Losing Our Voices

Rhett 0:11

Hey everyone , to to Armchair Authentic , a podcast with Rhett and Justin . Our hope is to help you fulfill your God assignment through real conversations about real life with real people .

Justin 0:23

Yeah , we're so glad to have you for episode two and I thought we really launched things and it was a perfect episode to get things started with this , because it was so imperfect , rhett , and what a great introduction to being authentic .

Rhett 0:38

Absolutely , and that is our goal .

Rhett 0:39

It's to be authentic , it's to be vulnerable , it's to be open , it's to be honest .

Rhett 0:44

What we've talked about and where we're going today is the fact that , especially in Christianity , and especially in this whole idea of having a relationship with God , like there's a false narrative that says , you know what the church is called to be plastic and perfect and be like this country club type setting , and I cannot just say that is the furthest thing from the truth . Like Christianity and a relationship with God , much like having a relationship with your dad or your mom or your sister or your aunt , your uncle , your cousin . Like it's all a journey , it's all a process . It was never meant to be perfect . In fact , the church is meant to be a hospital for the hurting and we're going to talk about that today . In fact , if you're joining us right now on the front end of this , we'll probably get into this about 20 minutes in from a conversation that we've had . We're going to jump into that a little bit later , but before that , I just want to say hey , if you're listening for the first time , thank you so much .

Rhett 1:33

We're glad that you're along for the ride . Go back and listen to last week's episode .

Justin 1:36

Yeah , and really just take the next several episodes we're going to do . If I wanted to lay a plan out for you , last week was a great 30,000 foot view of who we are and each week over the next several episodes , it's going to build a foundation so you know who your host are , who's talking to you , so that we can really build up this skyscraper into what it's going to become .

Rhett 1:59

Absolutely , absolutely . So if you haven't listened to last week's episode , go back , tune in it's , I forget , maybe about 45 minutes . If anything , you'll laugh a lot , and really that is a part of the joy of this conversation . So , justin and I , we've known each other for 38 years In fact . Before we hit the record button , we were laughing a lot , so much so , justin , that I lost my voice a little bit Me too .

Rhett 2:20

I did not laugh that hard in years and some of you might be thinking well like why were you laughing ? There was no point to it at all . It was literally just . I don't know . If you have a friend like that in your life , consider yourself blessed . If not , maybe through this journey with us that you kind of maybe learn some leadership principles on even how to find a friend like that and even take next steps to it .

Justin 2:44

I'll tell you this we're feeling really good right now because the endorphins or whatever chemicals when you are just having laughter my goodness we feel so at ease right now .

Rhett 2:55

Yeah , absolutely . And so , with that , before we jump into the deep end of the pool from a conversation that we've had , why don't we just take a minute and catch up on the week ?

Rhett 3:04

Man sounds good Well how was

Rhett's Catch Up On The Week

Rhett 3:06

your week , man ? My week's great . For those who don't know , I've been married for 17 years the most beautiful , courageous , incredible woman in my entire life . Her name is Linda and we have an incredible 15 year old son right now at least at the time of this recording , he's 15 . And so , man , he's just got this love right now for F1 , in Formula One and this racing , and so he's like Dad , I really like what would I need to do to kind of even get started ? And I was like , well , you know what ? Let's find a league that starts off with racing , and right now I mean it's go-karts . So we've got this really incredible place here in the Birmingham area called the Audubon . It's an indoor speedway and my son is in this professional well , I mean semi-professional , if you will . Anybody could literally pay the money and get into it , but he's and it's really cool . So he's in this league right now . He won his first race last night .

Justin 3:55

It was so cool .

Rhett 3:57

So they have these warm-up laps which are just everybody's out there on the track getting warmed up , and they have a qualifying and so he did so well in qualifying , at least for him , to where they call it pole . It's pole position , it's lead point , number one car . So in that he qualified for number one and the group that he's in right now there was three groups and he's A , b and C and he happened to qualify for the group B and had the best time for that and so , yeah , so he's doing that . And he came in first place on the first race , which was amazing , and what's cool about that is like the car that was behind him was actually faster , but he was holding them off on a defensive position , which was really fun . Yeah , got some video of that .

Rhett 4:34

His second race last night he finished seventh because there was a ton of wrecks . In fact , there was a wreck so bad that a go-kart ended up on top of another go-kart oh my goodness . And it almost took this kid's head off , and I'm not kidding , I've got the video to show it , but it was a close call and there were several moments like that and I was like so this is some serious . These go-karts at least in the indoor , electric go about 50 miles an hour . So it's an intro for him into racing and we're having a lot of fun and I'm just really , really proud of it .

