Faithbase

Hey everybody, it's Danny, I want to say thank you for tuning in to the Heart Way podcast and I want to give a special thanks to those of you who are tuning in from really all over the world. We're so grateful that you are a part of our community and that you listen in on an ongoing basis. If you've been encouraged by what you've heard, I want to ask you to share this with a friend. You never know the impact that one of these messages can have in another person's life. And if you yourself have been impacted and you'd like to continue to partner with us to keep this work going, check us out at heartwaychurch.com slash give. Every dollar that you give goes a really long way towards helping us do what it is that we do. Well, we love you, really hope you enjoy the podcast. I love it when it takes us a little bit extra time to get to our seats. That means we've actually been moving across the room, engaging with each other, saying good morning, showing love. That's what it's about, right? It's a beautiful opportunity to get to be here with you guys again. Such a blessing. Something that I think is so vital is to self-assess sometimes. Why do we feel the ways we do about the things in our lives? You ever actually stopped and audited yourself when you say, I don't have time to meditate. I don't really enjoy sitting there and not doing anything. Or if you find yourself just sitting there and you can't find anything on Netflix and you're like, uh, I'm so bored. There is such a normalcy to that perception. But have you ever asked yourself why? Isn't it a little weird that I am incapable of sitting in a room alone and not being in peace? Or rather I'm only in peace if my mind is being entertained. If not, I feel rattled. There is a discomfort there. And that's normal, but we come to find that there's actually an interesting reason as to why it's happening. There's a man by the name of Dr. David Vago, and he wrote an article on a process that every single one of us go through on a moment to moment basis called selfing. He found that our mind cannot maintain a solid identity for ourselves. Every 300 to 500 milliseconds, my mind has to remember all of my experiences, all of my past history in order to construct the concept of Ryan. So every 300 to 500 milliseconds, I have to remind myself of who I am. I have to be thinking. But if I enter into the silence, not auditory silence, the mental silence, if I get quiet in here, if I allow that to happen, my ego is scared because it's saying, who am I? I don't know who I am outside of my mind chatter. And I'm simply saying this to remind us, this isn't just a practice. Centering prayer is not just a ritual. It is an opportunity to step beyond the precipice of that egoic fear and say, let me forget my egoic self right now so I can let God teach me who I really am. That's what this is. And so it is with that intention that I invite you to get comfortable. You know the drill, your foot placing, your spine positioning, your body, whatever feels most comfortable to you. Because you have no job right now. And focus on your breath. Allow the oxygen to breathe in through your nose and out of your mouth. That's it. Release all resistance. If you notice a thought, don't resist, observe. If you notice a sensation, don't resist, observe. See if you can allow yourself to just let go of any resistance. You have no responsibilities here. As you continue to breathe, you are currently at the doorstep of a house. You knock on the door and God answers, he says, come in. I want to commune with you here. All that I ask you to do is before you walk in, leave all of your stressors and your ideas and your goals and your worries at the doorstep. Like you're leaving your shoes at the door. Just for the next few minutes, leave them there. Step inside with me. Freedom. This is freedom. This is weightlessness. This is grace. In a few seconds, we're going to take a communal breath together, and as we get to the top of that breath, we're simply going to hold it. We're going to hold our breath at the top of that breath, and then as we exhale, we're going to let the breath out, like we're breathing out of a straw, and let's do that together. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Let it happen. Let him take you into his arms with every breath. He said, set aside every weight that does so easily beset you. Every worry. Every strain. Every trauma. He said, I'm mighty enough, put it all on me right now. I don't want you to just think about grace, but experience it. This peace is with you. What you feel right now, the calm, the relaxation, it has been embedded into your psyche, and any time you need it throughout this week, throughout this month, just call on it. And so in your own time, slowly bring your awareness back into your body. Opening your eyes has no influence on the peacefulness of your state. We love you and we thank you, Heartway family. God bless you. Thank you. Good morning, Heartway. I know we all kind of like zen and we're rested, but you guys know me. My name's Cliff and I am so glad to be here, but I like energy and I like a little feedback. So I'm gonna try this one more time and I need to hear it, okay? Because if you guys don't give me energy, then I'm gonna teach like this the whole time. All right, so good morning, Heartway. Okay, now I feel a little bit better, all