Increase Your Capacity with Court!

Well, welcome everybody, to Made for Mondays. I'm Justin and this is Courtney. And so today we're starting something a little bit different. And so as we've looked at the podcast and as I'm evaluating some things and some things going on in our lives as well, I'm actually going to shift our podcast ever so slightly. And instead of it being just me, Courtney is going to be joining us on the podcast. We're going to be changing the name of the podcast and be doing some different things with it. Because the goal now is not just to be made from Mondays, but now what it means to increase our capacity. Yay. As we navigate through what increasing one's capacity is and all of that, there's some personal ventures that we're going to be going in, but this is still the intro, so I don't know why I'm going so far in. So welcome to Made for Mondays. You're Made for Mondays. Money Doesn't Own youn. I'm Justin.

And I'm Courtney.

And let's get started today. Well, welcome back. So, like I said a second ago, so we're looking at a different format for Made for Mondays. The goal is still to empower you and to challenge you on being all that you are created to be, all that God has called you to be, and all that you know you're capable of. But it's not just going to be my voice. So we'll have some guests and things like that. But Court, tell us a little bit about what you envision and what you see as we embark on this journey of assisting people in increasing their capacity.

Yeah. So I've been a wellbeing coach for about four years now. And as I navigated, I have coached tons of people just like off the cuff, not even a part of my job and a part of my job. And I thought now is the time to really branch out and to do that for all types of people, whether that's coaching individually, marriage coachings, transitional coaching, because we've been through a lot of transitions or organizational development and coaching within organizations and bringing, well being into a workspace as well as publishing as well. We together have written six books. Now mainly just that has the bulk of those, but we've self published, been on Amazon and been everywhere and we want to give that to people who are aspiring to be authors as well and coaching them through, you know, how to write. How do you get your thoughts in your head, head and putting them on paper? How do you get it out there and how do you Even like sell your book, you know. So we're here for all types of coaching. It's called capacity. Which is great reason why we call it capacity is because although life changes, we can't stop life circumstances. Right. Things are going to happen, but our capacity to handle things will grow. And how we see things and how we're able to grasp how we're able to grieve, move forward, get better jobs, better careers, meet our goals and be better people in our workplaces. 100%, that can definitely change.

Yeah. So that's the goal of capacity. And now as we engage in this podcast as well. So I'm excited to do this together and excited to prayerfully assist all of you to continue to grow, to be all that we know you can be. And so we'll take a look now. One of the ways we'll add more. So one of the things I've done is just come in and just like, hey, this was on my mind and let's talk for 10 minutes or get a guest in and hear their story. And now we're really going to actually see like, so what's on our minds and diving into it. And one of the reasons this is important to us is when just our own lives. So I've been thinking about this recently as we're working on our next book called bffr Be Faithful For Real. And as we were working on that book, I began to reflect upon life in general and going back to. So my. We were in Rhode island and. And the second Sunday of February is when I announced I was leaving my last space.

Yeah.

And so we knew back in the month of January that things were gonna be changing. I announced it in February when things began to be final with my current context. And then after that, I mean, there's every move. It's not always traumatic. I think we overuse in the word trauma nowadays. Like, you know, there's. People are having actual blunt force trauma.

And massive traumatic experiences.

Yeah. But like you stubbing your toe is not trauma. Right. And. But I mean, it's just. It's amazing. And that's where Cancel Culture. My class actually this week is discussing the ethics behind Cancel Culture.

Wow.

And we're having. Because that's been always like a thing anyway. That's a shameless whatever book for our class. But anyway, so I'm not the same person I was and that's not a negative thing. But my preaching has changed my teacher teaching exchange to the person I interviewed as is totally different from who I am today. The way I Structure sermons where I see life and then not just like so in that moving city to city, right. It's not necessarily traumatic, but it's transition, Right. I think there should be delineation, right? So getting a new job is not necessarily traumatic, but it's transition. So there's new people, there's new experiences even for us. We move from Eastern time zone to Pacific time zone standard time from, you know, I moved from a car to a truck. Cam went from kindergarten to first grade. We moved just from like literally the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. Yeah, right.