Justin 5:01

What I love about that is I remember you telling me when you were going to enter him into this league .

Rhett 5:05

Yeah .

Justin 5:06

You know , just like we would enter somebody into football , soccer , basketball those are kind of your standard American sports , but this is huge , especially in other countries as well , and I love that you took that opportunity to say hey , I don't know if he's going to be a pro or if he's not , but I'm going to give him some opportunity to step into this and that's really cool .

Rhett 5:28

And some people might be listening oh well , you got to have a lot of money to do that and the honest truth is , for this league you really don't . I mean , the entry fee was very affordable and practical . You would equivalent up to buying a uniform and gas and schedule and all that you would do for football or tennis or God or whatever sport you would play in a high school , and so they don't offer carding in high school and so , anyway , what's really neat about this ? And then we can move on , because I don't want to bore you , but this is just our life . This league actually participates with leagues across the country and they do this national thing . So if he wins and wins this tournament here in Birmingham , then he gets into a national thing , to where they go to the next track over in another state or whatever . And if he wins that , he wins like 10 grand . So it's pretty cool . So there's an opportunity for him to .

Rhett 6:16

He's learning . He's around people who are better than him right now and I did tell him this as a dad . It's like my expectation is that you're not going to win every race right now . My expectation is that you're getting into a place where people who are better than you , have been doing this longer than you and you're learning from them and you're growing , and every time you're out there , my only expectation is that you're giving your best , that's it , and that you're growing and we actually have stats and statistics to follow , with times and lap times is really neat and so he's actually getting better . He's having a time of his life and you're right , whether he goes professional or not , of course , I would love that . That'd be amazing . The percentage of that is really small , but I at least want to create an opportunity for him right now in this season that I'm afforded , and I'm grateful to give him an opportunity to dream and to learn and to grow and to see what happens and to see his perseverance and determination and all that other stuff

Skill Builders And Dream Givers

Rhett 7:07

.

Justin 7:07

Yeah , and these are skill builders . I mean , we can use that in every part of life , because what he's doing is he's grinding it out . Opportunities are going to come his way .

Rhett 7:15

It's no different .

Justin 7:16

We talked about it last week . I have four boys and they all have these . Really , the two oldest have their dreams they're pursuing . They both launch YouTube channels and they are gamers to the max , and I love just celebrating that in them too , because I know there's certain things that they're grinding out and it reminds me of us . We didn't realize we were grinding out , just learning how to be musicians . We just thought we love playing these instruments , and when I strum this chord it makes this sound Right , and so we just went and grounded it out every day . I would say that we were supported too , and our parents , our dads , at least gave us that freedom to say go for it .

Justin 7:59

And we had , which is why you'll hear us talk about local church so much . I mean we had the local church . I mean they championed us as 15 , 16 year olds .

Rhett 8:07

Yeah , they did .

Rhett 8:07

They really created a space margin , if you will for us to thrive and to flourish .

Rhett 8:14

And they didn't get it right all the time , but I think if they got anything right , they saw something in us that we didn't see in ourselves and they offered us a chance to even fail in front of people right , and not to have it perfect , because , if there was anything , our church was in a position where at one time it had a lot and then it went through some seasons of transitions to where it didn't have a lot and it , I'm not gonna say was desperate , but it was at a place that really did believe in the gifts and they were like , hey , you know what ?

Rhett 8:42

I didn't know we were going to get into this , but our youth pastor at the time we were just writing songs they came in and heard it and we weren't doing it to try to do anything other than just we were having fun . Right , we were in the doors of the church every day . The door was open because you got to remember like we were troublemakers . And then we came to the position where we came into a relationship with God and from there it was like we don't want to be anywhere else but around our family and church , and so we came what I like to call a church rat .

Rhett 9:07

You know no matter where , any corner , day or not , you could find us there .

Justin 9:11

Yeah , we had to be hanging up on the stage , literally no one's in the room . We would just walk up there . We'd have Rhett would have at that time his bass guitar , I would have my acoustic guitar and we were just writing because we enjoyed this . We didn't even know it's a process , we didn't know what to call it , we just wrote music . And then our youth pastor at the time walked in as he was kind of cleaning up , preparing for a Wednesday night youth service and says hey , how would y'all like to sing next Wednesday ?

