The Wise & The Wandering
How did you end up here? Maybe we can help get you on the right path.
Join Dr. Don Schaefer and Justin Olbrantz on a journey of complete positivity designed to help you Heal, Feel, & GET REAL. Bridging the gap between generations old and new - Find what you have been missing in the puzzle called Life: A podcast full of answers directed to a lost world full of questions.
The Wise & The Wandering
Your Identity Drives You - Episode 23
"You will be whatever comes after the words 'I am.'"
In this episode, hosts Justin Olbrantz and Don Schaefer take a journey into the concept of identity and its profound impact on one's life. They discuss how one's self-perception and beliefs shape their path and dictate their successes or failures. The conversation highlights the role of identity formation from childhood through adulthood and how external influences and societal labels can often limit personal growth. The episode underscores the importance of aligning one's identity with God's purpose and the power of positive reinforcement through declarations. The hosts also touch on the complexity of sin, the significance of doing what is right, and the transformational power of being reborn in Christ. This insightful discussion encourages listeners to evaluate who or what is driving their life and to cultivate an identity that fosters growth and fulfillment.
Thebetteryou.org
Episode 23 - Your Identity Drives You
[00:00:00] Justin: Hi, everyone. This is Justin Olbrantz and this is Don Schaefer, and you are listening to The Wise and the Wandering podcast - for those who know “the Way” and for those who are led astray. And if you feel like you fall into either of those categories, then you're in the right place. So, let's dive in.
[00:00:33] Justin: So, Don, what are we going to talk about today? Well, I think we got a good title here, Justin, called Your Identity Drives You. Your Identity Drives You. Yes. Okay. Yeah. So that's the idea here. If I'm phrasing this correctly, is that you are, let's say you're in a car, your identity is driving you somewhere, right?
[00:00:55] Justin: It is the, it's the transportation mode of your life. Yes. [00:01:00] So what you, what you're going to be using as your transportation. , I guess the makeup of that, the makeup of what you allow into your life to drive you is going to determine how you get to where you're going and where you're going, right?
[00:01:14] Justin: That is right.
[00:01:15] Don: Yeah, that's where, um, it's, it's kind of an interesting subject, Justin, because it deals with how you identify yourself and what you see yourself as. Yeah. And I know children, and we always talk about this, but children born into the world is a completely blank canvas They have no identity at all.
[00:01:36] Don: So as they grow, they form an identity. And that's where the adults in their life and the people around them help form that identity. And when we get older, it's the area of our identity that drives us in life. And you can see people by what they do, where you can see how they identify themselves by what they're doing, because people sometimes struggle, but they don't identify [00:02:00] themselves as being anything to be successful.
[00:02:02] Don: Cool. And that's where we have to have that type of identity. And that's where you can completely change your life. If you can get yourself into a place where you change your identity, where you can reach out and say, you know, , I am not going to , identify myself in this way anymore, but I'm going to, Step out of that a little bit and, uh, realizing that my identity governs all parts of my life and, you know, yourself, Justin, myself right now, it's the identity that we've given ourselves that allows us to do the things that we're doing.
[00:02:39] Justin: Yeah, it does and are our identity is a podcaster at this current moment and your identity Shapes your life. The idea behind this is yes, it's going to drive you it's going to drive your life I think it all starts with I said this on earlier podcasts, but it all starts with your beliefs what you believe [00:03:00] in It's kind of what?
[00:03:01] Justin: Manifests in yourself and what, you know, what allows your life to really take off because I think in order and understanding identity, identity is a very, popular topic because there's so many things that are distracting people. There's so many ways, especially with young people is there's so many ways that they're trying to mold identities for them rather than.
[00:03:28] Justin: Allow them to be an individual in the true sense.
[00:03:32] Don: Yeah.
[00:03:33] Justin: Right? I, I witnessed this growing up, even when I was in school, is there was certain cliques. You know, you'd have like your preps and jocks. Whatever you want to call them the nerds the smarts, you know what I mean? There's there are certain clicks.