And those three hours, it was a lot. They, they, they mean a lot. Yeah, you never would think it, but they take you out three hours and.

You know, and so there's that and there's like, then in the midst of all that, my mother got sick. And then that was two days after Mother's Day, my mother had a stroke and. And then my mother passed away a couple months later. I mean, there's just all these different types of transitions. And one of the things we've learned is that you have to be faithful to God in the midst of all of it, right? And your faithfulness to God is going to engender faithfulness to yourself and then faithfulness to those around you. And when one of those, that whole triangle, you know, love your neighbor as yourself, love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul, and love your neighbor as. I think the whole triangle has to play in together when it comes to faith, faithfulness, and comes to honesty, when it comes to transparency, all of that comes together. And so that's where I think we're trying to master and bring you all on the journey. So I had to admit, you know, I am just a different human being. Like, just the things I want to do, the engagements that I want to engage in, the things I won't say no to. Like, there was an opportunity to have a speaking engagement, right? And I mean, it hits both of us in the core. And normally, right, I would just take stuff for free or do whatever and just bend over backwards and just be like, I'll do whatever. Now I'm at a point where I'm just like, no, my time is valuable, my gift is valuable, and it's amazing how we're valuable until someone tries to guilt trip you into like, no. Demean your value for the sake of us. Right? Like, for some reason, like, likes and clicks are more valuable than like, your time, right? And you'll get in front of great people. No, Like, I am worth this Much. And it's this. It costs this much to ride. And I'm struggling with being okay with, like, if your reputation is like, I value who I am.

That's so real.

Yeah.

I think a big part of that is something that you said. He said a lot of stuff. But when you were saying, like, one of God's greatest commandments over us is to love people like we love ourselves, love God, of course, and love others as we love ourselves. But a lot of points that we're missing in that is that we don't love ourselves well. Right. Like, you know, accepting something that is either beneath your value or even has no value to you does not allow us to even see the value in others. Right. If I can't see the value of myself. And I think it's this huge trajectory. I think we're in these stark, polarizing times, right. Where people are either stuck so into themselves and just value themselves so much that they can't even see anybody else besides themselves, or people have no value in themselves. Right. Therefore, can't treat other people's people well, can't treat God well because we don't even love ourselves. So how can we love our Creator? Or we love God so much, we love ourselves so much that we can't even see God because we're so big into ourselves. Right. And so I think that is the self. The self is really important in that triangle. And how we love and how we do and how we grow ourselves, which is the point of our book. Right. And it's a play on words like the bffr. We love that word. Faithful in there, instead of the beep word. But it's like, let's be for real. Let's be for real about the journey.

Right.

Like, life sometimes absolutely sucks.

It does.

It does. And let's be for real on that. Right? Like, absolutely. You talked about our journey moving from Rhode island to California, albeit fun. Yes. We're in California. We love this area. I feel like this area kind of fits who we are. Just we're pretty chill people already. So I just feel like it just. The California vibe is definitely a vibe here. It's just very easygoing, and I feel like it fits our personalities, but just the transition in it all. Like, let's be for real. Or, like, these things look good in theory, or you want to grow in your career, but let's be for real. You don't have the degree, or you don't have the certification, or quite frankly, you don't know how to start the business because you don't even know. Like, have you ever read, like, those governmental sites of just, like, how to register a business? Like, it's hard. Let's be for real in the journey, and in that realness, we're able to be faithful, and then we're able to see how God has been faithful and has worked it out all along. So that's been the.

Yeah, 100%. 100%. Well, let's jump into it. So here's how we're going to structure our podcast going from here on out. So occasionally you'll meet our child, Camden, in our segment Kicking it with Camden. Right.