Rhett 9:39

Yeah , and let's clarify songwriting for a minute . I mean , you know , I was 16 , you were 15 at the time , or if I'm getting that time frame right . You had a guitar . You learned four chords at this point , maybe five , yep , right , and so your fingers were still at the point of creating the calluses , but you definitely had four chords , at least in the key of G .

Rhett 9:56

If you're a musician , you get it . We're the one , four , five , the six , maybe one over three or five over seven , those kind of things that we didn't understand at that time , but we just we could hear it . Not to lose anybody was like what did he just say but if you're a musician or creative , you get it . But we opened the Bible and we were just like reading Psalms and just trying to create melodies and sing from our heart , just this genuine , authentic like hey , let's take what's in our hand and this is honor God with it . No expectations , no agenda . He walks in , he hears it . Obviously we might have been working on something a little bit better at that time , but that's kind of a context and I would say we went and did that on a Wednesday night and read .

Justin 10:33

I still remember it and please keep in mind , this was not awesome , but when you don't think anybody can do anything and they come up and do something , I guess that would be impressive , yeah , so in this case , we got up there , I played the acoustic , we sang together and after the song was over I'm talking standing ovation , screaming from our peers , yeah , and it was like whatever this is .

Rhett 10:59

I want more of it and not to dive into the psychology of it all . Looking back , with how many years have gone by , it makes sense Only child , broken family , the pain that I was going through , which we'll get into later . I was low on self esteem and I was like , well , we came into this family , we're honoring God with a gift we didn't really even know we had , but we were just doing it innocently .

Justin 11:21

Yeah .

Rhett 11:21

And then to get , I guess , if you will , recognition or affirmation . It really poured into me like wow , like this is this , this brings value to people . But as I'm bringing value to people , it's also bringing value to me . I don't think it was in an egotistical way , but it was like in a wow . There's something about the fulfillment and I couldn't even have used that word at that time , but there was a fulfillment or like a wow , god used me , used you together in something special happened .

Justin 11:48

It was a needed affirmation for the moment and God works through that , and so that was cool . That was really cool , because you know , we're talking about the racing with your son and we're talking about the different hobbies , if you will , that our kids have and that we've had . I mean the affirmation process . All of us need to have the affirmation spoken to us , and it is a lost art , rhett . It is a lost art to have affirmation flowing into you from another party .

Rhett 12:17

Yeah , and it's interesting that you said that , because last night , man , I just wish you could have seen , I wish I could have captured the joy of the affirmation that my son felt he was so proud of himself . He came up , gave me a big hug . Everybody like this is cool about the racing community . Yeah , you're out there , you're fighting it out , you're grinding it out , you're bumping , you're pushing , you're like all that stuff . But the minute the race is over , everybody's like , hey , man , good job , way to go . And like they're all recognizing and affirming each other in this little community , which is awesome , and they're like wait , cut me off , and all that , which is nuts .

Rhett 12:47

But like the affirmation even my son received last night by them knowing this was only his third week into racing , you know , and he already pulled position one and then finished first place the affirmation he received just brought it like lit him up like a Christmas tree . It was beautiful and my heart was so happy to see him . Just , you know , it's kind of that moment for him . You know , it was that music moment for us .

Rhett 13:12

But this was a this was a moment for my son like he's never . He's never experienced this before . For some it might be a platform singing for right now , in this moment in the season it's , it's electric carting right now for my son and to me that sounds like a good week

Justin's Catch Up On The Week

Rhett 13:26

.

Justin 13:26

We've been working on our house and new house that we got . It's not a new house , it's an old house we bought about two and a half years ago . It feels very much fixer upper . We put a lot of work into it but there's a lot of projects . You know how that goes .

Rhett 13:41

I don't know how it goes , because I am not that guy and . I'm like I like watching it on TV when they can do it in 30 minutes . I don't think I could live with it , you know . So God bless you and grace to you and summer and the boys for you . You learn a lot while you jump in and do it .

Justin 13:57

And it's also nice when you can put some of the expense and hire somebody to come do the more skilled labor and you come and kind of fill in certain holes . But what we did is we took underneath our deck .

Rhett 14:09

Okay .

