Justin: 0:00

Is it possible that we can get so caught up in the amazing moments or the events that we're at that we really end up only capturing it now, digital, but we miss the real moment. That would have happened, that would have been in our mind's eye.

Rhett: 0:25

Welcome back everybody to another conversation with your friends, red and Justin, right here at Armchair. Authentic a podcast where we're having real conversations about real life with real people. Now, justin and I have been doing life with each other for over 39 years and we've got stories, we have conversations all the time and we decided that we just wanted to steward our stories, we wanted to steward our relationships and even our conversations in a way that serve you, and that is what this podcast is all about. So if this is your first time with us, welcome friends. It's so great to have you along for the ride today.

Rhett: 1:04

Now we don't want to waste a lot of time on the front end, so we're just going to go ahead and dive into the conversation right now. You guys ready, here we go. Well, justin, it's so good to be back in town recording another conversation. I feel like we've had a hundred conversations before we even hit record. But you know I've been out of town, and so have you, and we've had a lot going on. And I was sitting here thinking it literally is raining outside. In fact, you may hear over the microphone some thunder, some lightning, and I was thinking to myself how much the weather actually affects my mood.

Rhett: 1:44

As you and I were talking before we hit record.

Rhett: 1:47

I'm like man, let's just talk like this, because it's just rainy outside A little gloomy, a little thunderstorm, a little rain.

Justin: 1:54

We've had a lot of rain lately in Birmingham, Alabama.

Rhett: 1:58

I like the way you say it Alabama.

Justin: 2:00

Alabama, in Birmingham, alabama.

Rhett: 2:03

So bring you up to speed. Things look a little bit different today. We're set up differently and that's because when I was out of town, there was like this huge lightning storm that came through and I missed it. It's so weird. Every time I go out I don't I don't like to say this cause I don't really believe it, but it has been happening I leave tornadoes hit, I leave one of the greatest lightning storms of Alabama history, yeah, comes right through Moody Alabama. And what is interesting and very frustrating and I've already shared some of the frustrations, so I'm talking to my friends who are listening now, bringing you in on some frustrations. I don't know if you've ever had a lightning strike your house, but I have now recently, and so Linda calls me. She's like, hey, I think lightning hit our house. I'm like, okay, talk me through. Well, we've lost the lights, we've lost some sockets, gfcis, the TV, some stuff's not working, and had an electrician come over. Come on, props to P Scott. Love you man.

Rhett: 2:58

Thank you so much for coming over and just kind of, you know, let us know that, all right, although some stuff happened, you're just going to have to replace some things. Your electricity is running the way it should through the wires, everything all that to say. So I come back and I do inventory and unfortunately, I'll give you the list my garage door opener I'm like, can't open the garage anymore. Fried Fried Light sockets GFCIs need to be replaced. Dude breaker I, I have learned how to replace some of this on my own now. So, um, lights.

Rhett: 3:32

And then, unfortunately, apple tv, which, you know, some people like that's probably a good thing that you no longer have that. Um, my digital keyboard uh, fried, you know. Um, our podcast equipment yes, fried, bummer. And so I'm like, so I, like, I, I have to be choice with my words. Just disappointed, disappointed and uh, and and all that to say um, I've, ever since I came home, I've been really intentional about getting everything back up and running. So bought a new garage door I haven't put that up yet Replaced some light sockets, replaced a breaker on my own. Let's go, rhett, I'm very proud of you.

Rhett: 4:09

Way to go, dude.

Rhett: 4:09

Thank you very much, replaced several lights in the house and ordered some new podcast equipment to come in and be delivered, bought a new Apple TV and so for some of you who are thinking like, well, dude, isn't that why you have insurance on your house, the answer is yes, absolutely, but our deductible is nowhere near like the amount of money I've just had to fork out to pay for all these replacements almost hit our deductible.

Rhett: 4:36

Exactly it's. So it's kind of like insurance is a scam man. No offense to all my insurance people who do this, but let's be real. I'm paying you monthly for something that you're not even helping me with.

Justin: 4:47

Bro, and just before you go back to that story we had last year. Well, it was a couple of years ago a tree from our neighbor's yard fell into our yard and destroyed our shed and it also messed up some other things in our yard, but it broke off perfectly where it didn't touch our fence together. Yeah, and I remember going home and this big tree has crashed in our backyard and I'm you know you're kind of like looking at the neighbor wondering are you going to look, that was your tree man.

Justin: 5:18

But it didn't even touch his property, but you share the fence line I called it didn't even hit the fence.

Justin: 5:26

Oh okay, it somehow messed up. If it would have messed the fence up, it would have brought us together. And I said I need to call the insurance company. And I called them and they told us they reminded me of our deductible and it wouldn't have covered it. And we have a pretty high deductible which I remember thinking I've got to change that and I haven't yet. But it's like if I need to pay a little bit more a month and it will lower that deductible to like a thousand dollars, man, it might be worth it. Well, my goodness Cause.