right? Again, for everybody that don't know, my name is Cliff and I have the privilege of being one of the teachers and servant leaders here. I do not take this for granted. I don't take it for granted because it's a prayer answered. I asked God years ago to be able to speak with people, to be able to communicate with them, converse on a level that can help them to grow, which in turn has been able to help me to grow. So I'm grateful to be able to be up here today. Today, we're gonna talk about fear. And some of you guys looking at me with a little bit of fear, like I don't wanna open that. But before we dive into it, so in preparation for this message, I started to come up, I started to look what is fear in all the different ways fear hits us or they affect our bodies, right? So I found 10 funniest fears. You guys ready for this one? I'm going to butcher the names, all right? So don't laugh at me, but there's some weird ones up here. All right, so the first one is cacophobia. It's the fear of ugliness. So I got a question, like, is it the fear of ugliness of somebody's personality? Or they just like, yo, you see somebody ugly, it's like, I can't take it, I just got to move, I got to. I don't know, I was just trying to figure that one out. The next one is a bluetophobia, fear of bathing, cleaning, or washing. You know, I've given hugs today, so I don't think anybody has that fear. I think we're all good. Then this next one is arachiburophobia, all right? Fear of peanut butter getting stuck to the roof of the mouth. I don't like it, but you know, it ain't no fear, you know? So the next one is boogiephobia. I'm not making this up. Like, if you're afraid of the boogie man, there's a phobia for it. Like, you are really afraid, like, it's boogiephobia. It does. The next one is bromidrosiphobia, fear of body smells. Wouldn't that go with a bluetophobia? Things kind of there. Colorophobia, I heard anybody afraid of clowns? Anybody afraid of clowns? You don't like clowns? They just drive you nuts. They're always smiling. The next one is depnephobia, fear of body odors. The next one is depnephobia, fear of dining with others. Listen, if you want to get out of a dinner date, right? You're just like, listen, I really would like to do this, but I suffer from depnephobia. Just can't do it. Listen, single people, that's your way of getting out. Somebody like, how do I break this off? Like, I don't want to go to dinner with him. All right? The next one is didoscelinophobia, all right? Fear of going to school. The next one, callogenophobia, fear of beautiful women. I don't know about that. Like, I'm married to one and I'm good. Like, I'm good. I'm straight. Like, that doesn't bother me. And then allodoxophobia, fear of opinions. I really don't care what you guys, what, no, wait a minute, hold on. You guys are family, so I care what you guys think. But everybody else, I don't care. Doesn't bother me, right? But we have these different fears. Now, I'll tell you something. I'm afraid of the three S's. Three S's. Snakes, spiders, and switches. And I'm not talking about the switches on the light, the one on the wall. I'm talking about, like, when I was growing up and I did something I wasn't supposed to, and my mom or my dad or my grandma was like, you want to act up? Go get me a switch. Yeah, and you better not come back with that switch that was that flimsy one, because they're going to come back with, like, a branch. Right? But don't laugh. Don't laugh, because some of y'all haven't wore flip-flops since 97, because y'all scared that chancleta is going to come and pop you in the head, right? So don't be laughing at mine. I got one more, and maybe this is just me, but hardware, y'all family, right? Family, I can share this with you. I don't like looking in the mirror in the middle of the night. Like, when I get up, go to the restroom, or I get a drink of water, and I go to wash my hands, I don't like looking in the mirror. I won't, I'd be like, I'm out. I don't know if it's a boogie phobia. Listen, I think I've watched a little too many scary movies when I was younger, and so I don't look in the mirror when I'm up there. It's just not what I'm going to do. Reflect a phobia. Well, there's actually afraid of mirror phobia. I just didn't put it up here. Like, there's a long list, but we all have all of these fears. We all have something that has haunted us, or has affected us in some kind of way, but truly, how we handle those typically depends on our life circumstances, the stress that we have, things that we're going through, the stress that we're going through, the stress that we have, things that we're going through, and even, it makes it worse if you had a pileup of things happening in your life, and so when you face that fear, it gets harder to do. It starts to trigger that feeling of fight or flight, right? And see, the cool thing about the fight or flight, that is actually triggered by the amygdala that sends a message to the hypothalamus, like, listen, put your gloves on because we're going to have to fight this one out, or put your Nikes on because we're about to run it out, all right? And you have to be able to be prepared for whatever that may be. But sometimes, sometimes we can't fight. Sometimes we can't flight. We can't get out of this scenario. Sometimes we have to just go through it. It reminds me of the story