EP136 | My Thoughts on a Sunday

Yo, what up, yo, I'm feeling tired, GP quick take, inspire guys, people. I'ma just be all that, so real quick, like, you know, I got like a freestyle, but I'm fine. Podcast, yeah, tell me up, it's gonna be good. I ain't gonna inspire guys, people to pop.

Faith and business to guide you to your purpose. This is a quick take, people, come on. Yo, man, we got some dope topics today that we gonna jump into. Three of them to be exact, and I think I'm actually gonna get to all three of them.

So, let's rot, you know, let's get right into this name, man. It's the Sunday morning, we dropping the show. I told y'all, you know, we about to start dropping additional content, giving you more of inspire guys, people, and the show is gonna continue to build. I have some ideas for some visual and some virtual things, but you know what I'm saying?

Give me time, people. It's a lot to work out, it's a lot to work through. I'm a person that believes this. Here's a bonus topic, know thyself.

Look, for real, for a, this is actually a topic being added now. Hold on, so we gonna, let me get you with just the update of like what we're gonna talk about today. So, I just added know thyself, so that's the fourth one, so I don't know if we gonna get to all of them now. We're gonna talk about wasting time, that's the primary topic.

I really wanna address wasting time from a different perspective than you've heard before, so you don't wanna miss that. I would say if you was gonna choose one topic that you just had to hear today, listen to wasting time. And then the third topic is, I wanna talk a little bit about the vaccine mandates. You know, I typically historically have tried to stay away from political and all these little topics, but I will tell you this.

Now that we have this quick takes format, and I can kinda like get some more topics, when I have quick takeshows, I wanna forewarn you, I do think I'm gonna get into some of these touchy topics that I have, really just wait it. I'm a very like, I try to be thoughtful, objective, observant. I don't like to follow trends, and so there are some things that I wanna talk about that really started developing last year. So you don't wanna miss me talk about that.

That's actually gonna be a real quick one, just because again, as I do start addressing these topics, I don't wanna go down like the path of like, it's too much to unpack, so just we gonna start peeling back the layers with some of these political and social issues. And the last topic, man, I've been talking about this, faith high, fear down. That's not really the topic, but there was a scripture I think I talked about it last week, on the last show, episode 135, Romans 4, 18, and 19. Me and LaVille, LaVille called me yesterday and asked me a question about something.

And I brought this scripture back up, and I just been unpacking it in different ways. So I wanna share, I wanna continue to expound on that scripture, and I'm just calling that section, faith high, fear down, because that's been a real thing for me. This idea of faith high, fear down, trying to keep my faith high, and my fear down with everything that's going on in this world. On top of that, I let y'all hear the song, faith high, fear down a few weeks ago.

And I told y'all, you know, this is what we do. I sent it to Red, sent the idea, he was traveling, he had some things going on, so I knew he would, you know, typically how we work, I sent him something, and we kinda working like a, yo, when it happens, it happens like, you know, you had time, let's see what happens organically, when you feeling it, and sometimes I can take a day, sometimes I can take a week, it could take a month, and it doesn't matter to me, because I care more about getting the right creativity out there and doing it the right way, getting the right message out. So with faith high, fear down, Red sent me back, I sent him like, what I play, you know, piano, I sent him what y'all heard, and then he sent me back something with a whole additional part to the song. So you got that part that y'all heard, and now I'm gonna start recording, after I record this episode today, I'm gonna start recording, you know, the back half of that song.

So those are our quick take topics. Let's get into it while we still have time. These quick takes be, first of all, let me say this. Are you gonna have a show called Quick takes that go for 40, 45 minutes, man?

We gonna try to get this thing under a half hour. Let's try, you know, I have a lot to, let's try. Let me say this, there at least called Quick takes because you're getting more, you're getting rapid fire topics, you know, versus one or two topics on the show, we hitting you at, ah, ah, ah, ah, quick takes, anyway. Don't know why I just did that.

I probably should edit that out, but you know, y'all know how I am, I'm keeping in there. We're not perfect over here, you know what I'm saying? We say silly stuff, goofy stuff, we make mistakes. You know, sometimes you get a show where the audio is missing, but we're not bullet, we are professional.

I will promise you that I am a real life corporate businessman in real life. I'm a person that leads certain meetings. I don't leave every meeting, you know what I'm saying? Let me not front, you know.

But I'm a person that can very well be leading a meeting that is for a six to seven figure deal. So yeah, just understand as you listen to the show like, man, let this guy lead me, I ask myself that every night and you're like, hey, let me in here. Anyway, all right, let's jump into it. Know thyself, why was I gonna talk about that?