[00:03:48] Justin: Yeah, and it was almost as if getting into school This was like a a pre existing structure that was already there So you were going to be put into Instead of being [00:04:00]recognized as an individual with all the beliefs that you have all the thoughts you have You were going to be put into like a group a label So to speak right so you're kind of minimized to that to that point And and I noticed that a lot growing up But I noticed it a lot even more now with younger people as we have the age of social media as we have widespread social media is that , there is a focus on the identity of somebody.
[00:04:26] Justin: Whereas there, , there's certain things, there's almost, I'm trying to think of a good way to say this, but people are drawn more to. Their experiences and the separate incidences of doing something Rather than creating a lifestyle You know what i'm saying?
[00:04:45] Justin: So there's there's a lot of people that make something their identity That it just happens to be a specific experience or a specific action or whatever the case is Indulging in something and that is now become that has now become their [00:05:00] identity. So that's what drives them. So then Everything that is in their life is based on what's in that car, what, what, you know what I'm saying?
[00:05:08] Justin: What, what's in that transportation device? Yeah. That's what's getting them, , from point A to point B, or that's what's leaving them broke down, you know, somewhere, with a
[00:05:18] Don: flat tire. That's true, Justin, and I know, , yeah, people have to identify themselves as to who they are, and a lot of times in life, You really don't know who you are.
[00:05:28] Don: You want to be something and like you're saying sometimes it's a sporting team
[00:05:32] both: Yeah,
[00:05:33] Don: I know one time Shirley and I we we flew out out west in a plane and It was a group of people that were going to a NASCAR race And they all had NASCAR jackets on, and they were all high fiving themselves and everything else, talking about NASCAR.
[00:05:51] Don: They almost converted me to become a NASCAR fan by the time I landed the plane. But you could see that their identity was plugged into NASCAR. And [00:06:00] you find sports sometimes where people, they need an identity. They need to be something in life. See, actually, you know, God has created all of us. Definitely with
[00:06:09] Justin: sports teams.
[00:06:10] Justin: Yeah, God has
[00:06:11] Don: created all of us with a purpose. And we're all masterpieces, God's masterpiece. We're all to identify with His purpose. And a lot of times in life, people don't find that purpose, so they try to identify with the purpose. A skill, you know, a job, um, various types of things, but a lot of it doesn't fulfill them, you know, especially when a sporting team loses and they take this personally and it wrecks their day or their week because their sporting team, you know, that's where they say a fan is a fanatic, you know, so, uh, you know, you know, when you don't have anything to identify in life, a lot of times you'll grab on to other things just to have.
[00:06:52] Don: Some sort of identity, and that's where it controls your emotions, it controls your relationships, and it controls your self [00:07:00] worth. You know, what you identify with. And a lot of times in life, because we don't have a good identity of ourselves, we rate ourselves way lower than we're meant to be.
[00:07:10] Justin: Yeah, really, because I mean, like you were saying, you have to know who you are in order to get to where you want to go.
[00:07:16] Justin: You have to know where you are. And if you don't know who you are, you most likely don't know exactly where you are. Yes. You see what I'm saying? So, in order to have that full self reflection, , then you can understand where you want to go. And when you have a clear understanding of where you want to be, who you want to be, , you can create an atmosphere that you're, Identity can flourish in, that your identity, a positive atmosphere, that your identity can truly grow.
[00:07:47] Justin: Because I think here's a here's maybe a common misconception, is that God, we talk about God, uh, most podcasts, right? We talk about God as a God of love, right? That's right. God [00:08:00] does not want to punish you.
[00:08:01] both: No.
[00:08:02] Justin: , He wants you to grow. He wants to change your life. What's the best? He wants the best for you.
[00:08:07] Justin: He wants you to grow. He's about growth Yeah, this is Sometimes like we were talking about last week Sometimes things need to start over there needs to be a new growth. There needs to be a rebirth reborn Yeah, we're talking about the born again.
[00:08:20] Don: That's good.
[00:08:20] Justin: But something needs to grow we were talking about Pertaining to the tree last week.
[00:08:25] Justin: We're talking about pruning the tree. The branches need to grow, right? Okay well in order for you to truly grow in order for you to make progress you have to properly identify yourself So I think there's ways of properly identifying Yeah, and there's ways of you know improperly identifying right and I think it comes down to I'll say this is that the Episode title is identity drives you right?
