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Podcast 12 - Loneliness
36 Plays5 days ago
Come join us as we discuss an important aspect of the holiday season.
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Transcript
Introduction to Loneliness During Holidays
00:00:10
Speaker
Good day and welcome to Grove Hill Church Podcast. and We are excited to be talking with you today. We're recording this just a couple of days before Thanksgiving, but it kind of triggered my mind as we were talking about what we wanted to discuss today. Triggered my mind about the holidays coming up. I mean, here you go back to back. We've got Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's rolling through. And the conversation i want to bring to the table today is one about loneliness. It's really an epidemic here in our country. I was looking at statistics for numbers. Generation Z and Wednesday, 75% of them reported feeling lonely.
Social Media's Deceptive Connectivity
00:00:45
Speaker
um Single adults.
00:00:49
Speaker
One particular study done by Boise State University in 2024 said that 61% of Americans show sadness or loneliness during the holidays. Here it is, supposed to be the most festive time of the year, most exciting time of the year for most people, and instead what we're seeing is this incredible amount of loneliness.
00:01:07
Speaker
And I think it's kind of a shocking thing for us to discover when we start to dig underneath it, because on the surface, it looks like we're a hyper connected community, right? and We got Facebook and Instagram and and all the other things. x we We think we're connected, but truthfully, behind those screens are a million empty souls who are just kind of looking for some place for connection. i Went so far that in 2023, the Surgeon General of the United States issued an advisory saying that loneliness and social isolation are a public health epidemic.
Loneliness as a Public Health Epidemic
00:01:41
Speaker
And he went so far as to say it was the equivalent of smoking 15 cigarettes a day for your physical health.
00:01:50
Speaker
and Listen to this. He said about half of U.S. adults report experiencing loneliness. The health impacts from loneliness increase the risk of premier premature death, heart disease, stroke, dementia, depression and anxiety.
00:02:05
Speaker
So, man, it's something we need to talk about because it's not just out there. Truth is, it's in the church yeah um and and it's right there where we are. So tell me, i know it's to sound like a strange question. Tell me your experience with lonely people. Where have you seen it? Where have you felt it Yeah, for ah going back to this time of year, it's amplified this time of year.
Personal Stories of Loneliness
00:02:25
Speaker
A lot of people experiencing maybe the first Christmas without their dad or without their mom. First Christmas since the divorce. First Christmas since whatever, fill in the blank. And so when we get into the holiday seasons, when you're supposed to be surrounded by family and loved ones and stuff, and there's a missing thing, we kind of go into that state of isolation.
00:02:43
Speaker
And so just amplified this time of year because your your mind's really focused on that kind of things. um where Where I'm experiencing it in in my realm of things is i had a student one time. We were sitting in ah a youth group and there was 80 students around them and they raised their hand and they said, i feel like I'm all alone.
00:03:01
Speaker
And it was like, in my brain, I'm sitting there going, you're surrounded by, you know, 80 fellow students. And so I asked that question. I said, who else in here feels alone? It was probably 65% of the room, pretty close to that stat, where they also felt lonely. So in that, they weren't alone because they were experiencing the exact same thing. But it goes to show that there's something, there's something missing. There's something that, whether it's the electronic connection instead of the physical face-to-face connection that students have, that's causing them to feel like they're alone or isolated.
00:03:33
Speaker
Yeah, I agree. um This time of year, we're dealing with a
Factors Contributing to Loneliness
00:03:38
Speaker
couple of things. There's a physical element going on. We've all heard of SAD, seasonal affective disorder. The days are shorter, you're getting less vitamin D, those kinds of things. So we have to take that into account. But what are some other things you've seen with people? i mean, like aging parents, things of that nature, what Well, a lot of people my age are younger. I'm not going to age myself on this, but they stay busy, but they're actually super lonely. So just because your calendar may look full and you have all these things planned, you could actually still be lonely as well. As far as what was your question about aging parents? just whatever experiences you've had with people who getting lonely. I mean, you've got older parents. i mean, I went through yeah watching my parents go through that period. Well, that we have to do a better job as a church family to make sure people who are retired and all of that still know that they have very much a purpose. There's still a way they can serve, a way they can be involved. My parents...
00:04:30
Speaker
are in their seventies, but they both have certain people that they'll go and visit yeah still at their, in their age, they'll go visit people. And so that's just their way of making sure their friends don't stay lonely too. So just, but you have to make an effort. You can't just assume, Oh, so-and-so's family is going to go see him.
