Speaker: 00:28:16

I am.

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Do you know any of his fans?

Speaker: 00:28:17

Do you know Jason?

Speaker: 00:28:19

I always say his name wrong.

Speaker: 00:28:21

Stoughton.

Speaker: 00:28:21

I think it's Stoughton.

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Stoughton.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

Speaker: 00:28:24

The name sounds familiar.

Speaker: 00:28:26

So I got to share this with you because Years ago, I used to host leader cast,

Speaker: 00:28:31

which is a different leadership seminar, but John Maxwell used to own it.

Speaker: 00:28:35

And then years later, when John thought he was going to retire, he didn't.

Speaker: 00:28:38

And then he had lived to lead.

Speaker: 00:28:40

So I had contacted John Maxwell to try to bring John Maxwell to Gainesville.

Speaker: 00:28:46

This was like right before 2020 in that process.

Speaker: 00:28:50

Of course we had that.

Speaker: 00:28:51

And then they ended up introducing me to Jason and Jason.

Speaker: 00:28:54

I always love to share his story.

Speaker: 00:28:55

Cause I think you'll appreciate it, especially being in

Speaker: 00:28:57

the John Maxwell world.

Speaker: 00:28:59

When Jason was 14.

Speaker: 00:29:02

He was going to commit suicide.

Speaker: 00:29:04

His mom was abusing him.

Speaker: 00:29:05

Her boyfriends were abusing him.

Speaker: 00:29:07

He also had a pituitary issue that he didn't know at the time.

Speaker: 00:29:11

And he was literally contemplating and planning a suicide.

Speaker: 00:29:15

And when I talk about how I want media to interrupt somebody's world,

Speaker: 00:29:19

like scrolling back in that day, it was the radio, it was more like

Speaker: 00:29:22

you're listening to a radio show.

Speaker: 00:29:24

You listen to John Maxwell on the radio.

Speaker: 00:29:25

It happened to be on in the car.

Speaker: 00:29:27

And John Maxwell told him that.

Speaker: 00:29:29

He had a purpose and then he had value.

Speaker: 00:29:32

And that 14 year old boy started listening to John Maxwell every single

Speaker: 00:29:36

day, like for a few weeks, ended up going to church, ended up getting saved.

Speaker: 00:29:40

Fast forward.

Speaker: 00:29:41

He ended up working for John Maxwell and top leadership for years.

Speaker: 00:29:45

Yeah, so he, we, he and I ended up doing an event together.

Speaker: 00:29:49

We're friends to this day.

Speaker: 00:29:50

He actually does a lot of work in Florida now.

Speaker: 00:29:51

He actually just went on to a different organization, but he still

Speaker: 00:29:55

brings his team to John Maxwell events, but I was just wondering if

Speaker: 00:29:59

you knew him because he was here.

Speaker: 00:30:01

I'm probably friends with him on Facebook.

Speaker: 00:30:03

I may or may not have met him.

Speaker: 00:30:05

I've been in the John Maxwell organization for a while.

Speaker: 00:30:08

Like I was, when I was, went back to college I was part of the first

Speaker: 00:30:13

series of catalyst conferences up in Atlanta when he starts doing that.

Speaker: 00:30:17

I'd gone to the first seven, for several years.

Speaker: 00:30:21

And everything was history since then.

Speaker: 00:30:23

So I absolutely loved it.

Speaker: 00:30:24

But yeah, you bring up something that I think.

Speaker: 00:30:28

Needs to be mentioned in here is like for all you guys who are listening.

Speaker: 00:30:33

Let me say two things because these are super important.

Speaker: 00:30:36

Number one is if you are struggling in any single way, shape,

Speaker: 00:30:40

form, dial nine, eight, eight.

Speaker: 00:30:42

That's the number that the, that they just put out there for the suicide.

Speaker: 00:30:45

Hotline.

Speaker: 00:30:46

I will put that in notes again.

Speaker: 00:30:48

Please do not suffer in silence thinking you are burden.

Speaker: 00:30:52

Reach out, speak out and get the help you need.

Speaker: 00:30:56

Dial 988.

Speaker: 00:30:57

You can email me.

Speaker: 00:30:58

I'll have that in the notes as well.

Speaker: 00:31:00

You can.

Speaker: 00:31:01

We'll also have Jill's contact.

Speaker: 00:31:03

You can reach out to her.

Speaker: 00:31:04

Whatever you need to do to get the help you need.

Speaker: 00:31:06

You are not done.

Speaker: 00:31:08

God is not done with you, which brings me to the second thing you

Speaker: 00:31:12

have a purpose and you have a plan, or God has a plan for your life.

Speaker: 00:31:15

He has a purpose for your life.

Speaker: 00:31:16

I was just reading that in Mark yesterday and Jesus himself even said, he said,

Speaker: 00:31:19

I'm going to go preach over here.

Speaker: 00:31:21

This is Mark chapter two.

Speaker: 00:31:22

He says, and for this I was brought forth and I blew my mind because he's so

Speaker: 00:31:28

there's a whole theological thing in that.

Speaker: 00:31:30

But what I want to focus on is that Jesus knew his purpose and

Speaker: 00:31:34

he, and God tells us our purpose.