Rhett: 5:54

I hate that that happened to you. I know me too. It's a lot and I think we're going to not, I think we're just gonna have to talk through lowering that. But here's the thing it's like how often does a lightning strike the same place twice? I don't know what that number is, but I don't want to roll the dice for that. So I kind of want to lower that deductible and be like you know, let's get it lower, pay a little bit extra that way if it ever happens again For real. Now some of you might be thinking well, that's why you buy, you know, a surge protector. Well, guess what I did? It's so random Electricity has a mind of its own that everything plugged into the surge protector, like I'm literally podcast equipment in a computer monitor. I've got two computer monitors One was fried, one wasn't.

Rhett: 6:40

Yeah.

Rhett: 6:40

Right, uh, some other equipment is still working and some isn't. The TV. I've got five different appliances plugged in the back of the TV. And appliances that's the wrong word.

Rhett: 6:53

I got my microwave.

Justin: 6:54

There's the oven, and then there's the… I got my oven.

Rhett: 6:57

I've got my microwave, I've got my toaster. I've got my coffee pot All plugged in the back of this TV man. I'm telling you got my coffee pot all plugged into the back of this tv. Man. I'm telling you, no, I mean, like they did between the apple tv, the modem, the router, uh, what else is back there anyway?

Rhett: 7:11

I got a device I have two search projector.

Rhett: 7:13

I have one on the wall which everything is plugged into, and then on the back of the tv. We're like, uh, you know dvd player, which you know random, we do have um, and just some different things plugged all into this outlet that has a surge protector on it and the apple tv gets fried. I'm like how in the world, yeah, and the modem gets fried, but the tv's fine, like what?

Justin: 7:33

what is happening here? Right, you know, the mic seems to have some extra juice. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah I got juiced up.

Rhett: 7:38

I got juiced up, and so all this to say, yeah, so the microphone I'm using, like before we plugged in and started pressing play on the recorder, whatever, I was like Justin, I don't know if this mic's going to work and I promise you. I was like I think I might want to meet Jesus at this moment. Like, take me now, lord.

Rhett: 7:54

Whatever?

Rhett: 7:55

Because, like, if it's just one more thing, then I've got to spend money on.

Justin: 8:06

But so all that to say, we've got some backup equipment, our old school. Our first six episodes were recorded on our other equipment and I brought it from the house and very, very thankful for that? No, it's great.

Rhett: 8:10

And so here we are. Simpletons, so simpletons. I don't know if anybody else was affected by lightning, or if you've ever been struck by lightning not you, but like that would. Hey, if you've been struck by lightning, come on man, email us right now at armchairauthenticinfo, at armchairauthenticcom.

Justin: 8:27

That reminds me Because we've got to get you on this episode. I'm sure people who are listening have seen that meme.

Rhett: 8:34

Man, I'm sorry. If things are peaking while I'm laughing, it's because we're using this other system, so I apologize.

Justin: 8:51

Do you remember the meme where it's the lady who you know and I don't mean to be making a joke, why, why is it got to be a lady? Sorry, sorry, because it was okay and but she was struck by lightning. In the video they're saying how she's made some progress, she is awoken and the camera goes to her. It says and here is a video of, actually, as she you know, was talking to our video, whoever our, our interviewer yeah, yeah, yeah, and it's like a glitch in the camera.

Rhett: 9:07

No, there's like a glitch and her, her head is moving back and forth, literally like she's being so like there's a glitch.

Rhett: 9:17

Yeah, there's a glitch in the playback and the playback just happened to glitch at that timing it's like in here we have a conversation with a lady who just got struck by lightning and go to the B roll.

Justin: 9:29

And it comes back to the anchor they're losing it.

Rhett: 9:32

Oh gosh.

Justin: 9:35

He's trying not to laugh, that actually happened in Idaho.

Rhett: 9:38

That was really not her voice. There are some problems with the recording.

Rhett: 9:42

Obviously we're having trouble with the B roll video. We apologize Technical difficulties.

Justin: 9:46

He did so good composing himself that he let that little giggle out.

Rhett: 9:51

Don't even get me started on all the memes I like to watch of all the fails from news anchors in live TV. There's so many of them now that you can watch like a hundred of them in 30 seconds.

Justin: 10:05

But if Rhett's walls could good talking.

Rhett: 10:06

That's basically what they would sound like.

Justin: 10:07

Yes, they're not really working on all four cylinders.

Rhett: 10:09

Yeah yeah, but um, man, I didn't realize how expensive led can lights are, man. You know seven of them, dude. That's like 200 bucks. Where was that at, by the way?

Justin: 10:19

uh, a lot of the lights you're seeing right now that I've replaced, yeah, yeah, my goodness, from my bedroom to the impressive you're seeing right now, that I've replaced All those.