Changing Family Dynamics
00:04:47
Speaker
Maybe not. Yeah, and and you know, one of the things that we've seen, our culture is radically different even than it was 40 years ago. When I was a kid growing up, my family, every holiday, we packed up the the car and our entire family went down to where my mom's family was from. We spent days, sometimes a week down there being with family, being with brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, enjoying each other's company. um We have become such a mobile society that we are moved literally across the states from each other. and so
00:05:17
Speaker
Many times, well, like, for instance, this holiday season, my wife and I will be spending much of Thanksgiving by ourselves because our children have in-laws to go visit in other parts of the country, and they themselves live in other parts of the country. And I think that's where people start to fall through the cracks because now we don't do the family reunions as much as we used to. We don't do the giant family holidays. It's it's much more of a catch it in between. And God created us for that community to live in community. Um, you see all these like survival shows alone and all those types of things. yeah Um, 70% of the time they go home and fail yeah because of the isolation, not because starvation, not because of any of that. It's because the mental stuff of, of not being around community or people. And so, it's, it's incredibly important to be surrounded around people and
00:06:04
Speaker
Yeah. And
COVID's Impact on Social Isolation
00:06:05
Speaker
we also know that just i mean, we're still on the tail end of all this, but the problem was exacerbated by COVID. COVID shut down the world. People were isolated, many of them for long periods of time. Some of them have never come out of that.
00:06:18
Speaker
Yeah. Some of them are still very fearful. Some of them still kind of locked away, even though they may be out mentally, emotionally, they're locked away. um Single-person households are on the rise in our country. Read an article just the other day that said for the first time in, maybe first time ever, that studies among high school teenagers show that a majority of girls don't desire to get married.
00:06:44
Speaker
But the majority of guys do. interesting Well, that makes an interesting dilemma because the guys are looking for girls that don't want to have long-term commitment, long-term relationships in that manner. And so I think the the the networking of the family, the connectivity of the family has become
Family Connections and Biblical Perspectives
00:07:00
Speaker
so diminished in our culture. um we We're missing out on some really important relationships that God built in for us. He designed it for us. so You come from a strong family.
00:07:11
Speaker
I do. And I'm... I think I took it for granted for a while that my, my grandparents, when we we can, my kids can drive, ah ride a bike to their grandparents' house. That's not common at all with people. i mean, I live next door to my sister-in-law.
00:07:24
Speaker
My in-laws live right down the road. Then his brother lives, cousins, uncles, we're all, but that doesn't mean that we all spend every second together. But just knowing my kids have somebody next door that, Hey, if mom and dad are gone, run to aunt Lori's house or whatever it is. It's a, it's a really rare and beautiful thing that we have. It really is.
00:07:41
Speaker
It really is. I think about, like for instance, again, going back to my childhood, I knew who my grandmother was. But no doubt about it. I remember from the earliest days walking in the door, and the first thing I did was beeline to my grandmother because, number one, I knew I was going to get hugged and loved and just smote little kisses. And number two, I knew that there was biscuit and chocolate gravy waiting on the other side of that. was going to say, did you drawer? Yeah, she had one of those. She always had some fudge in her kitchen, stuff like that. So there was that. My grandkids today, have no doubt that they love me, But every time they come to see me, as infrequent as it is, and course you expect a grandfather say it's not enough, right? But when they come in the door, there's almost like this...
00:08:21
Speaker
tentative spirit about them. They're a little intimidated, like, who is this guy? and you know um My granddaughters who live close, do I see more often? i don't see it as much, but with my boys, when they come back, it's almost like this reintroduction to each other. And I think those are the kinds of things that kind of play a factor in some of this growing up.
00:08:39
Speaker
From a biblical standpoint, you alluded to this just a minute ago, God created us for relationship. So much of what we have in our world was intentionally placed there by God with the intent that we would do relationships and they wouldn't be on screen and they wouldn't be through the phone, but they would be genuine in face you know face-to-face relationships. I mean, he says it. It is not good for man to be alone. Right. From from the very, very beginning. yeah Right. And if say if God wants it, and then Satan doesn't want it. And so he's pushing isolation. He's pushing
Media's Influence on Family Values
00:09:12
Speaker
loneliness. And so you may be surrounded by people. You may have access to people. People may be checking up on you. But Satan still puts the doubt in your mind and says that you're alone and you're isolated. You're by yourself. yeah um Being lonely leads to anxiety, leads to depression, leads to drinking, leads to...