Speaker: 00:31:36

And I think that you guys who are struggling, I know it seems hopeless.

Speaker: 00:31:41

I know there's a depth of this.

Speaker: 00:31:44

You're worthless.

Speaker: 00:31:45

You're this, you're not, you have great worth.

Speaker: 00:31:47

And that worth needs to be dealt, like you need to find that in

Speaker: 00:31:51

the Bible and you need to find that among Christian communities.

Speaker: 00:31:55

Because there are people waiting for your breakthrough so that

Speaker: 00:31:58

they can get something from you.

Speaker: 00:31:59

I wanted to digress and set, talk to you guys at the home listening.

Speaker: 00:32:03

Maybe you're watching this on YouTube or whatever.

Speaker: 00:32:05

Because it's something near and dear, passionate just a

Speaker: 00:32:08

little bit behind the scenes.

Speaker: 00:32:08

And then I'll.

Speaker: 00:32:10

Two more questions for you.

Speaker: 00:32:12

My wife has been, and since she was diagnosed, hospitalized, like 10,

Speaker: 00:32:15

11 times we've had IOP programs.

Speaker: 00:32:17

Like huge amounts of stuff.

Speaker: 00:32:20

So suicide is very big in this household.

Speaker: 00:32:22

Not that we want it.

Speaker: 00:32:24

But we have very, a lot of plans and levels.

Speaker: 00:32:27

And last the summer, last summer, she had an actual, another attempt.

Speaker: 00:32:33

And so it's a very rare thing.

Speaker: 00:32:35

And she very much loves Jesus.

Speaker: 00:32:37

So the question is not that whether or not you love Jesus, the

Speaker: 00:32:39

question is the amount of struggle.

Speaker: 00:32:42

Going to overtake you today.

Speaker: 00:32:44

And I want you to reach out nine, eight, eight email, social medias,

Speaker: 00:32:48

there's a lot of help out there.

Speaker: 00:32:50

So let's get you the need.

Speaker: 00:32:52

So that comes down to a couple of things.

Speaker: 00:32:54

Number one is a great segue segments is to say, how do we find you online?

Speaker: 00:32:59

Just go to looking the number four.

Speaker: 00:33:02

Answers.

Speaker: 00:33:03

org looking for answers, looking the number for answers.

Speaker: 00:33:09

org.

Speaker: 00:33:09

I will definitely put that in the show notes and you can reach

Speaker: 00:33:12

out to Jill, her organization.

Speaker: 00:33:15

If you are looking for help number one, or if you were looking to be a coach, she

Speaker: 00:33:19

can set you up to the right direction.

Speaker: 00:33:22

The right direction.

Speaker: 00:33:23

So as before we part and we may end up having more conversations

Speaker: 00:33:26

in the future, have you back on?

Speaker: 00:33:28

Because I think this is a huge thing.

Speaker: 00:33:31

What is a piece of wisdom that you would drop?

Speaker: 00:33:34

I do daily wisdom bombs.

Speaker: 00:33:36

That's one of my things.

Speaker: 00:33:38

What is piece of wisdom?

Speaker: 00:33:39

You would give somebody listening right now?

Speaker: 00:33:43

Probably the best piece of wisdom that I could give.

Speaker: 00:33:47

Is to ask for wisdom from God.

Speaker: 00:33:48

Cause one of my favorite scriptures is in James one, when it says to ask,

Speaker: 00:33:54

for wisdom from God, he will give liberally to all who want to know, and

Speaker: 00:33:57

just not to have that faith and not to doubt he'll show you what to do.

Speaker: 00:34:01

Wisdom is the most important thing you can get.

Speaker: 00:34:04

As we know, that's what Solomon asked for.

Speaker: 00:34:06

And he got everything else asked for it.

Speaker: 00:34:07

So I don't know that I personally have wisdom.

Speaker: 00:34:10

I'm always saying, God, I don't want my wisdom.

Speaker: 00:34:12

I want your wisdom.

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Amen.

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I appreciate that.

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So guys, if you've made it this far in the podcast, thank you for

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listening to grace in the grind.

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With my friend Jill Nash please remember to go looking for answers.

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org to find her.

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Also if you're struggling, remember to go nine, dial nine pound nine,

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eight, eight on your phone or reach out to somebody who can help you.

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So other than that, guys turn into the next episode where we continue

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the conversations of, entrepreneurship and the messiness of that.

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And how we can answer some things biblically and with faith.

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So thanks for listening.

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We appreciate you.

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We'll see you on the next episode.

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This has been Grace in the Grind.

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Whether you're a Christian leader looking for guidance or an entrepreneur

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seeking inspiration, it's Jim's passion to equip and encourage you.

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Make sure to check out Jim's solo episodes, where he shares

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practical leadership insights grounded in a biblical perspective.

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We hope you've enjoyed the show.

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If you did, make sure to like, rate, and review.

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And we'll be back soon.

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But in the meantime, find us on social media at LeadWithJim.

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And you can also hit the website at www.

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leadwithjim.

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com.

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Take care of yourself and we'll see you next time on Grace in the Grind.