Justin 14:10

That's wasted space that usually people just turn into storage . We had it flattened out over the course of like a year and a half . We'll just put a little bit of money here and there into it , and we've hit several phases , and so on Saturday , our phase was let's hang some of those atmosphere lights , much like you'd see at a restaurant , got a little projector my family bought me for Christmas last year , so I waited , you know , almost a year before I use that gift , and then summer surprised me with this chimnea .

Rhett 14:40

It's like a chimnea , it's like a . That's what I think , though .

Justin 14:46

Picture like a little fire pit , but it's more like it looks like an enclosed chimney . Yeah , but it you know almost like a potbelly stove , exactly . So , we set it up there , we had the ball game going and if you sit me in front of a fire , you give me coffee , we're eating and there's some kind of atmospheric , whether it's a ball game or Christmas movie , whatever season you're in . You've just described to me cozy cozy , the vibe that I love , and in Denmark they use the word huga , huga , h-y-g-g-e , pronounced huga .

Rhett 15:19

Is that where the song huga chaga Huga huga , huga chaga huga huga . I can't stop .

Justin 15:25

Anyway , sorry not going to , I don't know . I'm sorry . That's cool . Probably not .

Rhett 15:30

Well , you know , I think part of the atmosphere that created such a great weekend for you and you know , speak to the elephant in the room is the fact that Alabama beat LSU . You are spot on .

Justin 15:42

So , that's got to make for a decent you know it was a great weekend and for those who need a little more context , I know that we have people who are going to be listening all over . I am a everybody has their different sports they're into .

Rhett 15:54

Please don't tune out right now and change the channel and just please keep with us because , give him grace , we are in the South .

Justin 16:01

We are college football fanatics , yep , and my team happens to be the Alabama Crimson Tide .

Rhett 16:07

Yeah , and I pray for you often because I have to . You know you bless those who curse you . You pray for your enemies . I am an Auburn fan and , if you know , which makes this dynamic even that much more fun , because there were moments where they're growing up . As a kid we couldn't stand each other . Around these times we're going to have to like we wouldn't watch games again . Yeah , In context , in the South it's a God .

Justin 16:28

It really is Little G God .

Rhett 16:30

It's things people worship . They don't even know they worship it , but it's worship . But it is a big deal . But on , you know , 38 years in , you know , midlife , now 46 , it's a game . To me it's still a lot of fun , but Justin and I like we're enemies of each other , like when it comes down to the teams we root for . And if again , like you said , if you're not raising the South , you don't get it . I mean , living five years in the Pacific Northwest , can I be honest , like nobody really really cares about college football , not to the extent of the South , and I missed that when I was there . It was a big culture shock to me . Like , what do you ? You don't like watch football . I mean there's great football teams but nothing . Sorry , if you're listening from any part of the country , you just can't deny the fact that football is better in the South . It just it's , it's unbelievable .

Justin 17:18

It is .

Rhett 17:19

It is crazy to me .

Justin 17:20

Well , it's like why F1 racing is better in Europe .

Rhett 17:23

I mean .

Justin 17:24

Or you have NFL football that is better in the Northeast and even more closer to the Pacific Northwest . Yeah , with the West especially , you have a lot of these football teams . Yeah .

Rhett 17:33

You have the NFL . Nfl is a big deal , you know it's huge . At least in Idaho everybody was a Seattle fan or 49ers fan , or a lot of people moving from California that lived in Idaho , you know , or the LA Rams or what used to be the San Diego . It's hard for me . San Diego chargers Like that . There'll always be San Diego to me , but it's crazy . But yeah , so great weekend , I'm glad that you guys had a good time , and that was it was a blast

Captain Kirk and Domain Acquisition

Rhett 17:56

.

Justin 17:56

There's something we've got to figure out here . I was kind of checking some things out , Rhett , and you know , if we're going to have a podcast , we got to get some social media stuff set up , and I'm a little nervous here . You know we've worked on some of this , but we probably need to get to work even as we're doing this podcast and go ahead and get our domain name reserved , because every real true brand needs a website . But I'm a little concerned , Rhett , because I went to our Instagram we just set up which is armchair authentic armchair authentic .

Rhett 18:28

Check it out on Instagram .

Justin 18:30

But we have a problem .

Rhett 18:32

Oh , why is that I ?

Justin 18:33

hate to tell you this .

Rhett 18:34

Okay .

Justin 18:35

Obviously , we know that we have this account set up and we're not ready to announce this right now . So me and you are following it . And of course it's sweet . Your lovely wife is joined and upped our account and I really appreciate that . But I'm concerned we have a gentleman For right now . We might take it deeper . I'm just going to call him captain , I do not know . Captain , over here .