00:09:28
Speaker
sexual immorality, all those types of things come from loneliness. And so if Satan's going to press in somewhere, yeah he's going to want to make you feel isolated. Well, it's like you said, we saw that after COVID. We saw what isolation and loneliness did to people. For sure.
00:09:41
Speaker
Well, I'm going to throw another, i think, root cause of this out there. And this may not be the most popular, but I'm going to blame the evil mouse. um Mickey and that crew, and now I just pick on them, but I mean i think our culture has elevated...
00:09:59
Speaker
independence and self-reliance and all those things, having a good career, having lots of money, all those things to a point where they're saying family and roots and networking with people you love isn't as important as these things. um You know, used to when you were growing up, and means seriously, going back to Disney, when you watched those shows, the happy ending was that the guy got the girl and they lived happily ever after. And they went on and had a family and all those sweet things. But now dad's made to look like a doofus. Mom really doesn't matter. She's too out of touch with reality. it's just It's just a part of what we see in our culture coming from Hollywood, from the media, even from Madison Avenue, the way they promote things. I think that's what Charlie Kirk's message made him so special because he was so focused on get married, have a family, live for the Lord. Like, I think that's why he was so powerful. His his message was so powerful and impactful because it was, it was truth and it was, it was getting back to what we should be at from the beginning, you know? know home That home should be a place of, ah you know your home. You go out in the world, you go to school, you're ridiculed, you all those things. When you come home, you should anticipate having a conversation with dad, having a conversation with mom. And if you feel like you're part of a unit at home, you could be lonely in the world and it's not going to matter because you know that you have that connection at home. And
Role of Churches in Combating Loneliness
00:11:17
Speaker
so that's a major point that you were saying, like parents be involved, dad be involved, mom be involved.
00:11:24
Speaker
Um, And I mean, we've talked a lot about what the problem is, and it's very obvious out there. Many of us, whether we know it or not, have neighbors who live next door, or even right down the street, who come in, maybe they go out and go to work or go out and go to school, but they come in, they pull the shades, they turn on the TV, and that's their life. And they feel it, especially this time of year, others are talking about celebrations and things of that nature. So let's talk about how we remedy the problem.
00:11:50
Speaker
I want to talk about it on two levels. Number one, the church as an institution, as an organization, how do they have an intentionality in dealing with this? But also just as individual followers of Christ, what can we do? So um starting with with the church, tell me some things you've seen where or maybe things you've been a part of, things you've done with children where we can help break through that isolation on people. think our... I think our life groups have been huge in helping with that because they see somebody like the young the guy that was here earlier coming just to check on somebody from our church. Like, is she in a life group? Have you gotten her plugged in? I think if we have to be mindful and and observant of people. If they're by themselves every Sunday, if they're walking in. with just their son and there's no husband there. Go, just have a conversation with them. Face-to-face conversation. Get them plugged in. Get them serving because that's going to be a huge blessing for them. So I think we just have to be super mindful and observant of the people that we're there yeah with every week. and And I want to go one step further with that little bit of conversation. And this is going to sound like I'm talking up against church growth, with i which I am not. I absolutely believe that strong churches going to grow. That's what you the they should do. But if you are in a church where you ah are not or cannot get connected because of the size of it, right it might be worth looking at something smaller yeah where you can get to know people on a different level. Right. Reach out to leadership and say, hey, how can I get connected? Tell me That's a great thing. Start there with that because it's not fair to leadership just walk out the door and not say, hey, there's an issue. Truth is, part of the problem may be you. It's like those seventh grade boys at the dance. Mm-hmm. who never ask anybody to dance, then go home and go, I didn't have a good time. Well, you didn't try. right You didn't try to connect, and you waited for everybody to come to you. Yeah, on a personal note, we moved from a foreign country here from Tennessee, and when we got here, I had known i known that, man, ah it's only me, my wife, and kids, and so there's potential for isolation. There's
Encouraging Service in Church
00:13:40
Speaker
yeah potential for them to get disconnected, and so I told my wife, as we entered the doors of the church and decided that Grove Hill was our our church family, that we needed to serve, and so after a few weeks, I was in the sound booth. A few more weeks, she was... work in registration, that alone got us more connected than any program that the church could have thrown at us, whether it be life group or anything that. Serving hand in hand with other believers ah takes takes your mind off of what you may be encountering and puts it on serving other people. yeah And so get connected whatever age. And if there's nothing for your age, create something for your age. Right. And realize how important connectivity is for you because that's the thing Satan's going to attack the most. yeah he He uses, especially in the church, hurt feelings more than anything else in the world to cause division between you and people around you and cause you to draw back and to isolate. And let's be honest, your feelings get hurt everywhere. Sure. Secular world, Christian world, ball field, wherever it is, your feelings get hurt. they're gonna yes you know They get your order wrong, your feelings get hurt. You keep going back to those places. But for some reason, when it comes to church, we use that as the excuse for not connecting with other believers.