Rhett: 10:25

Seriously, yeah, yeah, my goodness, from my bedroom to the closet.

Justin: 10:26

That's impressive, you got it done.

Rhett: 10:28

Did you do?

Rhett: 10:28

that yourself.

Justin: 10:29

Oh yeah, yeah, way to go, oh come on.

Rhett: 10:32

I am Mr Handy. Thank you, I got a huge smile on my face.

Rhett: 10:34

right now we're learning in our older age.

Rhett: 10:37

Yeah, took one of these candlelights off and I was like, okay, these look a little bit different. There's three wires to these, and most candlelights in new homes have this connector to where it's like a male-female type connection and that's it. You don't have to worry about cables. It's like already pre-wired with, like this, you know, female and male connector. Well, these aren't designed that way and this house was built like five years ago. So I'm like, oh, what am I going to do? There's three cables, I don't want to fry myself. So I got online, looked really quick and think, hey, youtube university, let's go. So I did a couple of them. Then I was like, you know what? I'm going to teach my son how to do this. So I showed him. I did the whole, like, hey, watch me, then we're going to do this whole thing together and then I'm gonna watch you and then you're gonna do it. And I changed three and then he changed three himself too, and we kind of very cool so it's like my, you know.

Justin: 11:28

Wow, that's a lot more than I would have ever accomplished.

Rhett: 11:32

I grew up in apartments all my life. You know, we just call the maintenance man howdy boys.

Justin: 11:36

You need a light bulb change okay you know we'd be in our burger king, yeah what was his name? Billy, billy yeah. Billy the maintenance man, super kind guy, very kind, very country, always a bit intoxicated he kind of had.

Rhett: 11:51

Maybe, I don't know, he's a little.

Justin: 11:53

Like he had a little too. He wasn't quite there.

Rhett: 11:56

Yeah Well.

Justin: 11:57

He'd become in. I don't have boys. You'd always let that. That is no exaggeration.

Rhett: 12:11

that was a burger king you'd just be working in our house, in our apartment, we're like, yeah, I was eating my bundle burgers, oh man. So you know, growing up an apartment, you know the majority of your life, you know you got maintenance guys. I just call the maintenance man, you know okay, you know but now I'm like no, no, no, no, I'm gonna figure this out.

Justin: 12:23

You know there's no maintenance man to call. Yeah, so there was a piece got. Once again, thank you. Yeah, so you gotta pay a lot for electricians so yeah, and and like online.

Rhett: 12:31

It's like, oh, come over to your house and do it for 125 bucks and like, forget that, man, I got this. I think I can handle three wires, you know. And then and you're like at your hospital visit it's like.

Rhett: 12:44

it's like the old video Ernest P Worrell, he's like well, there's your problem right there.

Justin: 12:50

You just got to put a little shock in it as I'm teaching my son.

Rhett: 12:54

He's like, well, you know, after one night, he's like a professional now and he's like I got it. I got, I'm like no, no, no, no, we're going to do this. I'm like this of like, why? Well, I was like because I don't want you to die.

Justin: 13:03

Yes, I mean, we are dealing with understand all this, yeah, yeah, I don't think you respect the process enough right and um, and I get it.

Rhett: 13:12

You know, I was there too, you know, one time you know, but we did it and we yeah, all that to say, um, it's been a journey ever since I've been home for a couple days going into memorial day weekend and that's right.

Rhett: 13:22

Uh, that was a part of my. I think we were were talking earlier. What did you do on your Memorial Day weekend?

Rhett: 13:26

You were sharing like you did, some honeydews and chores Like I didn't.

Rhett: 13:29

no man, I was like I've been working so hard up to. Memorial.

Justin: 13:33

Day. I was like I am just we're going to rest, yeah, man. Well, that's good. I mean yeah, we, we put some work on. We're getting the pool ready. We try to open it up Memorial Day weekend or the weekend after usually.

Rhett: 13:50

Yeah.

Justin: 13:50

Hasn't really been hot enough for the pool, but over the next week I'm sure it will be. So we've been putting you know. As you heard in a previous episode, I found the snake in the skimmer, and wouldn't it be the case that Did you find?

Rhett: 14:04

another one.

Justin: 14:04

Yeah, you got to be kidding me, not in my pool, though, in your house. I was doing some stuff at the pool and Summer was weed eating and when she was weed eating she found another copperhead. Did she slice it in two with a weed eater? She tried. I mean she was brave. I mean she called me and said, hey, snake, I was over here. I got like this tool that I was going to try to cut its head off and be like Bo was.

Justin: 14:28

I got this now I ran up there and I'm like, where is it? I'm kind of hiding behind her, like where she's got her goggles on, like she is like getting after it, and she's like it's just over there somewhere. Anyway, I'm going to compete with me, with this thing.