[00:08:55] Justin: Right. Okay in that there is an implication that you are being driven somewhere [00:09:00] Now, are you allowing somebody else to drive that car or are you driving it yourself? Yeah, who's the driver? Yeah, are you being driven by somebody? Are you being driven by something? Has your identity already been made for you?
[00:09:14] Justin: Has your belief system already been comprised of? People that are trying to maybe control you, or things that are just not proper for you, or things that are not adding to your life. Or was your identity solely created by you, your own thoughts, your own true values and beliefs? Who is driving you?
[00:09:34] Don: Yeah, you question that sometimes.
[00:09:35] Don: But yeah, you mentioned something interesting, Justin. , You talked about an atmosphere, so I'm going to touch on that a little bit here. yeah. What we're talking about here. I think it's very good because, you know, we are trying to raise our identity. We're trying to identify with something greater. And, it doesn't matter who you are or what you are, you know, we can always grow, and our identity needs to grow.
[00:09:59] Don: [00:10:00] But, identity was explained. Uh, in this way, and I thought it was good. Identity is something that becomes very familiar with us. We identify ourselves with wherever we're at and becomes very familiar with us. And a lot of times our identity is at a certain level. You know, it's not, sometimes it's a low level.
[00:10:19] Don: We don't identify ourselves as being great or good or whatever it might be. Or it's a little bit higher. But the way it was explained to me is that our identity is much like a third eye. thermostat in a house. You know, if you set it at 70 degrees, your house is going to stay at 70 degrees. If it gets up to be 100, it's going to take it back to 70.
[00:10:39] Don: If it gets to 30 below, it's going to take Keep it up at 70 degrees. Right, right. See, and a lot of times what we do is we sabotage our lives. Because we have a low identity. We're very familiar with that identity. So it doesn't matter if we win the lottery. We'll find a way to get ourselves back to where our identity is.
[00:10:56] Don: And we'll get to find our self to get, a way to get [00:11:00] poor again or whatever it might be. Yeah, I like
[00:11:01] both: that. You
[00:11:01] Don: know, and that's where, what has to happen. In which, I'm hoping this podcast gives us a different look. In the fact that. You know, we can change our identity. We can realize that, you know, we don't have to keep our thermostats set at 70.
[00:11:15] Don: You know, if we want something great in our lives, we just need to change our identity.
[00:11:19] both: A
[00:11:19] Don: lot of it has to do with the people that we hang around with
[00:11:23] both: and
[00:11:24] Don: the things that we read, you know, and, and just the surroundings. It's the atmosphere we give ourselves. We have a hard time identifying ourselves with any level of greatness.
[00:11:34] Don: Because I know, , You know, you look at people that come from successful homes that have been in homes. See, they're around success. They've got parents that are successful, you know, everything.
[00:11:45] Justin: Yeah. And so
[00:11:47] Don: they identify themselves as being successful. And I know I talked to my boy about this today. I said, you know, Somebody that is making 100, 000 a year, they lose their 100, 000 [00:12:00] job.
[00:12:00] Don: They're probably going to find another job that pays 100, 000 a year. But you find somebody that's making 40, 000 a year and they lose their 40, 000 job a year. They're probably going to find a job that pays 40, 000. And that's where we need to realize we need to turn things up a little bit. We need to get a better way of looking and look for.
[00:12:23] Don: Better ways to live life and better ways to identify ourselves and like you were saying the world people around us They want to put a label on us, you know They want to tell you you know, how high you can go and there's a good part of our world It does not want you know us to identify At any level greater than they are.
[00:12:44] both: Yeah, you
[00:12:44] Don: know, I mean you could be designed for greatness and everything else But you're stuck in an identity that keeps you at a certain level
[00:12:52] both: And
[00:12:52] Don: that's where we need when you mention about a born again experience I think god is trying to take us out of some of the [00:13:00] identities. We've given her even the shame
[00:13:02] both: Even
[00:13:02] Don: the guilt.