I'm sure you'll love that.

You guys were introduced to Cam earlier this year in our segment Kicking it with Camden. And so we'll. We'll bring Cam in occasionally for Kicking It With Camden. The way we're going to structure it is just, like, literally what's on our minds. Each week, we'll both pick something that's on our minds, and then we'll end with an unpaid advertisement, where the unpaid advertisement is something just listen, this is what. If we could get paid for this, this is what we would do. But we're not getting paid for the advertisement. But if I was going to have an advertisement today, that's a paid advertisement to myself. It's my book, Necessary Endings. So if you haven't read the book Necessary Endings, it's on Amazon. It's Also my website, jrlester.com, it's a book that goes through four mindsets that I impart into you, and it's only about 110 pages. It's a very short read. You can read it in one sitting. And the goal is so that you're able to read it that quickly, and it walks through how to shift your mind to handle. Right. And what needs to die. And it goes to a moment in my life where the Lord said to me, some things need to die, and it's not you. And so it was four mindsets that I had to crucify in order to move forward. And then we're working on bffr, and I started working on this other one way back when, called I'm Ready, which is the next step to Necessary Endings. And so that'll come out sometime next year. But I'm excited to continue that journey. And it's amazing because the Lord even told me what to preach, and I'm preaching that series. And everywhere I go outside of my context, I've been preaching the chapters of I'm ready.

Yeah. And I Will say, shameless plug. Like, I love a good book. You know, like when you first read a book and you're like, I don't know if I want to keep going with this. This book is such a good book. It's a good, readable book. So, like, you know, just like, you want that feeling to not only finish a book, but to be like, wow, that was a good book. Justin's necessary ending book is one of those books for you, and so get it. I'm not even saying that because I am biased. And whatever you put out, I'm like, rah. But I'm being for real. Be for real. This is as real as it gets. It's a good, readable book that just has amazing pockets of wisdom and knowledge.

So thank you. So let's jump into it. So what's on your mind? I guess you can ask me, Gord, what's on your mind?

What's on your mind?

You know? So we're recording this on Saturday. I preach on Sunday. I've been going over my sermon for tomorrow, and I keep getting stuck at this statement. So I'm preaching the book of Revelation, and Jesus is having a conversation with John. And those of you who are not saved or Christian, I know a number of you listening aren't, and that's absolutely fine, but just hear what I say in this. So Jesus is having a conversation with John, and he says to John, you know, tell the church of Ephesus that I've seen all this amazing work that you do, but you have something against you, that you've lost your first love. The word love. There is the word motivation, right? And so it's not like, you know, they just stopped going on dates and stuff, but literally, they stop being motivated behind all this work. And literally the context is they're doing all this amazing stuff. So they say, listen, Paul says in Acts 20, hey, watch out for false teachers. And they're like, no, no false teachers. And they're making sure that anybody who's against truth is gone. Right? They have 14 pagan gods in the city of Ephesus, and they are ensuring that none of these pagan gods have any state. They don't even go to the mall. There's this massive mall in the center of the city that, like, they didn't go to the mall because in order to go into the mall, you had to take incense and sacrifice, like, for good spirits as you walk into the mall. So they stopped that. The Christians didn't go to the mall. The Christians weren't going to These pagan gods, the Christians were doing the right thing, right? And they were working so hard. And the word there is like toil. Like they were working their fingers to their bone. And Jesus says, like, thank you, but you've lost your first love. And it made me think about, as I get ready to do this and as I've been praying for my congregation and now as I'm like just in my head a little bit about like in my own life, where I've lost motivation, right? Like, you know, it's, it's this like where you're working with toil. Working, working, working, working, working. Maybe that's for you too. Like, maybe you're here and this is just my mind. Like, you know, you're going to work every single day. You're working 8 to 6, 8 to 8, 8 to 9, or parenting. So you're like, you work in 8 to 5 and you're parenting from 5 to 8. And parenting is a whole job in and of itself. You're running a house, you're running a business, and you're just working, working, working, working. And maybe the opportunity and maybe we can discuss is how to find your motivation again so you don't lose yourself. I don't ever. I don't think for a lot of us Jesus is going to come be like, hey, I see you working at Target, but I have this against you. You don't. Like, I don't think that's the case. But I think about like, you are like going to all the community organizations, all the community events, you're volunteering for your kids school, you're on pta, you are doing all these amazing things and like, are really good. They're really good. Like you're avoiding pagan God, you're not doing voodoo. Like, they're doing great stuff. And Jesus says, but you lost your motivation. And in losing your motivation, you lost me. So get me and you'll recover everything. And I'm wondering, and I'm noticing in my own life where it's like, wow, have I lost motivation for what I'm doing? And I'm just doing it because I.