in the Bible as we prepare to coming up to Easter, where Jesus had just finished having dinner with the disciples in the upper room, and he knows what's about to happen. He's about to get turned over. Judas has gone to do what he's about to do, and so he gets ready to go off and pray, and he tells the disciples, stay here and pray, stay vigil, while I go and pray to God. And you can imagine what's happening. See, we have this fear a lot of times about what's going to happen, but Jesus knew. Jesus knew what was about to happen. He was about to be turned over to his accusers, and he was about to be crucified, and at that moment, he looks up, and in Luke, he says, Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. And then appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him, and being in agony, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like drops of blood falling down to the ground. So many times in our life, we feel the weight of that fear barreling down on us. So over the last six months or so, maybe it's a little bit longer, I haven't been feeling my best. I've been off. I've been having these pressure in my chest. My heart's been racing. I've been having these headaches that come, or even tingling in the brain, right? And so I'm like, I gotta go to the doctor. I gotta figure out what the heck's going on. And so I go to my general practitioner. She runs all this blood work, came back. She's like, you're healthy. There's nothing wrong with you, but I know something's not right. I don't know what it is. So she's like, listen, this is what we're gonna do. She's like, we're gonna set up some time, go see your cardiologist, and then also see a neurologist. So I go to the neurologist first, sit down. She looks at me, and we're talking. She was like, there's nothing really wrong with you. It's probably just stress, right? And I'm like, it's not just stress. There's something else. Like, I just don't feel well. My energy levels are fluctuating. They're low, and I'm like, something's off. So she's like, well, here's what we're gonna do. We're going to schedule an MRI for you to have an MRI. Let's see what's going on with your brain to make sure everything is working fine. And I'm like, cool. I don't like MRIs. I don't know if anybody has had one. So I'm like, I can deal with it. I've had a few before when I was in a car accident, and so I'm gonna prepare myself to go and get this MRI. And that day that I had scheduled, we scheduled like a week and a half, was an interesting day. You see, because the career that I have, it's a very demanding career in construction. And at the time, we have a lot of projects that's going on. But also, we're trying to grow our company. And so we started to engage to make an acquisition of another company. And so that opportunity had come and gone, and then it came back. And it came back with great energy. We're like, all right, let's do this. This is going to be a lot of fun. We're going to be able to expand our business. And so we got a chance to meet with one of the owners. We go out. We have drinks. We have fun. We're like, good. Everything's working according to plan. We called the bank. The bank's like, the money's ready. Whenever you're ready, let's go. Let's move forward. We're like, yes, because this thing has great implications. It has great personal implications, and it has great professional implications. And so this is like a growth for us in the path and the direction that we wanted. Things will get done after meeting. Everybody's ready. Start calling, and we don't get any responses back. And I'm like, what's up? What's going on? And then I get the call that Thursday that I have to have this MRI, that the deal is dead. Months of hard work, getting everybody with the team, everybody's working, and it dies. And then I call my partners, and I'm sitting in the parking lot of the MRI place, and my stress level is like here. Right? And you know what? Check out this video. That's right there with you, sir. Please come up these stairs and grab a seat. All right. I'm going to pull this out in front of you. I'm going to ask you to please lay back. I'm just going to lay you down. All right, good. Your shoulders are touching. Excellent. Lift your legs for me, please. Are you cold, Cliff? No, I'm good. All right. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. No, I'm good. All right. So, I'm going to be putting this cage on you. This cage acts as an antenna for us to fully see your brain in every direction. I'm going to put some headphones on you first. Do you have any typical type of music you want to listen to? Maybe some jazz. Jazz. Very good choice, Cliff. I'm going to go ahead and lift your head slightly. Good. OK. Now, you can hear me at all times just by talking into this microphone, OK? At the same time, if you need me, you can buzz onto this. OK. I'm going to go ahead and put the cage on. Now, the cool thing about this cage, and it is called the bird cage, is that you can see into this mirror. You can see my hand, right? OK. When you look into this mirror, it allows you to see down to your feet so you won't feel enclosed, OK? OK. I'm going to go ahead and put you in. Are you feeling all right? I'm good. Excellent. Let's go. All right. Nice and easy. Doing all right? Good. All right. I'm going to close the door. Cliff, you doing OK? No. I'll be