I don't know, but I do have something to say about it. I believe like, all right, there's this balance between being like confident, but yet humbling, not wanting to be arrogant and also not wanting to be what I call fake humble, right? Where you're just, you're trying to act humble cause it sounds like the right thing to do. So let me give you an example of fake humble.

It would be like if Steve Jobs created the iPhone, but didn't wanna say he thought it was the best phone. Like, oh, you know what I mean? Everybody makes phones, you know, that's fake humble to me, right? But then at the same time you don't wanna be arrogant, you don't wanna dismiss your competition or, you know, let me not use the word competition cause I'm thinking Steve Jobs and Apple.

But as it relates to this topic, you don't wanna dismiss other people their life whatever they have going on, right? But you do wanna be humble, but you wanna be confident. But you know, it's all these things we got to balance in life. And one thing that I've learned is knowing yourself is key.

So what do I mean by that? Let me give you an example. I know, like you know, when you're doing a job interview, right, most people will say things like, I'm a fast learner, I'm always on time, I'm motivated. And it's like, hold on, bro, fast learner.

Like, do you know what it mean to be a fast learner? That mean you really like learn things like, and I know there's a lot of fast learners out there, right? But there came a time where I had to be real with myself. I started observing myself maybe, this was probably seven years ago when I came to this realization.

And I was like, I don't say that in interviews. Like when you're talking to me, I will not tell someone in an interview or if I'm talking to my boss or if I'm leading a project, I will not tell people that I'm a fast learner because the truth is I'm not. And I'm okay with that. And knowing yourself is part of this is like being okay with reality, because some of us will never get better or never maximize our potential, because we keep lying to ourselves.

And for some reason, church people think lying to yourself is a good thing. Like lying to yourself is not faith. It will be a complete lie for me to go out and dedicate all my time and energy to trying to make it to the NBA. I'm in my late 30s.

It's not happening. I'm not going to the NBA. Matter of fact, like, dudes in the NBA when they get to my age, they retire. 99% of them retire.

So it's like late 30s, LeBron. You got people like LeBron here and you're 19. You know what I'm saying? I'm older than LeBron.

So what's my point at the end of the day? It's like, no yourself. Don't lie to yourself and end up, ooh, wasting time. I see how these go together.

Like knowing yourself allows you to be more efficient. So from me, back to the point, right? It's just simply that I don't have to lie and tell a job that I'm a fast learner because I'm not. I'm genuinely not a fast learner.

I don't pick up things fast. You know what, for me, I'm a strategic learner. I literally need to go step by step. I need to understand and process everything that's happening.

I take notes and then I have to go back and study the notes to learn things. So I learned some about myself. I'm not a fast learner, but I'm a great learner. Once I know something, I have extreme confidence in it.

That's how I can lead a meeting. That's why I can, like, that's what gives me my confidence. But I'm not a fast learner. So I don't have speed.

But what I do have is capacity. So I learned myself and I realized, all right, Jay, you are not a fast learner. So there are gonna be times that people are going to pick up on things and process them way faster than you. This happens to me, I work all the time.

They'll throw something new at us, like some new strategy or people start using acronyms and I'm like, whoa, hold on, slow it. Slow it down. Slow it down. I don't know what that means.

What's the PDPA day? AD, the PDPA day. It's like, hold on, bro. What does that mean?

I ask people all the time. I have no problem with people who know me personally and notice. I will ask you, what does that mean? I know what that means, right?

But here's the thing that I've learned. I have an above average capacity for learning, meaning this, I can be learning 10 things at one time and I can store it all. So I might be good at fashion, music, corporate America. Like, let me, I'm not trying to see this as that.

This is where you start teetering that line between like, I'm not trying to be arrogant, but I'm not trying to be fake humble either. I'm trying to be honest right now. I know myself. I know my limitations and I know my strength.

And that allows me to be more efficient. Okay, that's the overall point. It's to be efficient and not lie. So when I go into a job interview and I want you to think about this for yourself, that's why I'm sharing this in depth.

I want you to think about yourself in this way of like, what am I good at? Last week I told y'all, you know, fire, describe, fire without saying this hot. We're peeling back layers for your self development. This is really important for you to continue to grow in business and faith and in life.