00:14:48
Speaker
so We talk about life groups, which are obviously primarily built around studying God's Word together, doing life together. But from time to time, we do something around here called affinity groups. Tell them a little bit about that, Lori. are those like? it's really a group, like kind of like a hobby that they that that person would have. And then in the summer, they'll meet. They'll open at their house up to, um I don't know. we We went canoeing last summer. yeah We did. Gardening. There you go. what There's no more cross-stitching. All the things. Just a fun hobby. And those are really sweet ways to get connected to people because you're like, oh, I may be terrible at this, but...
00:15:20
Speaker
I made a friend. But you already have a connection point there. And something that's akin to it that's really easy, if you live in a neighborhood, it's a little bit easier. Sometimes out in rural areas like this, it may be a challenge. but um when you're When you're in a neighborhood, just thought a little flyer or some kind of invitation that says, hey, we're going to have bring a cup of soup night and share your cup of soup. or come by and I'm going to just have the grill in the the driveway and I'm going to make hot dogs. And I just want you to stop by and introduce yourself. Some of the greatest relationships can be started just in simple ways like that. I have a friend who started a prayer group in her neighborhood. She just, during the, again, the Charlie Kirk thing, she was like, does anybody want to get together and pray? And it has turned into this really cool, very cool really cool group in her neighborhood. It's a really sweet thing. Yeah.
00:16:01
Speaker
Now something that speaks to your heart because you do it every year with our students. Oh, I Service projects. Oh, yes. Yeah. And how they can bring break down those kinds of. Yep. Again, it's ah getting the focus off of self and onto other people. We we need to take care of ourselves. We need to be grounded. We need to be rooted in the word. We need to get connected on that level. But then we also need to serve other people. yeah And once you realize that, man, maybe my problems aren't as big as that person's problem, ah God really changes your perspective on what your problems actually are. yeah And so it's not to diminish anything that you're going through, but it helps you heal from the things that you're going through.
00:16:37
Speaker
And I love particularly service projects because I think they work on both sides of the the relationship. You're reaching out to someone who may have isolation and there's connection there, serving alongside of somebody also brings bring some relationships to the table for you. Yeah, we had ah an older couple in our church, and they're a fantastic couple, but our youth didn't know about them. And we served at their house, and then we sat down on their porch, and they gave their testimony.
00:17:01
Speaker
ah It was more impactful on our students that they served at that house than it was on the people who received the service. Oh, fast, yeah. um Now they're connected in different ways at church, you know, teenagers with this with this elderly couple. So it's just phenomenal.
Digital Connectivity vs. Real-world Relationships
00:17:14
Speaker
So let's talk a little bit about the digital influence here because this is one of the major problems. We convince ourselves we're connected because we've got 4,000 followers, most of which we don't have a clue who they are. um how How helpful is it to unplug, to get away from the influence of the phone, the computer, the Internet?
00:17:32
Speaker
Oh, it's incredibly helpful. For sure. I mean, it's necessary. It is very necessary. It's absolutely necessary. So each year for student live missions week and fall camp, we take the students, yeah we don't take the students' phones.
00:17:45
Speaker
They turn in their phones with the voluntarily yeah voluntarily with parents' permission. and But we we separate them from their phones. um The issues they have when they turn in those phones, two days later, those issues aren't even really issues anymore because they're connected with, they're hearing God speak from scripture. and They're taking wisdom from leaders or friends. yeah And um there's just a better connection.
00:18:07
Speaker
As soon as you take those phones away, the conversation volume goes up to 100 dBs because these kids are talking to each other instead of just buried in their Roblox or whatever they might be playing on their phones. It's very easy to be lonely and be on your phone because um you can, for sure I'm not lonely. I'm looking at all these reels. I'm going down this rabbit hole of all these things and you can just sit there for hours and hours and hours. And you convince yourself you're healthy. yeah Yeah. And you convince yourself that you're healthy and you're actually addicted to your phone. Yeah.