Rhett: 14:46

Yeah, yeah, yeah, and she just got in there.

Justin: 14:48

I mean, she was like it was like warrior summer, just going after it, oh yeah. But yeah, there was a. She was like Did you get it though?

Rhett: 15:05

Did she kill it or is it still slithering around somewhere in your backyard? One acre so it slithered into the? Uh the deal. Here's the deal, guys. Another reason I'm sure people know this we're gonna hang out at your house. Snakes are among us. Always they try.

Justin: 15:10

I've lived here almost three years now not one snake in my life, because it doesn't want to be seen it's in there everybody.

Rhett: 15:17

Whether you want to know it, you know what's gonna happen by the time we record the next episode I'll be like you ain't gonna believe what happened to me. Man. They're everywhere. Oh man, it's like the movies you grew up on.

Justin: 15:27

You think they want to kill us.

Rhett: 15:29

Yeah.

Justin: 15:29

But they want to avoid us like the plague. So when they feel you coming, they will get away or they'll hide, yeah, but they're all around us. This snake I mean just a professional in the field was just telling us you can use, snake be gone, you can use all the the stuff that people say to use a false sense of security.

Rhett: 15:48

It doesn't work.

Justin: 15:49

Yeah, it's a false sense he said it doesn't work, and when you see a snake again, it tells you well, it must have wore off, so you go buy more. He's like it doesn't work, it's snake oil, yeah snake oil salesman.

Rhett: 16:01

Snake oil salesman and snake oil keeps your snakes away.

Justin: 16:04

They're everywhere and it's just that reminder. We have this basketball golf setup, we have a net, so we've put some stuff in place where it doesn't go into our woods. But we've been for the past what? Four years running down into our woods to go get the basketballs. Don't think anything of it? Yeah, and I will say you don't want to go get the basketballs.

Rhett: 16:24

Don't think anything of it. Yeah, and I will say I'm a little bit.

Rhett: 16:26

You don't want to go running down there with your sandals on, not now. No.

Justin: 16:27

Well, I mean.

Rhett: 16:28

I won't now?

Justin: 16:29

Yeah, I mean, every time I go to the pool to try to clean something, I've got the rake with me. I'm analyzing every bit of ground.

Rhett: 16:37

I wish you could see him. He's doing His eyes looking left and looking right, walking real slow. I'm throwing that rake out.

Justin: 16:43

You're casting the rake, I'm hitting the grass wherever I go. I'm like I'm not going to get me today, oh man, but yeah. So that was. Our Memorial Day was just kind of we're cleaning up some stuff, trying to get it ready.

Rhett: 16:54

Yeah, yeah, after the season, but yeah it was great though. You got to grill out, but no shame if you didn't grill out, because I didn't grill out.

Justin: 17:06

No judgment there. I grilled out on Sunday. I grill whenever I have a chance. I did on Sunday. Does that count Over the weekend?

Rhett: 17:11

Yeah, man Did the cheddar dogs. Baby, let's go, you love your cheddar dogs.

Justin: 17:15

I love it, man. I love pino and cheese. It's the real deal I should have. You need to excite these. Yeah, you got to add a little spice to your life. Yeah.

Rhett: 17:25

I could do that. Yeah, I like them. It was interesting. You're talking about that with snakes. I don't know if we covered this on the podcast, but I've got like a little five foot area behind my fence line here that I'm technically it's mine to take care of, and ever since we moved in we never did. And so walked out there the other day day and it's like literally like chest high in some areas and it's on this there's this hill behind us that goes down these pine trees that are growing, so it's basically kind of a forest, and so if there would ever been an opportunity for snakes to have their breeding ground, it would have been in that. And so you know, to your wife's defense, having that you know weed eater in hand, I literally the whole time I was sitting there thinking there, there has to be at least one out here, and maybe not a copperhead but a snake.

Rhett: 18:08

But I was thinking I've got to position myself and go left to right and just build my momentum and keep very aware. But I'm thinking, dude, this thing's spinning at 100 and something miles an hour.

Justin: 18:19

I'm going to slice it up.

Rhett: 18:20

I will slice this thing in half, and I'm literally approaching that moment as if there could be one underneath me or I'm about to hit it and it's about to hit. You know, strike at me or something, yeah, but I'm like I'll take you out, sucker you better believe it.

Justin: 18:33

I try to get lito our dog to come into the yard and run around just to, I feel like if he can trample the ground a little, yeah, do that.

Rhett: 18:39

I think everybody listening right now with stereo is like that's thunder.

Justin: 18:45

But I'll have him run around If I'm going into a high grass area.

Rhett: 18:48

I'm like, hey, lito, come here, buddy, go get it.

Justin: 18:50

Go get it. There's nothing to go get, but I just try to get him to take the first step.

Rhett: 18:53

Oh my gosh, Sorry. Yeah, the dog's going to get bit first.