Went to school for it.

And I think even seminary and I'll stop talking, but like, even seminary, like seminary teaches us to be really good pastors. Like, it's just like this theologically on a vaccine trip. But then the thing hit me. There's a survey came out for that said that 27, 28. I think it was 27, 27. I'm trying to remember the article. 27% of pastors. So 27% of people who graduate from seminary never open their Bible. Wow. So it's not just like, I'm all for seminary, I'm all for school. Please, if you're a pastor, go to school. You want a pastor to go to school and pay them fairly. But 27% people who graduated from seminary never read their Bible. Meaning they're doing the work. Lean non profits, they're changing the world, but they've never cracked open the scriptures that started that institution. And it makes me wonder today, and maybe you can think about in your own life too, the areas where, like how easy it is to lose motivation and how to get it back without just working our fingers to the bone. I just don't. I think like God told us to not be afraid. He told us to not have fear and he told us to rest, right? And yet I think we're like, and told us to walk, not run. But I think we're like really scared. We have a lot of fear. Like a lot of fear. We don't sleep and we're constantly running.

Right into the rat race and the rig morale. No, that's really interesting. And I was sitting there and I'm like, oh my gosh.

Wow.

I can't believe they don't pick up their Bible. But then again, I'm like, did I pick up a sociology textbook from after I graduated college to just like read it? Did I take my business? But I was business and sociology major and I have an msw, a master's in social work. And I'm like, after I graduated, I don't think I'm just like reading textbooks, I'm reading books, you know, and trying to get like, you know, what's current. But just like anything, I think in any profession or anything, I think that's what our world has taught us, right? Get the education, go do the education, do it. And then this is the linear path in which things are to happen, right? And that's why Jesus came. Because Jesus is like, I'm not interested in the linear path of things, right? But as a society, just worldwide really, we've come to know you grow up, you go to, you go to school, you get married, you get a job, you do that and everything is a step. And it's not necessarily like a way of life, right? And then, so then you put that same principle into your Christian walk, right? Which is supposed to be this all comes thing taking over your life type movement of Christianity. But we apply the same models and practices to it, right? So if you been in church your whole life. You go to Sunday school. You know the basics, right? Like, yep. You know the stories, the big ones like the Noahs and the Moses, the ten Commandments, and, you know, the Egypt story. And then, you know, Jesus came to earth and, you know all the points of, like, what a great good Christian should know. But I don't think we go further to really do that. And then we confuse the good works for, like, relationship with God, right? Like, we lose that rubber and hear this. I think majority of us never even fell in love the first time.

Yeah. I don't think a lot of us have honestly met Jesus, right? And. And there's a reason why Jesus felt like the seven letters to the churches is I keep reading these. So for me, I try to embody these. And so I studied them. But as I'm trying to see myself in it, I think one of the issues is that they never fell in love with Jesus. They fell in love with like, ooh, he died, right? And was resurrected. And, like, we're saving people. And now here comes Paul and we're not going to worship at the multi titty God, Diana, go look it up. And like, we're going to do this. And, like, we're going to, like, not have the orgies. Like, here's the thing, I'm telling you this. They were having orgies.