right in, OK? Don't worry. Right here, Cliff. Right here, buddy. You doing all right, Cliff? Yeah. I thought I could do it. You could do it. What happened? I know you could do this, Cliff. Man, the fear just got the best of me. So I want to shout out to Palm MRI for being able to allow us to recreate that day for us. They were incredible. That guy, that guy is my guy. Rick, that's my guy. Like, I'm going to tell you a little bit later, but that's my guy. Because, like, OK, so I'm a big dude. I got very broad shoulders. And going into that little tight little space is nerve-wracking. See, I was prepared to be able to go into the MRI, and they just, you know, before it was just my back. But when I walk in, I'm like, I got to put that on? And so imagine going in and having this cage over your face, right? So all right, so it really threw me off. I even had to reenact this. So listen, my heart started to race even then. But the thing about it is, is that I was trying to, you know, when I get into, when I've had to do MRIs, what I used to do is math. I love math, right? And so if we were bidding a project or working on something, I just do math. You see, math forces you to focus. You have to focus on counting the numbers. I can estimate a whole project while going through an MRI process, because it helps me to be able to focus. And usually, I close my eyes. But this time, I'm like, I got this cage over my, like, I want to see, like, I'm scared. Like, it just, it's bothering me. It's freaking me out. Now let's look at this thing logically. Logically, that machine is not going to hurt me. Logically, that cage that's over my face is not going to hurt me. Logically, it's there to do the exact opposite. It's meant to help me, for that cage is a magnet to be able to give clearer pictures about what's going on in my brain. Logically, I can tell that the space that I'm in is only about three and a half feet, three feet wide. Logically, these walls that surround here are just walls that's trying to help me. Logically, I've been up under my bed with stuff with my kids, trying to look at, get their toys from up under there. I've been in tighter spaces. But this has been a fear. A great theologian said, fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering, Yoda. He's a theologian, right, Danny? Nelson Mandela says, the brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers the fear. There are all types of fear that we are going to face in our lives. Fear of what people think, social media has taken that to a whole new level. We wonder whether or not we measure up to some imaginary standard that nobody could ever reach. We wonder whether or not that this group over here is talking about us or whether our close friends or our family are sitting there talking about us. We wonder and we care about what people think. Maybe it's the fear of rejection, that that relationship that you're in and it's coming to an end and you're like, what happened? What did I do? Why didn't I get this right? And you start to self-examine all of these different things. But the truth of the matter is, it's probably not even about you. It may not even be about the other person. You see, if you focus too much on that fear and the loss of something, you're going to miss out on the right person that's meant to be in your life. I feel like I had some single pastor over here. We had to go Catholic, it's our father. Maybe it's the fear of taking that step God has been telling you to take. He's telling you to start that new business. He's telling you to leave that company so you can take the position at another company and be great. Maybe it's the fear that if I take this, I may not be able to afford the life that I really want. Maybe if I go and I chase my dreams to be an artist, to be a painter or a musician, that I really won't be able to do the things that I want. But God's telling you that it is okay to take that step. Henry Ford says, one of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn't do. Fear of being not enough is another one that seems to grip, has a strong grip on our lives. One of my good friends, he is probably hands down top two to three smartest people that I know. His intelligence is incredible, not just from his professional career, but also in his spiritual understanding of his relationship with God. Hands down one of the smartest people. But as I was talking with him, he told me that he has this fear that everybody's going to find out that he's a fraud, that he doesn't really know what he says he knows, or even what he knows what he has shown that he knows. He stands there and he questions himself constantly, because he thinks that he's just not enough. God wants me to tell you today that you are enough. You are enough because he's enough. And because he's in you, how can you not be enough? Maybe it's a fear of death. Maybe it's a fear of being alone. To all the single people out there, I tell you, rest. Find your peace in being in that space alone. You do not need to have someone there. But when you find that peace that God is telling you just to be okay with while you're there, he'll bring you the person that you are meant to have. Maybe it's the fear of failure. Theodore Roosevelt says, it is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs, who comes up short again and again because there is no effort without