[00:13:03] Don: I know we've talked about a lot of this stuff through some of these podcasts. We start to identify ourselves with stuff like this. We need to get beyond all that. We realize that we were greatly made. There is a tremendous opportunity we have in life right now. But if we keep our identity, we're doomed.
[00:13:19] Don: doesn't need to be, we're going to get ourselves stuck in a spot. And we don't want that thermostat bringing us back to 70 degrees every day.
[00:13:27] Justin: Yeah, no, we don't. And you mentioned labels there. And I think that's important to note because yes, labels are very important. And I like the analogy I made previously, um, being a believer itself, that's good, is not a label.
[00:13:44] Justin: It is a manifestation. That's what being a believer is. It's not a label. It's , this is why people say they have their identity in Christ. They have their identity in Jesus because it is something greater than themselves. It is a whole [00:14:00] manifestation. It is a whole process. It's all, it's relational.
[00:14:03] Justin: It's relational. It's not, um, it's not like positional, like, people would typically think of as believers as it's all positional. It's, it's relational. It is in direct relation to, , yourself and God.
[00:14:20] Don: Yeah.
[00:14:21] Justin: So it is the relation between yourself and God.
[00:14:24] Don: That
[00:14:24] Justin: is going to be, um, How you identify yourself.
[00:14:28] Justin: So if you are for, I'm trying to explain this in a simple way, but if you are far away from God, you are going to identify as far away from God. And it's going to show in your life. So I just want to break this down for people that you know, that need to hear this in a more simplified way than what they've been taught in the past.
[00:14:50] Don: Yeah.
[00:14:51] Justin: We often think of sin as something that is evil and wicked and it is. And it's biblical [00:15:00] context. Yeah, but when you understand identity and you understand your creator and you understand where you came from you talk about that blank canvas And who you were meant to be. Yeah, you can understand that and when everything is relational Right.
[00:15:16] Justin: Everything is relative to how close you are to God. Yup. When you're committing sin, when you are doing a sin, a sinful thing, whatever it is, it's not looking at it as if it's some evil act that you're doing because then you'll punish yourself and you'll guilt yourself and you'll accuse yourself and you'll go into that cycle.
[00:15:34] Justin: It's more so looking at it as you are It is an act against God when you are sinning. You are just simply moving yourself away from God. So then the Bible talks about the anger of God. There's an anger. There's, you know, God has an anger and the anger of God, just like the fear of God is More, I would say a little bit more complex than what we would think it [00:16:00] is.
[00:16:00] Justin: Just like the fear we've talked is respect, right? There's a, there's a certain, there's a certain connotation there. Well, the anger is not the anger that we have. It's not the, it's not the anger where we lose self control. And we, you know, fumble all our emotions and we make a bunch of mistakes and we go down a spiral.
[00:16:18] Justin: That's not what the anger of God is. The anger of God is a settled opposition that's already there because you've moved away from Him. So it's not so much of an anger of emotion, it's a settled opposition that already exists because you decided to push yourself away from God. Right.
[00:16:38] Don: Yeah, that's well, well said there.
[00:16:40] Don: Justin because you're, you're absolutely right because you know, I look at things in a way that like the anger of God I think what really disturbs God in some ways this is my interpretation is he has created in each and every one of us something to be great
[00:16:57] both: You know,
[00:16:57] Don: he's he's allowed us to be birthed in this [00:17:00] world,
[00:17:00] both: you
[00:17:00] Don: know seeds of greatness Seeds of greatness that can grow, you know, and become tremendous.
[00:17:06] Don: I love the story that someone told me once that when we get to heaven God's gonna show us our duplicate of what we could have been.
[00:17:13] Justin: Oh, yeah, you know,
[00:17:14] Don: and hopefully that would be
[00:17:15] Justin: great
[00:17:15] Don: Hopefully we can recognize this person as who we are Or if we don't recognize them, we're not that. But I think it really angers God, you know, when, when we do things that don't allow that to happen, you know, when we get ourselves an identity that, you know, it's not letting us go any place.
[00:17:31] Don: He's got great things for us. But we get ourselves so strapped up sometimes that we never allow it to happen. And when you talk about belief and you talk about faith, it's , trusting in a process.