Oh, my gosh, I swear these scriptures.

So when he says, like, put on the full armor of God so you can stand against the walls of death, because he wrestled against flesh and blood. But, like, all the. It's like, really cute, right? It has nothing to do with war, but everything to do with orgies.

Oh, my God.

Orgies. Like, these people in Ephesus were terrible. And so, like. But it makes me think of, like, today, though, like, okay, so bring it to today, right? And like, the other thing that was on my mind, I talked about this before, like, Sexyy Red, right? And Ice Spice, and like, this, this, this, like, not Poor Jordan, this white normalization of blackness, ontological blackness, literally blackness that whiteness created and like, the pictures of it, but, like, getting to that. So, like, because we never really fell in love with Christ, if we never fell in love with Christ, we never fell in love with our love with ourselves. Yeah, we definitely can't love our neighbors. So then we live our lives to prove ourselves. We're going around with money, right? We're talking about Pound town. We're flaunting our bodies. We're half naked. And that's not just women. That's men too. I mean, it's, it's the.

Yeah, it's.

Pornography is a multi billion dollar industry, you know.

Yeah. But the wild part about it all, it's the freedom in which we seek. We all see freedom, like the freedom to wear whatever you want without the opinions and the gaze of others. The opinion, the, the freedom to just carry around stacks of money and not feel like, wow, you can't do that on a, on a regular street. You can't just like walk down Sonoma Boulevard with like a stack of money. Like, it's free.

You walk down boulevard. There's a certain two block radius of Sonoma Boulevard you can like.

But in exchange for services.

In exchange for services, you can walk down with us. There's a two block radius on there. No, I think it gets to something you said you say all the time at home where it's like we're in this world and we're all just like a mosh pit of craziness that just hope we don't kill each other. Right?

Yeah.

And I don't, I don't think we've effectively described or learned. No, hold on. I don't, I don't want to blame anyone else. We have not learned what freedom is because if you ask me right now, like, what is freedom? I have no clue. Like, it's freedom. More money. Because then like, more money means more problems, right? Is freedom broke? Like being broke? Well then, like, being broke means like a whole lot of problems. Is freedom salvation? Okay, now salvation, like begats a whole lot of other issues, like in our world, right? Because you're, you're isolated. It's freedom. A sin filled life. Well, then that beats a whole lot of other issues. Now you're against God and against, like, what really, I guess in your own estimation is freedom and is freedom going around with money or is freedom Beyonce, like, is freedom working every four years to make $6.2 billion and generate money for 50 different cities and get your daughter to be a part of it? Is Freedom LeBron James, where you got three kids, one, one wife that you've had the entire time? And is it that and getting everyone into school and in your business? Or is freedom Michael Jordan, where you had four wives, three wives, right? And like, don't even know your kids? Like, I guess I'm trying to navigate.

Freedom is however we feel where we're not bound. We're not bound to the rules of whatever society has said in whatever way in which we feel free. Right. So to me, I, I Know, I tell you this all the time. Time to me is more valuable than money, right? Like, how I choose my time is the ultimate luxury. Right. Like, does not matter what my bottom line is. My ability to choose how I spend every minute of my day is very important to me and gives me a sense of freedom. And that might not mean a lot to other people, right? Like, maybe the bottom line is money and the freedom to be able to get away and do whatever you want to do, or just the ability to wear whatever you want, say whatever you want, do whatever you want without the constructs. And the gaze are always, like, concentrating on the gaze of others and the opinions. Opinions of others and just living this authentic life regardless of what everybody said. So you said Sexy Red before, right? Like, I look at her as like, this freedom notion, right? Like, you say things that people dare won't say. Even in the most raunchiest rap song there are. You say things in a. In a way that's just like a freestyle manner. Right. Like a freestyle meaner that's just like, okay. And I think people, especially this younger generation, Gen Z and Gen Alpha, they appreciate that.