error and shortcomings. But who does actually strive to do the deeds, who knows great enthusiasm and great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he, or excuse me, who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. Because you were too scared to go out and just try it. We miss the fact that we don't learn from our success. We actually learn from failing, because we learn what not to do. And a lot of times, learning what not to do is equally or more important of knowing what to do. You see, success teaches us just to keep doing the same thing over. But failure teaches us another way, another path to be able to go and continue on to do what we need to do. Don't be caught up in that fear of failing. Embrace failure, so that way you can understand how to really appreciate success. Maybe fear of not being a good spouse. We were having lunch with one of our buddies that came into town this past week, and he was saying that he had a fear that he was not going to be a good spouse, because he had seen our lives, and we talked to him. Maybe he saw it on Instagram or Facebook and stuff like that. And we're like, hold on a minute. This isn't some perfect show. This isn't some perfect relationship. We have our moments. Me and my wife have definitely had our discussions. So you got to be okay with having those conversations, and it's a growth pattern in a relationship. And so one of my friends said, are you in a relationship? He said, no. So you're worried about not being able to be a good husband, but you're not even in a relationship. He was spending all of this time worrying about something that hasn't even happened yet. And what ends up happening is that fear has crippled him and has damaged the even possibility of being a good husband or not being a good husband, because he's so much focused on that. You see, that fear has impacted his relationships. And then when we start to really unpack it, the whole thing was he had a fear of not being able to provide. And so we're like, well, what do you do now? And so we were talking and he's telling us what he does, and it's just something to pay the bills. And then we asked him this question, well, what do you want to do? And so he started to show us his artwork. This boy is incredible. His art and his being able to draw and sketch is amazing. And so what we kept trying to tell him is, or we asked him the question, why haven't you pursued this? Because I don't want to fail if this doesn't work out. Will it be able to pay the bills? So again, we can see that this one fear has started to inject itself into so many parts of his life. And what has come out of that is it stopped this opportunity to be in a relationship. It stopped this opportunity about chasing dreams that God has given you, the talent that God has given you. You are not pursuing it. You are just walking in this day-to-day nine to five and not being happy. Take Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese monk, said, fear keeps us focused on the past or worried about the future. If we can acknowledge our fear, we can realize that right now, we're okay. Right now, today, we are still alive and our bodies are working marvelously. Our eyes can still see the beautiful sky. Our ears can still hear the voices of our loved ones. One of my other friends, he called me this past, I think it was Tuesday, very successful guy. He's 44, in a new relationship, 32-year-old, it's all important in just a second. And he calls me because they just got back from a cruise, they had fun and everything's going well. And he calls me, he's like, Cliff, where you at? I was like, I'm just sitting here having lunch. He was like, bruh, she's pregnant. I started laughing. I was like, maybe I shouldn't, I'm wrong, don't judge me. So he tells me that she's pregnant. So I'm like, you at the office? He's like, no. And so the office is Starbucks, that's our office, that's what we mean. So I was like, yo, I'm at tab 42, come on, let's grab a bite to eat. So he comes over and he starts to tell me, like, bro, what am I gonna do? He's freaking out. One, she doesn't live in this country. And so they see each other, they've known each other for over a year and a half. And so they see each other back and forth, they travel back and forth. And he's like, what am I gonna do? He's freaking out. He was like, my business and everything's here. And he's like, what do I'm gonna do? And I'm like, chill, relax, let's dive into this a little bit. So he's like, Cliff, he was like, but, he said, I have a problem with control. I need to have control. That's my fear, not being able to have control. And so he told his dad, his dad's like, what you worried about? He was like, his dad says, when I die, he said, I got about 6 million, you and your brothers will split that. His mom is, he talked to his mom, his mom's like, or no, excuse me, his dad was like, your mom got a few million, when she passes, you're gonna get that, you're good. You're a very successful businessman, what you worried about? You're gonna bring a child into this world that's gonna be great. He's like, but I'm afraid to let go. I'm afraid to let go of control. And so I said, all right, let's figure this out. And for this, I need a volunteer, I need a volunteer. No, Phil, I don't want you up there. That's, come on, come on. Everybody give her a round of applause. Stand