It's for you to be a person that is realistic about your capabilities, your strengths, your skills, your limitations. And so I want you to start thinking about yourself this way and ask yourself, okay, what am I really good at? And what am I not really good at as it relates to faith, right? You got to be real about what your struggles your thorns are and what your potential sins are.

In business, you got to know these limitations because what's going to happen is now you can start properly positioning and selling yourself. So when I'm in an interview or when I'm taking on a new leadership role, I don't mind telling somebody, look, I am not the fastest learner. But here's what you're going to get when you get me. You're going to get a great learner.

So there are times that I come out at a gate, maybe a little slower than other people as I process and understand everything that's happening. But once I understand what's going on, I'm going to lap other people because I have fully learned it. I haven't just gone with surface level thoughts. So for me, I have to fully learn.

And then on top of that, I have a large capacity for learning. That's just something I learned about myself this year. Because I'm like, how can you be learning stocks, cryptocurrency, business, music, fashion, this? And sometimes I find myself looking like, oh, why y'all not doing this?

Like looking at people in my family like, hey, why you not doing this? I'm like, Jay, I had to step back and say, bro, you're not a fast learner, but you have storage. You have a lot of capacity for learning. Like, it's a blessing and a gift that I'm trying to take advantage of.

And that's how I position myself in business is that I can lead multiple teams. Right now I'm leaving two different teams. I got my day job. And then I lead another initiative around some programming and diversity things that we're doing.

So I got two different teams, two different leadership streams. Everyone can't do that. There are some times that I'm gonna be slower out the gate, but I have a larger capacity. Know thyself.

All right, now let's move on into today's primary topic. And I really, really wanted to talk to you about, and that is, wasting time. All right, I posted this on Facebook today. I'm paraphrasing, how did I say it?

Stop encouraging people to waste time just because they're young. It's never too early to walk in your purpose. And here's why I said this. I really started thinking about myself if I'm being real.

I was just reflecting today. These are just my thoughts on a Sunday. You know what I'm saying? And I was reflecting and I was like, bro, like I really wasted my 20s being immature.

That's just me. You know what I'm saying? I'm not saying some good things didn't happen in my 20s. I married my wife.

That was probably the best decision I ever made, right? But in business and life, you know, in some of my struggles and whatever, it's like there are certain things I just didn't really understand. I hadn't really read the word in depth for real and studied in depth. I was a Christian and grew up in church, new to word from that perspective, new to lower from that perspective.

I prayed, but I just, you know, I'm just being real with myself. Know that I said like I really like I was immature in some ways where I feel like I wasted a lot of time in my 20s. That's what made me kicking and gear in my 30s because my 30s was really I had a plan and a strategy about a grace of God executed it. And now as I'm in my late 30s and I am I 40 soon, I'm starting to think about like what that means.

That's a whole different strategic plan. So my strategy is changing. But I was thinking like, bro, how dope would it have been if my 20, if my 30s plan was my 20s and my 40s plan was my 30s, but that doesn't happen too much for us because everybody's always telling us how young we are and like you got time. And you know what?

This is really where I want to unpack this at. Why is it that I'm young when it comes to important stuff, but oh, like I'm advanced when it comes to superficial things. What's my example? Like you will have a situation where it's like our kids can pick up these phones at two years old and literally navigate an iPhone.

I've seen it. I've seen it happen. It happens in my family. You have two to three year old kids that can master a technological machine.

They know how to get to YouTube. They know how to get to YouTube kids. Like these kids, like I'm like, this is crazy how advanced is two year olds that's more advanced than 50 year olds with cell phones, right? But we'll take the same.

We'll take a 12 year old and we'll teach them things that like we'll tell them, oh, Matt, thank for you or, you know, he just don't like school or, you know, you don't, it's okay. You know, he got some time to grow. Oh, y'all know, that's how kids are like, we teach them to be bad. Bad habits and relationships.

We teach little, we celebrate little boys for all the little girls liking them when they 12 years old, we start teaching boys things that we would never want a husband to be to our own daughters, right? And then we expect in the kid to unlearn that. But here's my point. We never, we, we, we never give them the same opportunity with important things.

Like, okay, why, why your 15 year old son can't learn stocks? Why can't your 15 year old son read a financial statement? He can play the video game at expert level. We could play NBA 2K and Madden at expert level, mastered it.

But then we give excuses. Oh, they're young. Oh, and my point with that is you're putting that in their head because the fact that they can be advanced in these other things, they are proven that their youth does not stop them from having the capability to learn. All right, last example there.