I think Covid did that. I think we have not. Not. Thank me. I'm trying to. One thing I'm working on, Made for Money grew. I'm trying to take the phrase, I think, and like, out of my vocabulary. So Covid did that.

Yeah.

The COVID era opened up a. A can of worms that we have not experienced the full fulfillment of. COVID right?

Oh, no, we haven't even scratched.

Yeah. And not just the sickness. Like, holy crap, it's back again. But the extent of social norms, gender normativity, spiritual norms, governmental norms, like, we have not experienced fully what the ramifications of this is. And I do believe with that, that things like Sexyy Red, Ice Spice, even the comparison between Taylor Swift and Beyonce's concerts inside of the movie theaters, How Taylor Swift is promoted everywhere. And if you're a Beyonce fan, you were Beyonce. But, like, not like. But Taylor Swift.

Oh, for every time you say like we, I get an item at HomeGoods.

Oh, gosh. Okay, so Taylor Swift on one side is white women's fine goddess.

Yeah.

Beyonce on the other hand, is a demon because, like, you know, she has the beehive and how she do it. Like, it's amazing to me the language that is used. But that's race.

That's race. Yeah.

Racist people never like to be told they're racist. Right?

Yeah.

So that's race. Then you have gender Then, so there's future versus Russell Wilson. So Marshawn lynch comes out early last week. Those of you who listened to Marshawn lynch on a podcast with Shannon Sharpe, and he's talking about how bad Russell Wilson is. Russell Wilson gets up and says, oh, I listened to it, and Marshawn was one of the best teammates I ever had. And this is the same man who's, like, dealing with the stuff with future.

Yeah.

And so I guess together for me, with everything that you said, and I guess with motivation, two things for me come out, and I'll let this go. One is proving yourself is worshipping somebody else. The desire to prove yourself is saying that someone else's opinion about me is more important than my own. And I do believe that there's a lot of individuals, myself included, who have experienced great success at their own expense. Because proving yourself, you're trying to prove yourself to people who have already made up narratives about you.

Right.

So I'm a pastor. Those of you who do not know I'm a pastor, and, oh, my God, not the good pastors. We are never compared to the good ones. Yeah, we are never compared. Like, we are never, ever. I want to be really. I'm never compared to solid pastoral ministry. It is always. You are, like, the biggest piece of trauma, and it is so annoying.

And what's crazy, it's unfortunate that that's in our churches, but that's everywhere.

Everywhere.

Every organization.

Like, people want leadership, but don't want leadership.

Right.

When it comes to bosses, as soon.

As hard conversations or hard things happen, then it's. This is the reason why I didn't want this in the first place. I didn't want to work here in the first place. And we forget the moments. We literally were on our face.

You were praying for the job at McDonald's.

Like, you were fasting and praying, like.

God, oh, my God, I want this job at McDonald's. And you get it and hate everyone.

Everything, right?

Like, hate everything.

That's why I go to notion. I really don't think we as people could ever be 100% completely happy. And that saddens me. God could come and, like, give us everything that we've wanted in life. Right. And I don't think that we're ever completely happy. And so that's why I admire, like, kind of bringing a summation of everything. People who are just, like, a. Unapologetically themselves, who don't have that idol of, ooh. What people are gonna say? We don't know, because we don't know, behind the scenes, the conversations, I'm sure, like, you can't begin to understand massive crowds beginning to hate you, you know, or talk bad about you or think that you're a demon or think that you're this. Or think that, like all this thing. Well, yeah, so I'm Justin. Justin understands how you feel. But that kind of gets to the sum of it all, though, like, in what we're talking about that we can't. I forgot my thought that like, the freedom that we have is so important to not have that idol worship over us. And just to say, like, what is that freedom for me? How am I able to walk independent of what others say and others do? How can this help me transform. Transform my life?