Rhett: 18:57

Sacrifice my dog, sorry, lito.

Justin: 18:59

I. He is a great great dog Somewhere.

Rhett: 19:01

Pete is listening to this right now, going ding, ding, ding. I need to watch old Jetty. You better keep your eye on him.

Justin: 19:09

But also man. It was great. But also now, talking about the day of this recording that you would be listening to us. We have been celebrating our oldest he turned 16.

Rhett: 19:24

Let's go Dax. I now am in the club of having a 16-year 16. Let's go Dax. I now am in the club of having a 16 year old Happy birthday. Dax One, two three, four, five six, seven, eight, that's it.

Justin: 19:36

Happy birthday, dax. So that's pretty crazy, man Pretty wild having a 16 year old oh man, he's been driving like crazy. He drives, you know, obviously permit, but he drives everywhere.

Rhett: 19:49

Anytime we go.

Justin: 19:50

We're going to Grant's Mill at Church of the Highlands.

Rhett: 19:52

He's like can I?

Justin: 19:53

drive you better, believe it. So, he's driving everywhere.

Rhett: 19:57

Extra prayers, since you're late.

Justin: 19:58

Oh, man, we live on, you know, major I mean busy highway called Highway 280. You know, major I mean busy highway called highway two 80 tons of cars, tons of traffic. So he is getting, he is getting the ultimate training right now, Cause we drive up and down it in traffic every day.

Rhett: 20:15

So he's learning. That's the great day, great training ground man, he's ready.

Justin: 20:18

So now 16, he'll be ready to get behind that wheel. Let's go. Come on, Dax.

Rhett: 20:22

Well, I know, I know at the time of this recording we just have Memorial Day, so by the time you're listening it's a week behind. But Memorial Day weekend we watched the Indy race, indy 500. Let's go, it was amazing. And then we ended up on Memorial Day we went to watch Mission Impossible.

Rhett: 20:41

Oh man, and so spoiler alert Go ahead.

Justin: 20:46

No, impossible, oh man. And so spoiler alert go ahead. No, I'm kidding, I'm not gonna spoil it, please don't, but does he? I was like I can't turn it off. I can't turn this podcast off like everybody else can. I'm with you does he live?

Rhett: 20:53

I'm not gonna give you any spoilers, but I'm messing with you. Does he live? Does he die? I mean, is it really mission impossible? And does impossible really come out to the mission? You know, or or or does know. Does he overcome it and save?

Justin: 21:06

the day? Or does he at the end, as a last scene, have him wake up and it's all a dream? And he's kind of overweight. He's still got pizza slice I mean pizza sauce on him.

Rhett: 21:15

And he wakes up and he's like Wouldn't that be something? And he says, mom, you woke me up from a great dream.

Justin: 21:26

He's wearing the bat suit, you know, and he lives in like his mom's basement and he was just a hero in his mind.

Rhett: 21:29

I don't know how you've already just spoiled the whole movie, but you know I wasn't gonna go there.

Justin: 21:32

But if they would dare do that, you know that would be awesome and terrible at the same time I will say, I was can you? At least confirm that that doesn't happen.

Rhett: 21:40

I'm not gonna sit well, I'm not gonna confirm or deny.

Justin: 21:44

Leave it up to your Episode five. Could you imagine I would?

Rhett: 21:47

not confirm or deny.

Justin: 21:49

Could you imagine, if you just?

Rhett: 21:50

literally called out the lost, oh, the hope you hadn't watched lost yet the dream, oh gosh, you know, wouldn't that be?

Rhett: 21:57

crazy.

Justin: 21:58

I know, Well, you know you're going to have to go watch it, so it wasn you're gonna have to go watch it, so wasn't a dream, lost, lost. Yeah, he woke up and it was all a dream lost.

Rhett: 22:09

Yeah, the show, the show.

Justin: 22:09

No, he did not it was you were thinking the wrong show. That was bob newhart, that was oh, was that bob?

Rhett: 22:13

newhart, oh, I thought it was lost.

Rhett: 22:16

I've never seen it, so I've always, I was always told that they just it was all a dream.

Rhett: 22:21

they lied to you, okay, that did not happen at all. I don't know, I don't know, I'm being serious really. No, it was never a dream. They lied to you, okay, that did not happen at all. I don't know, I don't know. No, I'm being serious Really. No, it was never a dream. Okay, well, I'm not going to watch it.

Justin: 22:28

Matter of fact, no one really even knows how it ended the way they ended it.

Rhett: 22:32

It was very debated. Maybe that was what it is.

Justin: 22:35

But it was not a dream.

Rhett: 22:40

Okay, you were all about Lost. Oh, we loved Lost.

Justin: 22:42

We watched, we never missed it.