Rhett 18:56

I don't know , captain , but , captain , if you're listening , we're grateful that you're listening .

Justin 18:59

Hey , yeah .

Rhett 19:00

And let's just call it out , captain Kurt , captain , hey , come on , that has to be a you know , a Star Wars reference . You know it has to be a reference for Star Trek .

Justin 19:11

Whatever allowed captain Kirk to find this .

Rhett 19:14

I'm so grateful , Captain Kirk .

Justin 19:16

you're the first official follower .

Rhett 19:18

Yeah . So we want to give you a shout out , big shout out .

Justin 19:20

But and sorry to sound a little self serving right now , but the only thing going through my mind is we need to go grab the domain name because Captain Kirk seems legit .

Justin 19:32

But , captain Kirk , he could . What , if , what if he was a troll and you're , I hope you know , and he in the over Analyzer and me is like he might go grab this up quick and then we're gonna have to reach out to him and pay him to get the domain . Here's what we need armchair , authentic calm . If we could go and get that reserved and make sure that , when we really launch this , captain Kirk can just remain a great follower to this podcast and and hey , captain Kirk , we look forward to hearing any Questions or comments use this platform all you won't because , as you're hearing this episode now , it will have fully been unveiled . Yeah , you can follow us .

Rhett 20:11

Yeah , Instagram armchair authentic . Facebook armchair authentic Hard for me to say X Twitter man it was was formerly known as Twitter . That's right , it's gonna like Prince , you know the artist .

Rhett 20:22

Prince , formerly known as Prince , I don't know whatever . Anyway , the X is armchair off pod , armchair off pod , and at the date of While we're recording this , I'm glad you brought that to her . You can guarantee we're gonna have that done . And so , captain Kirk , we listen man , we love you , we are so grateful that you are alone for the ride , but , if anything , your follow reminded us to do some due diligence before we put stuff out there . And so that's , that's real , that's life . And so if you're thinking about doing anything , any journey , whatever , and you know you got to have a website for it why not get the domain First ? It ?

Justin 20:59

makes sense and , and even though that was a fun little part to talk about it , I will say this we would love to hear from you guys . Absolutely and as we hit on different topics . I think it's as good as you want to help make this become so , reach out to us . You can just direct messages on any of those platforms . You can also email us at info at armchair authentic Authenticcom .

Rhett 21:20

that info at armchair authentic Dot-com .

Justin 21:25

Yeah , see , if I had a voice like you , I would be talking a lot more , but seriously , we want to make that known . We would love to interact with you on this and we will bring topics , yeah , through our many , many , many , many , many conversations To help serve you because , as Rhett started this out , the whole purpose of this , Mm-hmm is .

Rhett 21:42

We want to help you deliver on your God assignment and God assignment by having real conversations About real life Yep , with real people , and so we've been doing life with each other for 38 years . It's been a journey , it's been a process .

Rhett 21:57

It hasn't been plastic and it hasn't been perfect , even when we thought that it was supposed to be . We've grown to the place where we've realized we're on a journey and that journey is what is beautiful . It's not all . It is about the destination , but really it's more about the journey to the destination than it really is about trying to arrive at anything on this side of heaven . Anyway , with that said , we want to dive into the conversation we mentioned earlier about being authentic , and it's a conversation Justin and I had a little bit earlier and we hope this helps you .

Never Supposed To Be Plastic

Justin 22:31

Well , a lot of people are hesitant about the church just because they've experienced the plastic . Yeah , they didn't know it was plastic and they thought it was true perfection and they realized how can I live up to this ? That's why you hear the famous line if I walk into that place , god's going to strike me with lightning , because I don't deserve to be in there . And it's like no , this is the place for all of us to come be together and being perfect together , because even Jesus be holy , for I am holy .

Justin 23:01

When the scriptures talk about that , right , it's like we're in this pursuit of holiness , which doesn't mean perfection . It means that you're changing from glory to glory and we're growing . And church is all about coming together in perfections and all and burn away the plastic and see what's under that into the real interior .

Rhett 23:21

If you actually read the Bible and you read the stories of the men that Jesus hung out with and taught in the site , they were far from perfect . In fact , when the church was beginning to be born , in the book of Acts it said the Holy Spirit was poured out . The people the Pharisees , the Sadducees , all the religious people today were like who in the world are these ? These are just a bunch of idiots , like that was truly the word . They speak with authority . Their lives are changed .