right here. So he wants control, right? These bottles of water, hold one in each hand, represents the things that we are always trying to hold on to. No, no, no, this ain't that, this ain't that kind of message. These bottles of water represent the things that we won't give over to God. This new opportunity, hope, joy, peace, new love. Because we're afraid to jump into it, because the last person hurt us. We're afraid to take this step, because I fell before. And so what I kept telling him is, sometimes if you stop and just pay attention to what God is telling you, there's a blessing. Sometimes there's a blessing, but you can't receive it. Even though you can see it, you can't get it, because your hands are full. You're trying to use, see how you can use your pinky to be able to receive it. And you can't get it, because your hands are full. grab the bag to be able to receive what God has in store for you, but you can't really receive it. But if you stop and give it over to God, what's in this bag, which is the gift that he wants you to have, you now can receive. So when I started to prepare for this message, I wanted to be able to bless somebody. Don't know what is going on in anybody's life, but I asked God to be able to point out to me, somebody. And so when I had looked, I wanted, I saw your face. And so I pray that is a blessing to you, all right? You're welcome. Fear has a place. Fear is, so in the Bible it says, this is not up on the scripture, so don't worry about trying to switch it over too. But in the Bible, it says that God didn't give us a spirit of fear. If we think about the understanding of the spirit, the spirit is something that rests inside of us. It is part of who we are, right? He gave us the spirit of love. He gave us the spirit of peace, but not of fear. But he did allow us to have the emotion of fear. See, the reason why fear is healthy is because, I'll give you an example. When I was in high school or college, one of the things I wanted was a motorcycle, right? My mom, she didn't tell me no, but she was kind of like hinting at no, but I was like I wanted to get a motorcycle. So there was two different guys that I know were selling a motorcycle. One was a Ninja 600, one was a Ninja 900 that had nitrogen on it. And coincidentally, that one was cheaper because the guy was just trying to get rid of it because he wanted to buy a new bike. So I was like, I'm about to buy this bike. And my buddy said, if you buy that bike, Cliff, you're going to die. It's going to kill you because the power that's there, you're not ready for it because you've never ridden a bike before. You can get the Ninja 600. He said, that is a starter bike. You see, fear has a place because it needs to be able to warn you so that way you understand the brevity of a situation and when to take that step and when not to take that step. It's just a reminder. It's just a little warning to just say, hey, be mindful. So it has a place in our heart, or excuse me, it has a place in our life, but it's not meant to stop us from going out and being all that we're supposed to be. It's not meant to stop us from trying and going into this new relationship so that way you can be happy and whole in a healthy relationship. It's not meant to stop us at any point in our life. The Hebrew word for fear is translated as yara, translated in the Bible as the awe. Now it often directly translate into fear, but it can also mean respect, reverence, or worship. We can use our fear as something to respect, but it stops there. It doesn't stop you there. Proverbs 1.7 says, the fear or respect of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instructions. Likewise, Philippians 4.6 says, don't worry about anything. Instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done. I go back to my guy Rick. You see, because that day I couldn't get the MRI. I had to schedule another appointment, and I kept pushing that sucker off, but I kept having these headaches, and I needed to find out what was going on. So I scheduled the appointment, and they're like, well, when I went there and I couldn't get it done, they're like, you can get a sedative to kind of take you out of it, and you don't have to worry about it. So I called my neurologist. They're like, well, the sedative's there. You can go pick it up. There was not at the MRI place. There was at the pharmacy. They didn't tell me where the there was, so I showed up to the MRI place, and I had to get this MRI, and I'm like, my wife and kids are in the car, because if I was going to have this sedative, I wasn't going to be able to drive home. So I go in, and they're like, there's no sedative here. We don't know what you're talking about. So Rick comes to get me. He's like, you want to try? I was like, I'm going to try. I'm going to get this done. So I'm like, all right, here we go. Here's what I want you to do. So I was like, can I walk around? So I walk around. I'm looking at the machine. I'm touching everything. I'm like, oh, it's not that deep. I'm getting the understanding. I'm trying to acclimate myself so I can get past this fear. Then I'm like, all right, Rick. This is what I want you to do. So he sits me down on the table. He lays me down. I was like, all right. Put the cage on me. Okay. Take it off. All right. Put the cage back on me. All right. No, no, no. Take it off. Take it off. Take