Rhett: 22:44

I'm a late adopter when it comes to shows, you should watch it. You would love it. Like everybody's like, oh, you've got to watch the show.

Justin: 22:49

See now you really have no idea about the end.

Rhett: 22:51

No, I don't, Because whoever told you that?

Justin: 22:53

they evidently didn't either. Well, it sounds to me like I show I just thought it was a big deflated moment. Well, when you have a big show, you have a lot of questions to answer. But sometimes you create such an amazing show, you really can't tie up loose ends, and so then the writer has to think of another way, just to go ahead and end it. And so people who were expecting loose ends to be tied up-.

Rhett: 23:22

Yeah.

Justin: 23:22

Yeah, they may be disappointed, but when you look at it from a fresh perspective, you look at it and say, wow, that was very fulfilling.

Rhett: 23:30

Interesting.

Justin: 23:31

So it can still be a very fulfilling ending.

Rhett: 23:33

Yeah.

Justin: 23:34

I mean not as fulfilling as Cobra Kai.

Rhett: 23:37

Oh well, I mean, that was nostalgia at its best. And I'm not confirming or denying that I've watched the whole series because it's probably something that's just you know. Yeah definitely.

Justin: 23:49

I'm going to confirm. I have there's moments.

Rhett: 23:52

Oh, I've watched it.

Justin: 23:53

It's complete nostalgia is why I watched it.

Rhett: 23:55

I have forwarded a lot of scenes in that movie.

Justin: 23:58

There's some things I'm like come on, man, early episodes. There's stuff it's like man, why, why, why yeah. So you just kind of hit that 15 second, 30 second. Yeah, move ahead, go back to the next fight scene. I just want to see fighting.

Rhett: 24:13

I want to hear Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence and see that tension, and then these new students coming along.

Justin: 24:18

Yes, so that's kind of fresh Miyagi-Do, so we don't need hate to hype it up so much because I don't approve of the language. You know, all this stuff it's just like what language? I'm kidding just kidding, but it's it's man, it's quite the show.

Rhett: 24:41

So back to mission impossible for a second. So sunday evening we were like, hey, we're gonna go see this movie tomorrow, we'll do it 11, 30. And so linda was like let's watch the one before it. So we're watching the movie and we haven't. We're not. I mean, I couldn't tell you which episode is which, so we're watching it. I'm thinking, oh, we're watching it and it ends. And then once it ends, like after the credits you know you're watching on apple tv it shows you the next episode that's available to watch. And when it pops up she's like did we, are we going to the movie tomorrow to watch? Like, but we could just watch it from home, it's like is it already?

Rhett: 25:18

Is it?

Rhett: 25:18

already straight to streaming and I looked at her and I was like we did not watch the movie before it. She's like you're kidding me? Nope, we spent three hours watching number six or whatever it was, and the next one was seven, and the new one that came out was like seven, part two, which was eight, final record, yeah. And so she's like oh man, I can't believe it. I was like no big deal, we'll just wake up early. And we did. We woke up and we just started the number seven little marathon and yeah, and watched it.

Rhett: 25:45

And by the time it ended we got car, we left, we got to the theater and we were watching.

Justin: 25:49

Oh, so cool, so it was fun. Yeah, it was a good day. It's fun. Last night we watched episode five.

Rhett: 25:54

Yeah, we're catching up to go, we're catching up.

Justin: 26:00

We've been knocking them out, so we're at five. We Maybe, maybe by the time you're listening to this, we would have just seen it.

Rhett: 26:06

Who knows? Well, what's interesting is, once you think you've seen it all, it's like huh, Okay, I hadn't seen it all. That's, that's nice, that's pretty cool.

Rhett: 26:15

You know, I won't tell you, you need to go see it.

Justin: 26:17

It's like. It's like if you're in the mask thing, yeah, I don't know who to trust anymore but, to be able to pull out something new. It's like well, that's you got me.

Rhett: 26:27

Well, you know, of course, they do have they have the mask throwbacks, but those things do happen.

Rhett: 26:34

Like every mission impossible, right, it's kind of like mask.

Justin: 26:36

Oh wait, it wasn't him. They finally killed Tom.

Rhett: 26:41

Nope but the mask scenes are there, but it like the. The mask scenes are there but the adventure part, and knowing that Tom Cruise is insane and does like 90% of all his own stunts I've watched enough movies I know when it's a stunt double and when it's actually them.

Rhett: 26:55

You can't really fool me, he gets after it.

Rhett: 26:57

But I'm like dude, this guy is crushing the. And I know he's got cables and all that stuff. Sure.

Justin: 27:04

Well, it's interesting, he's still got to make the jump.

Rhett: 27:08

I off. Yeah sure, well, it's interesting, you still gotta make the jump. I would say. Does he age? I think reality is when you meet somebody in person or you see a real photo versus a movie photo. That's true, man, the ai technology that they can put in these filters over your face and have that filter follow you no matter where you are on screen.