Rhett 23:41

We can't deny that , that they have been with Jesus . They're unschooled , ordinary men , and you're probably thinking why are you talking about that ? Because the reality is where I'm going with . This is like back to this podcast , back to who we are as men . I feel I can't speak for you , but for me . I feel like I'm an unschooled , ordinary man that God has , for some reason , just done some , at least in this part of my life I'm 46 , done some pretty extraordinary things in , not to my glory , but to God's glory , and I want to speak from that perspective to help somebody else who might have those same dreams or aspirations to do some of the things that I've been a part of , that I've done and I want to speak of the highs from that , the lows from that , the deserts from that . Those perspectives , and I know , I believe , you want to do the same thing .

Justin 24:21

Oh man , absolutely , and we're growing every day . And I mean , we were having a conversation before and it was like a normal convo we have , where it starts on something and it gets to something else , and like we were talking about golf , because I would never talk about golf , rhett would . Rhett actually was like hey , he was a phenom when he was a kid , I mean , so I wasn't at all .

Rhett 24:46

And let me let me clarify that I wasn't a phenom . I wanted to do it like it was a desire of my heart to play golf .

Justin 24:52

If you saw me try to hit a ball . Rhett was a phenom . That's my level , that I'm explaining . If I couldn't be good at something , then my pride would swell up and I wouldn't even try . But we were joking because , like last night , I took the family to top golf . And I have you know wife , four boys and none of us have ever played . And bro , we had a blast .

Rhett 25:17

I mean .

Justin 25:17

I mean , it's nice too when you're playing golf and they're serving you food . I've been one time to top golf .

Rhett 25:21

Well , like I've been one time in the one time I was there I wasn't feeling great , so I felt like a bowling alley on steroids , but we golfing was amazing . They're they're serving you food appetizers .

Justin 25:32

You know , you get your lemonade , your Arnold Palmer , which is my go-to drink lemonade , sweet tea and man , we had an absolute blast . And so I just I was thinking about it because I just let myself go and just have a blast and the first time I ever went to top golf . This is probably my fifth time , okay , but I was in the presence of some of my contemporaries which were probably pretty good golfers .

Justin 25:57

They're amazing golfers or they've at least once again . I would have probably said their phenoms . But they , they can hit the ball and I couldn't . And I remember being there probably five years ago , and I would just completely miss it and I felt silly . And so I remember making the rest of the day purposely trying to act stupid , like I went all happy Gilmore on people . So why ? Why do you think that was ?

Justin 26:22

Because I think with me there was a sense of pride that would always rise up and I needed to channel an inner humility . Obviously , I know we're taking that deep quick , but just since I was a kid , if I couldn't do something well and I was used to doing like soccer , that was my thing I was used to doing something well . If I couldn't do it right , I went ahead and downplayed it . I think that we all can do that . When we walk into a room We've already created in our mind I'm not going to fit in with this group , that well , I'm not going to go develop into the circle I'm walking into . Therefore , I'm just going to come in and not even try .

Rhett 26:57

We're not taking a deep dive into psychology here and I'm not a psychologist by any means , but if I'm thinking through the lens of why , the deeper level , of why you would do that , it's interesting to me because maybe there's this drawn for attention and if I'm not going to be able to get it from being really , really good at it , then I'm going to get it some way and be able to control that in my way and that's going to be through , you know , jokester , being funny and being silly to no , absolutely .

Rhett 27:22

I might look foolish , but I'm going to use that to my benefit .

Justin 27:24

Yeah , If you feel that you are at a disadvantage or you know for me , if I feel I'm not up to the level that my mind is created , that the other people are , then I naturally will find this other strong suit to try to let it emerge to show that , hey , I fit into this .

Rhett 27:43

That's so good that you're opening up on that , because you know for somebody who is , you know , spend as long as you have within the organization that you have . Spending what ? How many years serving ?

Rhett 27:53

Jesus , yeah , 30 years serving Jesus , 30 years serving Jesus , having been on , I mean , done a lot of really cool things that I'll let you talk about later . But to be that real , that vulnerable and go , you know what , I'm still working on some stuff and I have insecurities and when I get in these environments , sometimes this happens and that you know . So kudos to you for being , you know , honest and vulnerable in that , because it's truth . I mean , honestly , if I look at myself , I do the same thing .