00:18:34
Speaker
And way back in this conversation, I mentioned two things that were a problem, especially this time of year. One them was sad. The other thing, they call it FOMO, fear of missing out. It's when we get into that comparison game where we're looking at our friends on the Instagram feed we're going, well, they've got this beautiful vacation to Gatlinburg or they've got this beautiful, you know, gift that they've gotten. They've got such a beautiful family, such as, you know, whatever. And before long, Satan, the enemy, is in our ear going, you're a loser, you're ugly, you're not liked, people don't care about you. And man, that's an easy thing to buy into, especially as you actually play it out in your life. It just keeps it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. yeah And it's all perception because those things yeah aren't truly happening. One year, this kid was like, oh, I'm sad because everybody went on spring break and went on vacation. But me and I said, whose family went?
00:19:22
Speaker
Four families out of the whole youth group went. Everybody else stayed home. so Right. Right. The majority was at home, and yet this small portion of posting pictures, going to the beach, yeah affected that person mentally. Well, we don't always know why they went on a trip. Yeah. Maybe they went on a trip because they're healing from something. Right. Or maybe they maybe they got this gift because their parents had been saving since last January for it. Right. can't make yeah assumptions about things. Yes. and I remember one of my churches, somebody giving a guy grief. i mean, he was just riding a man, you took a fancy trip. And ah it was because a relative, I think it was the grandparent had died. And part of the condition of them receiving the inheritance was that they would take a trip as a family together.
00:20:03
Speaker
And I thought, dude, you feel low right now, don't you? Because you just stepped right into that. We even had, this is so silly, but we had someone assume something about ah our dog. Because she's a very high-end fancy dog and made a comment. Very spoiled, by the way. But made a comment about the financial aspect of her. And I was like, actually, we got her from a shelter and we rescued her. And they were like, oh.
00:20:24
Speaker
Yeah. Like, you know, they immediately thought, oh, shoot, I probably shouldn't assume. Just because I saw this beautiful, wonderful, precious angel dog on Facebook, I shouldn't assume they spent, you know. So i'm goingnna I'm going to throw this out here before we move on to the next part of this. We've got to you know kind of wrap this up a here. But I want to say
Children and Social Media Risks
00:20:42
Speaker
this. I think probably I get a little bit of agreement or or a lot of agreement for both of them on this. Parents, my suggestion is that you do not allow your children on social media until they're 72.
00:20:52
Speaker
um Seriously, um think long and hard before you allow your kid to get involved in things like TikTok and Instagram and all the other things that are out there because, um number one your kids are not emotionally, mentally prepared for what they're going to get hit with out there. Number two, i am dealing with grown men today who have marital problems because of porn they were exposed to as children. Children, like at seven, eight, ten years old, way, way back.
00:21:22
Speaker
And right now, I can guarantee you I almost bet you right now that if your child has a phone, they have been exposed to indecent photos. yes I won't go so far as to say porn necessarily. Maybe it's not that. But I guarantee you they have seen you women who are half-dressed, men who are doing things they shouldn't. And if you care about your child, get them off those demon machines. Yeah, we could have a full podcast and maybe we should. and We probably will. But the whole idea of handing your kid a phone with no restrictions is asinine. yeah it is just It's terrible. it's It's more of like a merging thing because you don't want to deprive them of a phone forever because it's how life functions now, employment and stuff. But giving it to them at a reasonable age, giving them restrictions, guidelines. Checking it.
00:22:08
Speaker
Introduce them. Check it. It's your phone, not theirs. And merge them into that 18 years old when you actually hand it over. And I'll take that even further. If you are married, there is no reason your spouse should not have access to every bit of your social media. Oh, absolutely. They should have every password, and they should be given permission without defensiveness for them to check it regularly. Because, it's just there. Because there are lonely people out there. There are. There are. Doing that they don't need to be doing Yeah. And I can't tell you how many times just sitting there looking at ball scores or Facebook from family or whatever, I'll have to take my phone and show it to my wife and go, look, we just popped up on my screen. yep
00:22:44
Speaker
and And if it's happening to me and I know it's bad for me, can you imagine your 10 year old son getting something like that? and And you know, you know, it's happening when they're sitting at restaurants and and mom's trying to entertain the kids so she can talk. So she just hands them the phone yeah and boom, there it is. Definitely a podcast series we're going to have to catch on as series because it feels like multiple episodes. agree. um But it agree electronics is one of the major things right now that is contributing to loneliness. yeah And so try putting it down and engaging with someone. And it's not just the phone. Think about the fact that right now, when you go home to your smart TVs, you have 300 channels to choose from. yeah
00:23:18
Speaker
I mean, you just waste your brain into a blue thing. They don't communicate they're because they're on their phone. They're texting each other in their same room with each other. right Look at them and have a conversation. Yeah. So it's really important, especially as leaders in churches, that we keep our eyes and ears open for signs. My man right here, but you may not know this, i don't know ever talked about it, former sheriff's deputy, I'm sure he saw a lot of this in his day.