Rhett: 27:21

Make anybody look good you know, it's very true but um, oh, but yeah, I mean, dude, you can't ai the body. Maybe you can, I don't know, but I'm like dude like uh, that's. Yeah, I'm gonna look like that when I'm 60. He works hard, yeah well he's not married or is he? I don't know. He's single. All he does is make these crazy movies all the time.

Justin: 27:41

So he might do a lot more than that, though he might be listening to this thinking man right, you're really short-changing, come on, man, you're working hard, you're disciplined bro, and I love it like it's great when I'm your age if I looked half that good, you know, I'm like I'm drinking my healthy smoothie here, knocking out my weekly episode of armchair authentic and wow you, really shortchanged me, I'm hurt, hey, if, if our buddy tommy is uh listening to this right now.

Rhett: 28:05

you know, come on man, let's go.

Justin: 28:08

Totally, you know he is yeah.

Rhett: 28:12

Okay, maybe, who knows, you know we roll with the big guys, don't we? We're trying to stay humble here. We don't want to give all our cards out there on the people that listen to this you got to let them just be cool and listen. Anyways, Mission Impossible is really good.

Rhett: 28:28

You were wanting to move on, but you're still picturing old Tommy.

Rhett: 28:32

You're like maybe he is. No, no, I'm not. I'm kind of moving on to the what would it look like moments.

Rhett: 28:40

Transition time yeah yeah, we really did think about adding those early on, didn't we? Hey guys, red here Just want to take a moment and say thank you to every single one of you who have taken the time to follow us on social media. Now, if today is your first time to join us for an episode, man, we want to say welcome, friends, it's so good to have you with us. Could you take a moment? Look us up on instagram or facebook. You can find us there at armchair authentic. Or you can go on over to x. Find us there at Armchair Authentic. Or you can go on over to X. Find us there as well, at Armchair Auth Pod. That's Armchair Auth A-U-T-H-P-O-D. All right, now back to the conversation.

Justin: 29:18

This is about. You probably would have just heard Rhett jump in and say hey, friends, and our little moment would happen, yeah.

Rhett: 29:26

And add a little bit of our bumper music because we want people to have a good time and connect and and know all the other stuff for us in this season. Quick intro and then you're trapped and we got you and then we'll like throw in these little little hey guys how you doing and y'all might hit fast forward 30 seconds.

Justin: 29:42

Yeah, it's fine you know, and that's that's I mean. No, mean, it won't hurt my feelings, it's Red's voice.

Rhett: 29:48

It doesn't hurt my feelings at all, man. No, you know, we're just on this journey and trying to figure out how we can connect with people and serve people better, well, it's episode 70. And so that's why we start to look at some of this stuff, like how can we? What do?

Justin: 30:02

we want to do. That's different. What is happening right now? We're consistent.

Rhett: 30:04

What do we want to do? That's different. What is happening right now?

Justin: 30:06

We're consistent. I can't believe we've hit 70 episodes.

Rhett: 30:09

But at the same time.

Justin: 30:10

It's fun if you were to take it back. I can only imagine to the first one and listen to the one. Now, there's just different little things that we put in, whether it is kind of like you're saying Friends, hey, how's it going, giving people a chance to like the podcast, yeah, all that stuff which hey follow go do all that that would be great, but yeah, so it's fun over 70 episodes, how it just naturally with everything you do, there's natural evolution that ends up Well, first of all, when the first thing oh, you do a podcast.

Rhett: 30:43

Oh great, yeah, we're on episode 70. They're like what, Hold on, Hold on. Y'all don't just do you, just don't say you have a podcast, Like you guys are serious about it. And the big question that I get often is like how in the world do you, how do you get that many?

Justin: 31:13

Like you know, I'm like, well, you know, I'd probably once a month and, yeah, you know, a little shorter too. It would be oh, yeah, did you imagine? Yeah, maybe, no, yeah, it'd probably be like I would have just ended at 30 minutes at least, maybe even 17 minutes yeah, oh, you know, this is maybe that's another deal like um. I just cut you off, sorry no but another great podcast, I'll listen to John Acuff Mm-hmm, he's Little 15-minute John. Now it's kind of you know sometimes-.

Rhett: 31:32

Does he take him longer?

Justin: 31:33

No, he used to take longer, okay.

Rhett: 31:35

Yeah.

Justin: 31:37

And maybe he's done so many he's gone in and out. He's in a season right now. It's probably that 17 minutes. So for me every Monday morning it's just been my habit for a while. When I'm getting the shower I put my phone kind of above the cabinet where I can hear it and I hit play and I know it's basically going to be right when I'm getting in and the time I'm getting out is wrapping up in the next couple of minutes.

Rhett: 31:58

Yeah, there you go.