Justin 28:18

Yeah , like in what way you know , with .

Rhett 28:20

God , for instance , for me , if I'm playing somebody and they're much better than me and I know I'm not that great I'm going to just encourage the fire to them . And I'm man , you're amazing , you're , and I mean it , I really do . Yeah , but part of me is trying . I'm doing that because I want that for myself too , and so the insecurity in me and wanting affirmation . You know , if I'm not getting it , then I'm going to give it to somebody else in hopes that you know what you're doing .

Justin 28:41

Great too , man Like . I tell you what you know , whatever .

Rhett 28:44

I mean that's just , I mean that's on the fly , on the cuff , but that's the truth . You know , we often operate out of the love language . If you will the book of five languages I think down , they recognize there's six . One of those for me is the gift of affirmation . You know like I want to receive affirmation and so oftentimes the love language that you want to receive is the one that you give . You know , and if I'm in an insecure environment or whatever , then I'm . You might find me like just man , like hey , you know , you're all man the way you do that and this and that , and then I'm adding value to people . But it's also if I'm being real , it's adding value back to me in that environment for them to go . You know what I want to be around this guy . He makes me feel good . That might be a way that .

Justin 29:26

I'll operate in that . That's good . Every time I hear something like this , I think to myself God , I wish I would have known this 15 .

Rhett 29:32

Yeah right .

Justin 29:33

I wish I would have known this 20 years ago 15 , however long it is . It was all about just being self aware and it's just knowing that we're changing from glory to glory , and so that is a work , it's a process .

A "New Creation" Journey

Justin 29:46

I used to look at people who they were in their 20s If I'm 10 , thinking to myself oh , they've got life figured .

Rhett 29:52

Yeah .

Justin 29:53

Then you turn 20 and you realize that 45 year old , once they turn 45 , once I turn 45 like them , I'll have life figured out and I can tell you as a 45 year old it's not like that . You do grow . I'm looking at the 60 year olds now saying , yeah , once they get that age I'll have it figured out . It just doesn't work that way . That's the conversations I think that we'll dive into is just a shed light on we're all in a hospital .

Justin 30:17

We're just improving and getting better and we are becoming the 2.0 versions of ourself , and the process is what God is so passionately in love with about us Absolutely Watching us grow up and become more like him .

Rhett 30:32

Yeah , more like him , and the fact that also , we're human , we're going to make mistakes , and it's how we . You know , I might fall , but I'm going to get back up , you know , and it's that process of what did I learn and how am I going to apply that to my life so I don't fall again . Or , if I do , I'm going to know how to recover even more quickly . And listen , if you're listening to this and you're not a Christ follower , welcome or glad that you're here . The reality of Christianity is not when you give your life to Jesus . Those are the phrases that we use in the church . Right , surrendering your life to Christ , putting faith in God and his one and only son . Jesus has a son of God that savor the world Walking with that kind of faith . It doesn't mean all of a sudden you become perfect , that's right . You have a spirit that lives within us , right , and we're in a body , that spirits within a body , and we have a mind , we have a will and emotions . Now that's the part where our spirit , man , is saved and set free and that's the part you can't explain . It's like wow , like I feel . I feel like I can breathe again , like that's . You cannot explain that feeling .

Rhett 31:26

And wherever you are today , if you want to make that prayer is simple God , I love you , I need you , I believe in your son , save me . I'm telling you , when you say that prayer , something happens on the inside of you . That's a spirit man that saved . But that spirit man is living in a body . That's like whether , whatever age you are , has dealt with issues up to that point and you have bad habits , you have thoughts that you've been in .

Rhett 31:47

It's like all right now we've got to learn what God's word said , his truth , and be able to apply it in a way in our lives that can help our mind , our will or emotions , and even our body begin to line up to the truth of God's word that is alive within our heart at that moment . And that's why you need church family , that's why you need small groups , that's why you need community , that's why you need to be in God's word and learn these things . But you don't know that and the devil's just trying to paint this picture out in the world like oh , your life to Christ . You're supposed to be perfect . And there's all this pressure on Christians to carry ourselves around as if we're perfect and we're not , and you're going to learn a lot about that through our stories and our journey and our vulnerability in this podcast , and we want to help people with that .

Justin 32:22

So look at our picture about us . We I mean we're probably looking at things and watching things . We had no business watching as 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , or 15 . And it's affected me to this day . To this day , because then we surrender our lives to Christ , both of us 15 and 16 , which meant so let me dive into this for a second like a new creation , and I don't want to take away from what most people take from that .