Yeah. If you're going into this week, then with that.

Yeah.

I think the opportunity there is getting to, like you said, the original thought, motivation. Jesus said they lost their motivation doing great work. And to numbers of you out there who are doing amazing work in your communities, you are changing people's lives. You are engaging with people, you are working diligently to see their lives, lives change. Here's my challenge. Be sure that you are grounded first before you try to ground other people. That is one of my biggest failures. And I learned that lesson. When you're building this house and you saw the various electricity panels and they talked about grounding cables, realizing that we can't plug anything else in here if that box doesn't work, you are going to work. You are leading people. You are making big decisions, numbers of you on here making multimillion dollar decisions. If you are not grounded, people will plug into you and blow fuse. And that's where anger, animosity, the fruits of the flesh begin to come out. So I want to challenge you to be grounded. Secondly to me is remove the desire to prove yourself. Right? You are enough for wherever you are, you applied for it, you received the job. Like, I want to remind everyone on here, if you started the business and you're making enough money to get through the day or exceed your own expectations, you are enough to start your own business. You are enough to work at the job you're at. Remove the desire to prove yourself, because the desire to prove yourself is literally worshiping somebody else's opinion about you. It's difficult, like, it's very difficult to remove from there. But that's where in my book I wrote, I talked about the importance of the ending of worshiping. They. Right. Like, you never actually can name who they are now. It's just they they said this, they said that sometimes you can and that's what you have to address, but you never. And then thirdly, I would say if you're going to receive your motivation back, I had to practice this last week. Write your boundaries with a Sharpie. With a Sharpie so that you can't even erase it, even when it's uncomfortable, when you realize who and what you have to keep out.

Right?

You taught me that last week about boundaries are not. What is it? How'd you put it? Boundaries.

Boundaries are not what the other person is going to do. Boundaries are stating what you are going to do.

It's not easy, it's hot. But I, I believe that's a way to facilitate grounding yourself and finding your motivation again. Because the answer is not, like you said, what makes you happy? The answer is not what do you do for fun? The answer is not that. The answer really is how will you be a transformative Asian for yourself first and invite other people on the journey? I don't know. That was on my mind. What's on yours?

I love that. I think in, in terms of motivation, I think is going back to. That is really truly loving oneself, right? And I don't think oneself is determined. I don't think that's self indulgent. I don't think that's doing that. The only way we can truly love ourselves is really getting back to the Creator and who God has created to be. But who are you? What do you like? What are the things that we're doing? Why are you volunteering so much? And do you know what, like, what are you bringing to the communities that you have? Why are you working at the job that you're working? How do you see care? How do you see, you know, your ultimate freedom, right? We know that freedom, the best type of freedom is found in Christ, right? And knowing that and having that and holding true. It's a saying like what does freedom really look like to me? Me. And how do I walk in that every day? It's not what others do. It's not what others say. It's not what others, if they would just stop the reason why I can't. I don't like my job because they. I don't do this because this. It's what. How do you do the self work inside? When we begin to work on ourselves, we could truly have a relationship of that true love that God is talking about. We can't have a true relationship with God because we can't get out of our own way, right? Because we're coming to God, like, complaining, Right? What if our relationship was just based on, like, just dumping on terrible things all the time? Who wants to talk to that? Nobody. But our relationship's not right with ourselves. And so I think this time only is when you have to be like, what is blocking that first love relationship? So then that makes all the other stuff that I do make sense. Right? So, like, yes, doing the community service, doing this, doing that, doing this pro bono makes it make sense, because I'm one with myself. I'm so one with myself and free that I'm free to connect with the Father and have so much love that I can't even imagine how I can't treat my community and others well. And it's a perfect triangle, and we're living and everybody's in. Doing this in harmony, like, what would the world be? That'd be amazing.

That's so real. Well, yeah. So that's. That's our podcast for the day, I think. Really gave you guys a lot to think about. We'd love to hear your thoughts in the comment section on Spotify and on YouTube, but as well as on where else?