So eight year old, oh, they don't, you know, they don't, she don't got to know, no scripture. She too young to learn scripture, right? We not teaching the kid scripture no more. I remember, you know, like Sunday school and things like that.

People was teaching you little scripture songs and all that. You was learning a word, even at school, you know, in school, when I was inquiring elementary, yes, I was in the choir in elementary, you know what I'm saying? Feliz Navidad. Feliz Navidad.

Feliz Navidad, prospeiro. On your Felizidad. I want to wish you a man. All right.

I'm sorry. That was one of my favorite songs. We used the same, but, um, what's my point? Let's go back to that.

When I was in choir, man, we saw Noah's art, who built the art, Noah, Noah, who built the, rather, Noah built the art. I don't remember the key in the tone of how to song. I just remember the words. We were singing Noah's art in elementary school, right now.

the world would end if a teacher tried to probably do that. I don't know that for sure, but my guess is you can't sing about the Bible in school anymore. But we used to sing about the Bible in school. But these days we won't teach a kid the Bible, but a Drake song will come on and a five-year-old will know every word.

You know how scared I get? I'm like, this song is about sex. And kid, like, do you get what I'm saying? We start teaching our kids about sex in relationships through music and lyrics when they're five and six years old and those same kids, we will give them excuse that they're young and that's why they don't know scripture.

Here's, I mean, I told y'all I was going to share something as it relates to wasting time in a way that you never heard it before. And I literally, as I was in a studio preparing for the show, this thought just came on my mind today. How old are you really? Like, I want you to think about something.

We know each other's age, but we don't really know if we're younger old. Okay, follow me on this. There were several people that I know personally that died before high school or in high school or right after high school. I mean it, I know several people who never made it to the age of 20 to 25, right?

People I went to elementary and middle school with, people that I, you know, one person that I grew up on a Black wit and was my friend on a Black light, they never saw 30, right? So here's the thing, right? There's this one kid that I grew up with and I mean, he was gang banging early, like, and it's funny man, because like as a kid, I beat him up. We were probably 10 years old.

I beat him up because he was messing with my brother, Jarrell. He was messing with my little brother, Jarrell, who if you saw me in Jarrell, Jarrell's my big brother, Jarrell is a big, you know, big dude. And I'm more slim, you know what I'm saying? But he my little brother, like, no step to me, bro.

My little brother's no, not step to me, you know what I'm saying? It's a respect there, you know what I'm saying? He could probably get me. It's probably several of them that could get me now.

Anyway, but Jarrell had got beat up and like, you know me, I'm prototypical big brother. I stepped in and I, you know, when I say beat him up at 10 years old, I wrestled him to the ground with her. I mean, he wasn't bleeding, nothing like that. It wasn't a brutal fight guys.

It was a 10 year old fight, really wrestling match. But I got him for my brother. But this kid really grew to be, I mean, at a young age, by probably 15, he was a gang banger. Probably younger than 15 really.

I think maybe 13, he was probably gang banging. He was a great fighter by 13, like nobody really wanted problems with him. I've seen him in front of the rival gang by himself when it was multiple of them and nobody tested him. Like I've just seen him in certain situations, but you know, God rest his soul, you know, he was shot and killed some years back, you know.

And so when I look at that, I'm like, how old was he really? If he got killed at 25 and I don't remember his exact age, but if he got killed at 25, how old was he at 13? At 13, he only had 12 more years to go. At 13, he had already lived more than half his life.

So what am I saying? Like we walk around like we know that like, you might know your age, but you don't know how old you are. So when you walking around like, oh, I'm young, I got time to waste. Oh, well, everybody not going to live to be a hundred.

If you live to be 60, you getting old, bro. You feel what I'm saying? Now, God, listen, I'm not saying like, yes, we all want to live for, you know, I want to be a hundred and ten. You know what I'm saying?

I want to be a hundred and ten and probably would have made it to one more day had I not used all the extra breath on this show talking. I'm gonna be on my death bed at a hundred and ten like, if I just wouldn't have done the last episode. Anyway, my point is we all want to live to grow and be old and healthy at all. Like, and that's the goal.

That's my goal. Trust me, I'm not speaking death on anyone. Like I pray long life and longevity and prosperity and health for you all. But what I'm telling you is that the reality is you don't know how old you are.

You know your age, but you don't know if you're younger. Oh, because that's all relative to how old you live to be. If you live to be a hundred and you 35, oh, you're a young fellow right now. You're a young lady.