Identifying and Supporting the Lonely
00:23:39
Speaker
What are some signs you would look for walking the halls of a church of somebody who might have...
00:23:44
Speaker
you know, loneliness, depression because of this. Yeah. So, uh, one thing you should look out for is people, you know, that are typically happy than not being happy. Um, sometimes they can, uh, put on a front, put on a face, uh, just check up on them. Uh, people who sit alone, um, sometimes people feel comfortable sitting alone, but make sure we still check up on them. Right. um and i tell my leaders to engage with every student so that every student feels good acknowledged and and touched yeah um but yeah definitely if someone's consistent in something and then they quit being consistent or someone's not showing up to church anymore um reach out this goes for your employment this goes for a lot of things people go through a lot of stuff that we have no clue that they're even struggling with so
00:24:28
Speaker
I think one important thing that we can ask ourselves as we go through this season is who is it that I recognize in my life that might be lonely? It might be the new person at church, the new family. Even entire families can sometimes be lonely, ah move into a new area from a foreign country. um Sometimes it could be somebody as close as your your parents. sure Your aging parents or a sister that has just gone through a divorce or lost someone or whatever. There's the obvious ones. If if there's you know someone you know that has lost a spouse in the last year, this time of year is to be extra hard on them. So the loneliness is obviously a huge problem. And I...
00:25:06
Speaker
I anticipate it's only going to continue to get worse as we dive deeper into isolating ourselves for all these reasons that we have given. ah It is a serious problem, but the church has the opportunity and the calling and bringing it to a personal level. Every believer of Christ has an opportunity to make a difference in someone's life by taking the time just to stop and... um and Be intentional about being engaged with somebody. i mean,
Role of Church and Individuals in Support
00:25:32
Speaker
how many times have you in the hallway said to somebody, how are you doing? They said, fine. And you went on to the next person without really even thinking about it. Um, I have over the course of my years as I have matured, even as a follower of Jesus have been challenged to stop and look somebody in the eye. Tell me how you're really doing. yeah And don't let fine be the answer. you know If you want to come up with another word, that's good, but fine's no longer acceptable. We're going to come up with something else. And take prayer seriously yeah because prayer makes a difference. Absolutely. Absolutely makes a difference. If you're listening to this and you feel lonely, isolated, all those things that we've been talking about and you're struggling mentally, please reach out. Send an email, a text, yeah call the office. We'd love to engage with you. We'd love to talk with you. And there's plenty of ways to get connected here at Grovefield Church. So Absolutely. i would echo that. That's an extremely important. If you're feeling depressed, if you're feeling even suicidal during the holidays, please do not do not just dismiss those feelings or think that you can handle them on your own. There's great organizations out there like the National Association of Mental Illness. NAMI, as it's affectionately called, churches in your area that I know would love, love, love to help you. And if nothing else, nothing else, call the local police department ye yeah and just say, hey, I need to have a conversation. Can you point me in the right direction? yep
00:26:50
Speaker
ah Serious conversations about some really important things that are going on in our world. Again, God did not create you to be alone or to even do life alone. He created you for the company and community of other people who love you. I'm a blessed man because I got incredible people like this in my life. I hope you have those too. That was not meant to butter you up. I'm sure you've already bought my Christmas presents. But seriously, important thing. so So don't dismiss this. Glad you joined us today. I hope you'll join us back next week as we'll be back with another great subject.
00:27:22
Speaker
Might even be who knows social media. You never know. But we'll have something good here to talk about. We'll always love to hear from you. If you have the opportunity, please. Reach out to us. Let us know what you think about the show. Like, share, and whatever else. Follow. That's the word I was looking for. And since we probably won't see you before then, happy Thanksgiving, I hope you had. Love you guys.