Justin 32:47

Go with it . I do want to offer another thought a new creation . All things are gone , new things come and that is so true straight out of the Bible . What we think , though , is that means instantaneously , we're perfect and see , guys like us we now had , you know , I would say there was almost a honeymoon season when I surrendered my life to Christ . It's so , honestly , for me . It doesn't happen for everybody , but I felt untouchable for a couple of years . There were temptations that just didn't even tempt me , but I remember them coming back .

Justin 33:16

Yeah and it was Completely the stuff that we grew on seeing , that my eyes could not unsee . But I walked some paths alone where I felt like I cannot believe I'm having these thoughts . I can't believe I'm thinking this . What is wrong with me ? Because we weren't open . We were plastic , as you said at the beginning , but a new creation . It means think about a birth .

Rhett 33:37

Mm-hmm .

Justin 33:38

A baby is born . It's a new creation . Well , now you got to teach it to eat . You got to teach it to crawl . It has to learn to walk . The baby has to learn to run and grow up , and with us . Could it be that that's the same thing ?

Justin 33:52

we need a process and we need it to be okay that you're going through the process . Yeah , and you still smell like whatever it is you were doing . You still have a habit . Potentially You're trying to break , instead of being written off so fast , to acknowledge hey , this is you changing . You are a new creation , 100% , but you are still shedding the skin of this old man . Yeah , and there's a new that is happening . You don't see it right now , but you are on your path , changing glory to glory , and so

Growth and Learning in Leadership

Justin 34:25

our hope is that , even on a podcast like this , we just draw out some great points and it's just a little bit of that vitamin for you .

Justin 34:34

Yeah give you that next thing , that you need to kind of take that next spurt of growth in your life . It's not perfection that is expected and there are environments that make you feel like that and you actually will feel like what's wrong with me ? And I can remember people who grew up in , let's say , grew up in church .

Justin 34:53

Mm-hmm their parents were very intentional and I know this doesn't happen every time but the parents were very intentional , and so they didn't have the same Temptations , or they may have had temptations , but they didn't have the same Opportunities to see things . Yeah and so I remember growing up thinking how come this guy doesn't struggle with this like I do right . Well , it's because , thankfully , they had some parameters that kept them from that , so they didn't put their finger in a fire when they were young and got burnt right .

Rhett 35:23

I did right , so I'm gonna carry that scar but I'm gonna be healing and now I'm gonna turn that scar into a testimony and that's so good and so much to unpack with that . Because , you know , as I'm listening to this conversation , somebody like wow , how'd you , I can get on that . And the fact is we're getting on this Because we want you to know that it is a process . Leadership is a process . Yeah , whether you're a business owner I mean , you know , starting a business from scratch as an entrepreneur it is a process . You don't go from A to Z overnight . You just don't .

Rhett 35:49

Everything in life is a process . Walking with God is a process . Building a what we would call a capital F friend . Like Justin and I , we are now Experiencing the fruit of a friendship , so in a deeper way than we've ever been able to , yeah , not only because of our age and our self-awareness and the things we've gone through , but the intentionality that has gone into it . And it's not an overnight thing . And giving a heart to Jesus , man , it's the greatest decision of your entire life . It will change your spirit and your soul , everything . But then from that point , it's a process .

Rhett 36:19

Leading any kind of organization from a volunteer level or , if you want to call it a Dream team level , is that's a verbiage in a church where we feel like people are living their best life , living their dream , doing something they're called to rather than doing something the church needs them to do . Right , as a husband , as A , as a wife , as a father , you know , as a mother , as a daughter , as a son . Like in every element , it's all a process of growth , and so when I think about this podcast , I think about it . This process of us learning and growing through this as communicators and trying to offer things to people that add value To people from our own life . That's a process . We're learning from it , but also the podcast itself is . Our hope is that it sheds light on the fact that our journeys to what we're doing today and what God's calling us to tomorrow is a process as well .

Contact Us: info@armchairauthentic.com

Justin 37:03

Thank you for listening to armchair authentic with Brett and Justin . We would love to hear from you . If you have any comments , questions or topics you'd like us to cover . You can reach out to us on Facebook and Instagram at armchair authentic . You can also reach us on X , formerly known as Twitter , at armchair auth pod that's armchair off AUTH pod or email us at info at armchair authentic authenticcom .