You got all the time in the world. But if like, listen, people in my family who passed at 40, I got onset uncles, health issues, whatever. Man, when I look back, I'm like, man, if she died at 45, how old was she at 25? So at 25, would I have gone to her and told her, you know, oh, don't worry about it.

You know, it's gonna, you're gonna be all right. You got like, no, it would have been like, hey, time is up the essence. You have work to do. You have purpose.

Live this life. Don't waste no time. Get every drop of life out of it. Enjoy the process and give God glory.

Just something for y'all to think about. You might know your age, but you don't know how old you are. All right, let's move to the next topic. We're gonna talk a little bit about these vaccine mandates.

And because I want to get to this last topic, I want to get to the last topic. These last two are kind of quick for real. They're really quick takes. I'm not gonna spend a lot of time on this vaccine thing.

First of all, understand that, you know, when I'm sharing this right now, like, I'm not a doctor. I'm not trying to be a doctor. I'm not trying to give you medical advice. I'm also not judging you whether you have it or you don't have it.

That's not my intention with this is to argue about whether people have the vaccine or not and make you feel bad for either option. That's not my goal right now is to make you feel bad for which of those options you chose. But I do want to share or I'll say what bothers me. And I probably, I think I said this on a previous show.

I think the way we're thinking through things as a, as a, I'm not even going to say as a country, as a world, it's starting to concern me because we're starting to take on some real illogical frames of thought. And if I'm being real, I think some of it is because we are an overly entertained and an under educated society. We're overly informed and under educated as well. So what does that mean?

I think people have mistaken access to information so if you think about it in comparison to any other time in life, we got Google Wikipedia, we got all type of information, we can access information in seconds, right? So we have more access to information than anyone else in the world. But I don't know that that necessarily means that we are more educated. Maybe we're more educated about book smarts, maybe we're less wise.

I don't know. Maybe it's the content that we're reading or we're consuming that's not doing as well. But what I will tell you is this, basic critical thinking skills seem to be lacking more and more in our society today. Meaning this, if someone presents you with an option or two options or a situation, right?

You know, critical thinking is like, you're getting presented with a situation. Sally had two apples. She dropped one on the ground. What should she do?

You know, like, just like, how would you think through something, right? And here's what I'm starting to see in this world today. Our critical thinking to this point goes like this. Sally had two apples.

She dropped one. What should she do? Our answer is whatever the government tell us to do, whatever the TV news anchor tell us to do, whatever the social media mean, tell us to do. So we are now starting to shame people for wanting to think for themselves, for wanting to critically think for themselves.

All right. I want you to really think about this. And this is the one thing I'll share with people that really is interesting to me, right? Just from a thinking perspective, I'm not judging anyone, but from a thinking perspective.

The topic of abortion is a big topic in America, right? That's a very largely debated topic in America. When I sit back and look at that topic, you have really three options, at least from a political standpoint, I think, and hopefully I'm not messing this up. I think there's like pro abortion, anti abortion, and pro choice, something like that, right?

And so let's deal with the pro choice thing, even the pro abortion, abortion statements. The arguments that I hear at least from a high level media perspective is, hey, it's her body, her choice, right? This is her body, right? So we, we're not going to get into the details of abortion.

That's not my point. We're not going to deal with the fact that there's another body inside of you and what that means and how that comes into play, because that's another, that's an added variable in comparison to the vaccine. That's an added variable. But let's just take it a step back and just say, at a high level, the logic or the form of thinking is, it's my body or my choice.

This is why I like principles. So if you adopt that principle, you should be able to copy and paste that logic and that principle to other topics and issues. So a person that is pro choice for abortion should also be pro choice for vaccines, right? You would think because a vaccine is also someone's body, my body, my choice.

But what I've seen is that we pick and choose when we want to take on certain logic. So if we like a topic or an issue or we emotionally feel that a person should be able to make that choice or we've been convinced or influenced by our favorite celebrities or the people we follow on social media that this topic is something that I should be, oh my God, I should really think about this, right? We tell and share stories to influence people. That's what happens, right?

Cool. But you would think that, okay, if you are pro choice for a woman to say that this is her body and she should get an abortion, then it seems like you would have no problem with a person who says this is my body, my choice as it relates to a vaccine and inserting something into my body, right? Now, again, with the abortion, nothing considered about, you know, the health of others or the well-being of others, because if you add the variable of the well-being of others in it, then you have to consider the baby that is in the mother's womb. So now you can't say my body, my choice, when you add another variable, you have to consider that extra person.