And also comment. Like, what do you want us to talk about? We're open to talk about anything. I love pop culture. I do. I love pop culture. I watch all the shows. I love all the things I love to. Which I probably shouldn't, but I do. So whatever you want to talk about. I'm also big on people personalities. I'm huge on God. So whatever you want to talk about, we would love to talk about it.

So we're going to switch off every other week. So I can't stand pop culture, you know, not Bonhoeffer, but I forgot who said it, said that every pastor needs to have a Bible in one hand and newspaper in the other. I think is the worst comment I've ever heard. That was just a dumb thing, that pastor. No. You know. Cause. No. Our responsibility is to preach the scriptures true and true. Cam, do you want us to come say hi to everyone? Come on. And so our responsibility to speak scripture is true and true. So I preach that book verse by verse. And occasionally I bring pop culture in, but I can't stand pop culture. My understanding of pop culture is where Courtney tells me about pop culture. So every other week, what we're going to do is we'll start off like, what are you thinking about?

So next week, you brought up sexy rapper.

I did. Because she's everywhere and she. Well, the thing is, because if I were Getting more into it, what she said about Trump and just other stuff.

Yeah, I didn't hear that.

Yeah, so it was just. That's where, like, I listened to Fox News in the morning, and they were talking about, like, hey, Cam, this is. So Cam will be on here occasionally with our segment Kicking it with Camden. So we'll learn about what's going on in Camden's life and what's happening with Cam. So we want to give you guys a chance to say hi to Cam. But yeah, so that's where. But, yeah. So next week, I'll start the conversation off with where Courtney is. And so that was what was on my mind. Hopefully don't do this on Saturdays much, because this is where my mind is on Saturdays, but that's that. So what's our unpaid advertisement court? You have an unpaid advertisement?

My unpaid. Do you have an unpaid. What's something that you really love a lot? What are you playing with? What are you doing? I really like my. I'm doing movies all the time. Oh, you have. I do have a shameless plug. What's your TikTok? My TikTok is Brown Dad. Brown Boy Adventures. Adventures. TikTok. Yes. So if you're into reviews of any kind, like zoos and places where we go often, or you just want to see a really good TikTok dancer, right here is the place.

Follow us online. Brown dad, Brown boy adventures on TikTok as well as YouTube. And then my social media is rjlester. Courtney, you are.

I'm just courtneymlester on Instagram and I'm calicourt on TikTok.

Awesome. Don't listen. So my unpaid advertisement today is for ranch sauce. I learned about ranch sauce back in the day when I went to a restaurant at Summerfest.

Don't say Hidden Valley, though.

Okay, so let me talk about this. Hidden Valley Ranch. Let me say this. So Hidden Valley Ranch, that was the original ranch. It was literally just from Hidden Valley Ranch, and they made a sauce, and they called it Ranch.

I'm glad they evolved.

So the whole name used to be Hidden Valley Ranch. The patent expired, and then everybody was like, we praise God, we'll make ranch sauce. And so that's where Ranch came from. So Hidden Valley Ranch is the original ranch, and it's the best ranch. But Hidden Valley Ranch is the original ranch. But if you really are into it, the elite use blue cheese.

It has melody in it. I love blue cheese, though. And what's crazy, the best. The best ranch and blue cheese belong to Wingstop.

I was just gonna say Newman's, because Newman's is pretty solid.

Newman's is pretty good. And, you know, I just like a good basic craft, too.

Okay, so on that note, we're gonna go.

Wow.

Cause next, we're gonna go to, like, next. They'll be like, I like. Great value. Anyway, well, let's say our affirmations. Someone just. You can sassay with me as you guys go into work. I am me. I can be me. No one will stop me from being me. Have an amazing day. You're made for Mondays. I'm Justin.

And I'm Court.

Have a great day.

I'm Camden.