[00:17:42] both: You
[00:17:43] Don: know, the Bible talks about, you know, The seed of a mustard seed moving a mountain, you know, it talks about a whole mountain being moved by a little bit of faith I'm saying the lord teach me a little bit about this here, right?
[00:17:54] Don: You know, I want to move mountains. I want to move mountains because a lot of times we have mountains in our life We we fail to realize, [00:18:00] you know, we don't identify by what we look like
[00:18:03] both: We
[00:18:03] Don: don't identify by how tall we are small we are, you know, it doesn't matter with god We identify with whatever the purpose he has in our life And that's where I know I look at people sometimes I say wow, how can this person be doing all they're doing?
[00:18:18] Don: I mean they they don't even you know, they're not even built to do what they do But they managed to do this stuff. Yeah, but they have a belief they have a trust and a belief in what they do Yeah, you know and that's where God God is in the position He wants to do the miraculous, but we have to give him something to work with
[00:18:35] Justin: Yeah, we do,
[00:18:36] Don: you know So when we can believe and trust in him we give him the the groundwork.
[00:18:41] Don: We give him what he needs to work in our life. And that's where when, when you mentioned sin, or you mentioned the wrongs in a person's life, you know, we, we actually sin against ourselves. We, we hinder ourselves from becoming what we could become.
[00:18:55] both: And that's
[00:18:56] Don: the part that angers God.
[00:18:58] both: I
[00:18:58] Don: mean, it's like me being [00:19:00] It's like a parent looking at a child, knowing what that child should do, and maybe even tell him what to do, and he doesn't do it.
[00:19:05] Don: You know? It gets me angry. He's actually, the kid is actually sinning against me. I can see the potential in everything that you've got to do. You've got all the tools around you. Why are you not doing this? And that's where God sits sometimes looking at us, because we have grabbed onto all these labels, these ways of identifying ourselves, and we're not becoming.
[00:19:28] both: What God
[00:19:29] Don: wants us to become.
[00:19:30] both: Yeah,
[00:19:30] Don: and that's where I know myself through all this. I'm hoping God can give us a revelation
[00:19:37] both: Yeah,
[00:19:37] Don: because I probably getting into something I probably shouldn't but but you know, the Bible has the last book in the Bible calls the revelation of Jesus Christ You know, it talks about John having a revelation of Jesus Christ, and I believe it Everybody needs a revelation to find out what their identity is.
[00:19:56] Don: I think God is trying to reveal that to us. And it's [00:20:00] greatness. Yeah. It's, it's, it's the beauty of life.
[00:20:02] both: Yeah.
[00:20:03] Don: Because our life right now is so short and we've, we're given one opportunity to live it, and that's where we need to identify, as you were mentioning, Justin, with Jesus Christ. Mm-Hmm. , but identify with.
[00:20:14] Don: What he brought into the world and what we can become.
[00:20:17] Justin: Yeah, that's that's so true and I definitely agree with that because Just going back to the anger thing a little bit it's not an emotional anger. It's not in the sense that we would think, you know, you made a really good point. That was a really good point where the parent views the child, because just like us,
[00:20:38] Justin: we have a God who's our father and he looks at us the same way. So the anger. The, the anger in my opinion, the anger is settled opposition. It's done by us. We've created the distance because our God is going to literally love us and care for us and [00:21:00] forgive us no matter what we do. We repent, we're forgiven.
[00:21:03] Justin: He's a loving God. You move closer to him. And when you move closer to him and you identify, Him in your life and him through your life through your ways through your actions. He's glorified in that It's when you move away. When you move away and you do things that are intentionally sinning Intentionally doing the wrong things things that you know are not Improving your life things that you know are not actually bringing growth to your life.
[00:21:32] Justin: Like making one simple sexual act your entire identity. That's not your identity. That's, that's not who you are. That, that might be a belief that you currently have at the moment. It might be improper, but it's not who you are. And if you stay on that path, you're just going to be walking away from God.