Because so the same people that want to say maybe they say, well, you got to be mandated because of how it affects other people. All right, cool. Again, well, if you feel that you should have no problem with mandating that abortion should not, we should be anti-abortion and they should be illegal. If you want to be completely pro mandating a vaccine, not if you choose to get a vaccine yourself.

That's not what I'm dealing with here. So don't take it wrong. I'm specifically dealing with individuals who want who feel that they can make the choice for other people what they should do and what they should inject in their body, right? The problem with all of this is that it's so illogical as you try to apply the logic from situation to situation, what I'm more so see people doing, it's just following whatever pop culture and the news and media says do.

And we're creating an environment that if you question in the popular opinion of the news, man, you're evil or you are, you know, like crazy or whatever. Like, and I'm just telling y'all, that's a very challenging place to be as a society. Because here's the other part, saying people who are basically saying, yo, I want to be able to force you to get the vaccine. Now we're talking about the logic behind it.

I don't even want to get into the logic behind like a lot of the campaigns that I see on commercials and YouTube and stuff is like, I got it because I care about others. Again, we're talking critical thinking. The vaccine does not prevent you from spreading the virus to other people, right? So okay, you could care about me, but you could still give it to me.

The vaccine is really a personal at least the strongest point that I've heard made is that well, it is supposedly does not cause you to have the most extreme or deadly symptoms. That's a very selfish decision. That had but but the media marketing campaign around it is presented as I'm doing it because I care about you. No, you're putting on a bullet proof vest, you're saying I don't want to get sick.

What does that have to do with other people because you can still give it to people. So even that is a little illogical. Here's the last thing I want to say about that because I know that this triggers people and I want y'all to know something as I talk about these topics. My intention isn't to trigger people, but I understand that people will be triggered.

So I got to live with that when I talk about this type of stuff. I just have to be comfortable with that even though I'm you know, trying to be very clear and upfront about the fact of what my goal is and discussing this. I'm talking about this as a critical thinker to tell someone that I want to be able to make the decision about what's safe for you. That means I should be able to walk up to somebody who's smoking cigarettes and snack it out of their hand because second hand smoke is more dangerous than first hand smoking, right?

And we know that cigarettes cause cancer. So anything that causes cancer, I should go knock it out your hand. Do you know when you go in a store today, if you read the tag, I go in a hardware store, you could buy a hammer and there's a cancer warning on it, right? It's like, I forget what it's called, props something warning, whatever.

But they have to warn you when there's some type of material or something in a chemical now, or at least they're starting to have to and I don't know the details of that law, but they're starting to put it on the warning labels. So what does that mean? We know that cancer is a deadly disease and we hate it, but we also don't get to choose how people prevent cancer. Like I don't get to go up to you and say, I'm knocking this chicken out of your hand because it has antibiotics and steroids and all type of other things that could potentially lead to some type of illness.

The precedent that's being set that you get to make the decision about what's safe for someone else. Only thing I'm just forewarned and everybody of is that's a very dangerous place to be. Lastly, we're creating a unique environment of new discrimination. I said this was going to be a quick topic because I wasn't going to go to all my real thoughts, but I just, I went there, right?

You know, it is what it is at this point. As it relates to new discrimination, here's what I mean. We spent all of last year talking about social injustice and people were marching and protesting. We're not going to deal with the fact that whether whatever side of politics you were on, there were marches and protests on each side of politics in the middle of COVID, there was a decision made that this is so important.

It doesn't matter that your life is at risk, right? And now people were fighting discrimination last year. Now, we're just saying, no, let's just discriminate in a new way. So now we are talking about something that's supposed to be a personal medical decision and medical record.

In no other time in my life, have we ever been able to know what somebody is vaccinated or not vaccinated with or what medication they're on? I mean, could you imagine if people started having access, your job could judge you based on your medication choices? Oh, you're deciding to be on anxiety pills? Oh, man, I'm not giving you this job.

You can't travel because you don't take, you can't travel because you don't take anxiety pills or you do take anxiety pills or you don't take blood pressure medication and you got the, like, you're cholesterol. Look, you're not supposed to be able to discriminate against people for these things. You're not supposed to be able to look at somebody and say, oh, you can go somewhere, you can't like, this is precedent. And the only thing I want to tell y'all is as it relates to precedent, history shows me, I believe history shows us all.

Once precedent has been set, it doesn't go back, right? Once precedent has been set, you don't go back to normal even when it's gone. You know, it was a yesterday was the 20th anniversary of 9 11 guy wrist, everyone's soul who lost their lives during that time. We know how tragic that was in this country.