it off. All right. Here's what you do. Put the cage on me, and then put me in, and then I want you to take me out. Okay? So when I say take me out, take me out. So he puts the cage on me. He puts me in. He takes me out. And he's like, you good? I was like, no. We're going to do it one more time. Just one more time. So he puts me in. I stand there like three or four minutes. I mean, this goes back and forth for like 15, almost 20 minutes of me just trying to get acclimated. And Rick didn't complain. He was there. He was like, bro, you can do this. You can do this. And so I'm like, all right. I'm ready. I'm ready. So he's sitting up there. He gets me in. He goes into the other room. He was like, Cliff, you all right? I'm like, yeah. He said, all right, here's the first part of it. Here's what's going to happen. This first seven minutes, you're going to hear this tick. Listen to the rhythm of the tick. He was like, it has its rhythm that maybe you can use that to focus on. And so I start to pray. I start to listen. Because the first time when I got and I couldn't do it, I was praying. Because sometimes we allow our fear to even silence the boisterous voice of our Lord and Savior and we can't hear it. We allow that fear to drown out all that we know, all that we've learned about who our God is. But Rick was right there. He's like, you can do this. And then I started thinking I'm going to be able to go back to the car and tell my kids I was able to do it. I was able to conquer this fear. I started to try to count, because usually that's the math. I was like, oh, I'm good. One plus one is two, two plus two is four. I started to rest. And then after the first set, Rick comes back in. This next section is going to be about five minutes. I'm right here with you, right? Get done. I'm excited. Rick comes and he's like, bro, you did it. You did it. And I was like, man, he's like, I say, you will forever be my guy. I was like, it is because of you I was able to make it through. So he was like, can I pray for you? So right then and there, Rick grabs my hand and we start saying the Lord's Prayer together. What I want to be able to tell you guys is that God will always send somebody there for you. Just like with Jesus, when he was feeling the agony, God sent an angel. He did the same thing for Moses. He gave him his brother to be able to speak because he had a fear of speaking. God will always send somebody there so that way you can understand that you don't have to do this alone. God will send somebody there in the right moment at the right time when you're supposed to do it. Stop worrying about what the fear is and focus on what God is and who God is. He will never leave you there alone. Rick was there and didn't even realize that God was using him right there in that moment. And now, even when we went to go shoot this, he's like, when is the message? My family is so excited. You're going to have to send this to me. They keep asking me, when is Cliff coming to shoot the video? When is Cliff coming to shoot the video? If we stop and allow God to work through the things that we're concerned with and let go and let him be, then we can be who God has created us to be. But you got to understand one thing. Are you going to be vulnerable enough to allow God to use the person that he's sending you? I could have gotten off that table and celebrated internally and not been open to that moment and not to realize that God sent Rick. My wife was actually the person that actually helped me to understand that God sent him to be able to be that voice of reason. We can accomplish anything. If you're sitting here right now, don't worry about what you're holding on to, that thing you're concerned about. Take that step. Chase that dream. Be what you're supposed to be. That's what God wants. That's what you want, and you keep fighting it. I'm not saying anything new. I'm not saying anything that you haven't heard before. It's just a simple reminder. There's a song that when I, this morning, I was listening to, looked on Facebook, and I saw a video of Jamie Foxx. He was accepting the NAACP award, and he was talking about taking a chance and going out, and so I don't have, those that know my wife, she's the singer. I can hold a tune, and this is what I want to end it on, and then we'll pray. It's a song that whenever I'm facing a challenge in my life, this is my go-to, and it goes like this. No weapon formed against me shall prosper. No, it won't work. No weapon formed against me shall prosper. No, it won't work. There's nothing you can't do. Let God be God, and that way, you can be you. Let's pray. Lord, we just want to thank you for today. Thank you for loving us the way that you do. Thank you for imparting so much of who you are into us that we can celebrate that life and be who we've been called to be. Thank you for being and sending our helpmate to help us to accomplish great things, to not be stuck in the things that we hold as a fear. Help us to let go so we can let you do what you have, who you, to do what you are to do, to be our Lord and Savior, to be our Father. Help us to live a life full of your glory, full of your praise, so that way we can take that and help someone else as you have helped us. We ask for all these blessings. In Jesus' name we do pray. Amen. That's it. We love you. I hope you guys have a blessed week. Take care.