[00:21:54] Justin: He wants you to be close to you. He wants to change your life. He wants to, he wants you to grow. He wants, like you were saying, he [00:22:00] wants you to be that person that you're supposed to be. That's right. That person you were designed to be. And I wanted to read you this. Um, because often I think, We've been told that we condemn people we judge people and we condemn them and we try to get them to come to God For the reason of if they don't they're punished and they're sent to hell which hell is a real place It's it's real But I'm saying that that's the way that we try to get people to come to God, right?
[00:22:29] Justin: And it was actually Paul in the Bible that says it's the goodness of God that leads people to repentance the goodness of the revelation In their lives, you know, and I read this Uh somewhere and it said that the deepest motive for holy living is not gratitude for the forgiveness of sin But the determination of the believer's existence as a new creature.
[00:22:55] Justin: Yeah, that's good. That's good Isn't that good? Yeah, because When you [00:23:00]are now a new creature, you have a new identity. Yeah. We talked about last week, don't be afraid to start over. It's okay if you have to start over. Guess what? When you're reborn, when you're born again, you are starting over. A brand new person.
[00:23:13] Justin: It's a brand new life. We started January 2024 with. A brand new life. Your identity what you thought it was yesterday is different now because of having God in your life That's for sure,
[00:23:26] Don: but you know, and I'd like to give you some nuggets here Let's go because the brain the brain believes what you tell it, you know, we have a subconscious mind You know, and if we can identify ourselves as whatever and it's like Not good.
[00:23:39] Don: Your brain will believe it. Yeah. Or if we, and that's where I'm gonna give you guys a nugget here. And, and this is, and I do this. Yeah. I do this every day is declarations. Okay. Where I declare, you know, I declare I am going to be strong. Mm-Hmm. , I declare the fact that I am wise. Yeah. I declare that I am healthy.
[00:23:57] Don: I declare that I am. [00:24:00] Strong in different ways. I've declared that I'm going to succeed in life. I declare that I am wonderfully made I declare that I am a child of God. I did make these declarations what it does it changes me subconsciously Changes my identity of who I see myself, you know, and that's where in life.
[00:24:20] Don: We can have a all the riches of God, all the riches that life would have to offer. And you look at some people that have it, you can see it. You can see the, the, their identity that they, they hold their head high. They are something. And we all are, you know, we all are wonderfully made. It isn't like God says, I'm just going to make a couple of people wonderful and the rest of them are going to be a bunch of bums.
[00:24:46] Don: No, we were all created with a purpose. purpose in mind, we are not a bump on the log, you know, we were meant to be something. And that's where, if we can start declaring that to ourselves audibly, [00:25:00] you know, myself, I got a list. I don't have to listen in front of me, but I have a list in front of me that I read every morning and I say that to myself, but it creates, and it changes.
[00:25:10] Don: The identity of who I feel I
[00:25:13] Justin: am. Yeah, because self talk is very important. And I think that I often like to say this you are whatever comes after the words I am. That's what you will be whatever comes after those two words because if you tell yourself, oh i'm lazy Oh, i'm stupid i'm dumb, you know things that we say that are just kind of off the cuff a little bit like oh That's just me being whatever You're going to identify as that you're going to believe that because it comes after like you were saying I'm smart.
[00:25:41] Justin: I'm wonderfully made You're truly believing in that which allows it to you know manifest in your life because you identify as that That's right. And That's why it's so important to make sure that your day is filled with this stuff. Yeah from The moment you go to bed to the [00:26:00] moment you wake up, like you said you wake up You're looking in the mirror high fiving yourself, you know
[00:26:04] Don: Oh, yeah
[00:26:05] Justin: Telling yourself all the good things that you are created all the things that you truly are.
[00:26:11] Justin: That's right Not recognizing the bad recognizing what god sees in you Maybe not, not what, and maybe not even what you see yourself as right now, who you were meant to be, who you know, you are. Sometimes I feel like we know who we truly are, but we don't want to admit it to ourselves. We've gotten, we've gotten into this habit of constantly just focusing on the negative and just focusing on the things that kind of tear us down.
[00:26:35] Justin: And I think, you know, You know, the enemy, I think he does things like this as well to keep us in these, um, these constant cycles of rejection.