And because of 9 11, there had to be new laws implemented with the TSA and, you know, going into airports became very intense after 9 11, right? It all the rules change and it's been 20 years. And guess what? When you go to the airport you still can't have a bottle of lotion of certain size.

You still can't bring certain things on. And that's because once precedent is set, 20 years later, 9 11 is gone. I pray it never happens again. Nothing like it, but it's gone.

But since the precedent was set, then we keep doing the protocols. That's it. That is all I want to say about the vaccines. And again, man, just know that it's coming from a place of love.

Know that whether you choose to get it or not, you know, I have no gripe with that. I just have a concern about other people being able to make the decision for you to the point of mandating it. Like we're not even talking about voting for laws, right? We're not talking about, hey, let's add this to the ballot and let's vote on how we feel about this in a majority rules, right?

In a democracy. No, we're saying, no, I decide that you're getting it. Like that's just a dangerous place to get. You know what I'm saying?

And for anybody who thinks we could just fully trust the government 100%. When is the last time that you got great customer service from the IRS? When they decide to hold your money or you owe us or that? No, that you know, there's no customer service.

Like that's why Amazon exists because the government is the post service. That's a government rent business. At the end of the day, they don't have to give you good service at the post office. So what do you do?

You have Amazon, now you create competition, now the post office got to deliver faster now. They got to process more because if they want to compete with a non-government entity, an entrepreneur in business, and that's the importance of free thinking business, entrepreneur mindsets, people having being able to think for themselves and create and do things that way. And we just changed the scope of the country and what it means to be an American and what it means to be free. If we take those freedoms away, if for somehow I become a bad person because I want to be able to critically think for myself or want you to convince me to do something and let me choose to do it versus force me to do it.

If that makes me a bad person, how scary is that? Especially when I'm not mad, I'm not hollering nobody, I'm not disrespecting anyone for their choice. But man, we got a mandate and force people. That's...

Man, when does it stop? All right, let me try to get in this last topic, man, since I took so much time talking about that one. Hopefully y'all not triggered out there. Hopefully y'all still love me and share this episode and share it with a friend and get people to hear and listen to my thoughts on a Sunday.

And really, I'm trying to champion critical thinkers and people who think for themselves. I'm not telling you to do what I say, dude. I'm telling you, no. Look, I'll present an argument.

I'll present a position. And if it makes sense and if it's something that you connect with and resonate with, then great. Join the community. Join the family.

But if you see it differently, I'm not forcing you to go to my church. I'm not forcing you to be a Christian because I'm a Christian. No, we might make an argument and make a case for Christianity, but there's no forced mandate that you'll be a Christian because it's for the goodness of your soul and I want you to go to hell. All right, last topic.

Faith high, fear down. I will say this. In the midst of all these things that's going on in the world, man, all of these ups and downs and the negativity, keep your faith high and you'll fear down. Let's check out Romans.

Chapter 4, verse 18 through 19. And again, I read this, I believe last week. It ain't what it looks like. Let me start with, LaVale hit me up yesterday.

He called me and he asked me a question about this doctrine, acts what I felt about it. I'm not going to get into that. Maybe we'll talk about it whenever he comes back on the show, but he asked me this question and I took him back to this scripture. And when I went there yesterday, something knew hit me that didn't hit me last week.

And this is why I think maybe this is where it comes in. Like I'm not a fast learner. I have to process things over and over again for a really to connect, right? But so I've been looking back and thinking about the scripture almost every day.

Verse 18 says this, Romans 4, 18 and 19 from the new living translation, even when there was no reason for hope, Abraham kept hoping, but even that he will become the father of many nations. For God had said to him, that's how many descendants you will have. Verse 19, and Abraham's faith did not weaken, even though at about 100 years of age, he figured his body was as good as dead and so was Sarah's womb. All right, so a couple things here, man.

I was kind of confused, like, about certain aspects of the scripture when I first was reading it because I'm like, well, was his faith higher or not? Like here from here, like first it says, when there was no reason for hope, he kept hoping. That's deep to me. Like, wait a minute, you are hoping even though you have no reason to hope, that's deep.

It ain't that encouraging, but it's deep because it's saying even when it doesn't look like I have a reason to hope, I should hope. Okay, cool. But this is where God tricked you to me and said his faith didn't weaken. I'm like, okay, his faith didn't weaken.

But then it goes on to say even though he figured his body was good as dead. And I'm thinking to my mind, like, bro, if you figure your body good as dead, ain't that weak faith? Like that don't seem, but then say it with me. Then it hits me.

Say it with me, people. Then it hits me. You got to say that when you want to sound smart and deep, and we need some background, then it hits me. What this is saying is that when you, when Abraham was operating in faith, his faith was superseding what he saw.

I know that we all know that we walk by faith and not by sight, but what Abraham was literally saying is based on what I saw, my body was as good as dead. Based on what I saw at this age, my wife's womb was as good as dead. Everything that I see gives me no reason to hope, yet I hope. It ain't what it looked like.

It ain't what it looked like, people. Look, I don't know how much that connects with you, but I can only tell you that there are things that I'm hoping for that I don't know if I really have a reason to hope for. And that's a deep place to be. It is a very deep place to be when you find yourself really living in faith.

We're not talking about just fake phages, talk about fake. Give me a car. You get good credit, save some money. You can get a car.

Cars easy to get. It's easy to get a car. It's fairly easy to get a house. You know what I'm saying?

At least in America, as it is today, you can still go out and make money and be an entrepreneur, get a job. Money is there, right? We're talking about having faith for something that don't make sense. Abraham kept hoping even though he had no reason to hope.

I just want you to meditate on that today. I just want you to think about that today. What does that mean for your life? What does that mean for your faith?

Keep your faith high and your fear down. This whole idea of like keeping my faith high and my fear down, that's what it means. It means let me, let me heighten what I'm hoping for. What I'm trusting God and believing God for based on his promise.

We talked about that last week, right? It's important that what I'm hoping for is based on what God wants to happen. Once I'm delighting in his ways, and it says that in his scripture, like it literally says that. It says that for God said to him, that's how many descendants you will have.

So Abraham was hoping for what God had wanted, right? And so even though God promised him something, it didn't look like it made sense. All I want to tell y'all, man, is that God can do anything. It doesn't have to look like it makes sense.

It doesn't have to look right to you and it doesn't have to look right to other people. Let me repeat that. It doesn't have to look right to you for it to be a God thing. And so many of us, we worship ourselves.

We worship our wants. We worship our thoughts. His thoughts are not your thoughts. His ways are not your ways.

Stop worshiping your wants. Stop worshiping your thoughts. What do I mean by worshiping your thoughts? Well, it looked like it.

That's what it looked like to me. So that's what it got to be. I'm with that. That's what it looked like to me.

If God said something different, if God could do something different, then worship him. Worship his ways. Worship that. At the end of the day, keep your faith high, keep your fear down.

And please do share this with someone. If you enjoyed this show, all you got to do to get in touch with me is email me germanewillseymusic at gmail.com. I appreciate anyone who emails and tells me what they think about the show. Thank you so much for the people who constantly show love.

Sometimes I do take a minute to get back. If you ask me an end up question, I get a lot of end up questions, which I love. So just understand, I love the questions. I love the dialogue, but sometimes I am getting super busy and sometimes I might reply next week or three days, whatever it may be, but it's done out of love.

Keep hitting me up. germanewillseymusic at gmail.com. You can see how to contact me in the link or the description of the show. Also find me on social media.

Shoot me a DM. Tell me you like the show. Share the show with someone. Do all that stuff.

We connected. Join the text community. That number text being inspired to the number that's in the description of the show. And listen to whatever song I'm about to add to the end of this show and notice you can find my music anywhere that music is downloaded, streamed or played.

Apple music, Spotify and all that good stuff. All you have to do is search J-Wheel music. That's J-W-I-L-M-U-S-I-C. You later.

That was so corny. I know it's not for everybody. You know, I know that. And that's why I'm titled this.

So whom it may inspire you. The way I see it. If you still listening. I will just see you.

Before you shine the light and the light is only kind of bright. Tell me all you good enough to take your purpose and the wild and turn your life into a song like I'm still grateful. Break the Loose. I ain't trying to hear what he came.

Check it, track it. He's a savior. He's a savior. He's a savior.

Got two words for him. Thank you. See you. Then if he goes, that means he's a little bit.

Moving if he gone, hit him. If he's gone, hit him. If he's gone, hit him. If I was broken, start his saving.

That must mean something. If I invest in your potential, then I've seen something. You gotta see it too. This was inspired by the writers of the Bible from creation to the fire.

My desires for you to read it too. And when you give your life to Christ, you gotta see it through. See anyone, just stay committed for a week or two. But it's not so weird.

We can broken that we see what he can do. So, seriously, J-Wheel music.