[00:26:46] Don: You're
[00:26:46] Justin: an idiot. You're stupid. Yeah, exactly. You know what your dad said about you, what your mom said about you, what your girlfriend said about you. Labels. They were right.
[00:26:55] Justin: Yep. So you just gotta, you gotta keep pondering on that. But it's, it's about who you want to [00:27:00] identify with because you know who your creator is. Yes. Yes. You know who's creator. Actually controlling your life, right? You know, who's in charge, you know, who actually has the final say, you know, who the actual judges, that's right, right?
[00:27:15] Justin: Yeah, you're saying it, you know, and you know, the, The power that's there. Yeah when you start to see Like paul was saying the goodness of god working in your life, right? Because it's gonna work differently for everybody.
[00:27:31] Don: Yes,
[00:27:31] Justin: but understanding when you are a new creature You identified as something that has never existed before.
[00:27:38] Justin: This is something that has never been created in time. You truly are a blank canvas when you're a new creation. Yes, yes.
[00:27:47] Don: Yeah, and that's where, you were saying there, Justin, Paul came with the good news, and, , you know, God isn't in a junk business. He doesn't make junk. No, he does not. He brings precious jewels into [00:28:00] life And that's where every child is conceived I look at as a precious jewel brought into life to glorify god and all that he's done And when we can allow god to do that Cause the word, excuse me, the word gospel means good news and that's where everything about what we talk about in the things of God, this is good news.
[00:28:19] Don: This is good news. This means I don't have to be stuck. You know, I remember being young and, you know, not knowing who I was and what I wanted to do and, and looking at life, how hopeless it
[00:28:31] Justin: really is. Yeah. You should get excited when you hear this stuff. You shouldn't be beat down and like, you know, recognizing your flaws and whatnot.
[00:28:37] Justin: That's right. That's
[00:28:38] Don: right. That's right. And this stuff right here, I realize is just a time of testing and molding. We're going through a period of time to be all that God created us. Because on the other side, they call it passing over. It's a lot longer than the time we're spending here on earth. So this time we're living in is so precious.
[00:28:57] Don: And to not be able to identify [00:29:00] ourselves, to not be able to allow our lives to be driven by a proper identity, that's foolish. You know, and that's where in life a lot of times people don't realize how they're allowing life to get by and they've got an identity that doesn't even fit them. You know, it's something that they manufactured or somebody gave them where God has got something great for each and every one of us.
[00:29:21] Don: Yeah, you're right. That's the, that makes life so exciting waking up every day because I'm going to try to improve my identity. Identity, I'm trying to become more valuable. What can I do today? And I can I look at people sometimes my brother Dave Sometimes we go for a walk. Somebody does something nice and kind with a smile on their face I say they probably took one of our courses, you know I say that I laugh about that sort of thing because you know This is the type of stuff that You know, with this podcast that we try to teach people to get out and get away from themselves and in the areas that they're stuck in, because your identity can lock you up.
[00:29:59] Don: [00:30:00] And Jesus came to set the captives free. Well, a part of this is the identity that you gave yourself. You know, you got to get over that identity. You are stuck. something, you know, don't let social media, don't let anything else say that you are anything but great because you are great,
[00:30:19] both: you know, and
[00:30:19] Don: the fact that you are still alive and breathing means God is not done with you.
[00:30:23] Don: He's not done.
[00:30:24] Justin: And when that car, they say sometimes Jesus has to take the wheel. He does. So I think in that car that's driving you, I guess. Who is driving that car? That's the question to ask yourself is who is driving you? What's driving your identity? That's right. And I I think it's a I would say once you understand that, it's a good question to understand what your full potential in life is. Yeah, that's for sure. And
[00:30:50] Don: that's where you don't want your identity to be your obstacle.
[00:30:54] Justin: Yeah. Well, I think that wraps it up for today. This was a good one, Justin. [00:31:00] I think so too. Hey, we're glad you guys found your way here today.
[00:31:04] Justin: And we hope you can join us again next week for another good word. Until then, stay blessed, bye the best, see you guys.