Justin: 31:59

Yeah so 15, 17-minute quick little nugget. It's like that was good stuff that was great, it's like Craig Rochelle. And he's a little but he's learned how to scale it. Yeah, craig Rochelle, yeah, I mean just everybody's learning how to scale.

Rhett: 32:10

We're laughing because Justin's thinking should I go into the voice right now?

Rhett: 32:14

What I want to talk about right now is how we can be effective in our leadership development. I take about 40,000 steps every week. I do sit-ups and I do push-ups and I'll run around, but I never go out to lunch with anybody. Everybody's saying you need to slow down. I'm wired different. I met with my counselor. They said double up what you're doing. So I decided to learn Tai Chi fly airplanes and hold my breath for four minutes underwater.

Rhett: 32:41

Some of you are like okay, now I see why you've got 70 episodes. Hey, friends, just want to take a moment and say, if you are enjoying today's conversation, could you do us a huge favor. Would you take a moment and copy the link from your favorite podcast platform and share it with a friend, Email it to a friend. How about airdropping it over to your buddy or your sister right now? Man, that would mean so much to us. Thank you, man. That would mean so much to us. Thank you.

Rhett: 33:15

You know, I do recognize that the way we do content is very interesting, because some people think well, man, it's just so interesting how you guys land on leadership stuff and is that planned? And it's like I don't think most, like 90% of the things we do aren't planned, Like we have this idea, but we're really catching up as friends. We're talking, we're laughing, we're doing real life, trying to be as authentic as possible. We're also stewarding our stories and our conversations.

Rhett: 33:34

Honestly, for me, everything that I do on this podcast is through the lens of man. When my son has something to go back and listen to and his kids have something to go back and listen to about. You know, I don't I'm not a granddad yet but, Lord willing, that'll happen, Right? So I'm thinking through the lens of what kind of value can I share with my grandkids, Right? And not like, well, kids, let me tell you you need to do this. Not like that, but like, wow, he was a real person, going through real emotions, walking this journey with Jesus and and just through his own journey, through his own process, and and and, honestly, and it's with a friend and doing this thing together.

Rhett: 34:09

And so, even though, um, you know it might seem at surface level, what kind of value can you bring out of this type of podcast? I think there's a lot, you know, and, um, if I'm learning anything, it's it's just how important friendship is and relationship. And I don't even realize how much this fuels me until afterwards, like when I, when, when we leave and we go our separate ways, I'm like man, that was just. You know, laughter is good medicine, right? I'm laughing, having a good time. We're iron, sharpening iron. We're talking about just how we're trying to get better. We're talking about how we're living life with our family and what we're going through with our kids and how we're processing different things.

Justin: 34:49

And I don't know, man, there's just something about that that I really I enjoy, and then you realize at the end you've, you've, you really have. You have a digital copy, almost like a digital journal. You catalog something, but yet we were just talking to talk, but you still have this recorded and it's something you can always go back to and I'm grateful that it is helping people in that it is whether it's inspiring you, encouraging you, making you laugh, whatever it might be helping grow you in different areas.

Rhett: 35:18

But like the plethora, there's that word. I'm going to find a way I can drop it every time of just like sometimes we're just laughing, sometimes we are diving in scripture, like we did last week, where we're just kind of unveiling that, and sometimes we're we have something that is pressing on our heart that we want to share. I just think all of that to me, man, if for anything, just for my family and for my son and for his kids and his family at some point when the Lord opens that door. This is why I do it and I'm grateful for the friends who are along for the journey with us. I love you, grateful that you're here, but, like everything that we do in this 70 episodes in has always been, at least for me, through that lens of how I can give back and give some stories and conversations about. You know, I'm just not.

Rhett: 36:01

I don't know, I was human.

Justin: 36:08

I was human, I love Jesus and I was human and I was just trying to, you know, just be better in my life and just being natural storytellers. It's a great outlet of just. You know, we tell stories to each other all the time. It's just talking and once again, you're cataloging this. But, you're also. You know, for me it's we've said this before I enjoy just the. I love the technology, you know the microphone the all this stuff.

Rhett: 36:29

As you point to the stand, you're looking at the stand going. I'm like I love the mic stand. I'm looking at the mic stand, I'm looking at the the microphone, the computer that's yeah

Justin: 36:38

recording all this. It's just this is like when I'm editing this later I'm going to be hearing this like this is really cool because there's something about we're capturing, uh. But then, even with that, we will have a normal part of our combo that hopefully we talk about something and it's great for us to talk about, but the encouragement that maybe the listener is getting out of this that you might be able to say God, I have not really thought about it that way. Or well, you know, for instance, this weekend I was actually having dinner with a good friend of mine and we played music together, I mean, for the longest time, and we were just kind of talking about. You know, you go into the old days. You know you do kind of have your glory days. You look back and because they were just special, that's all glory days when that it means the nostalgia that kicked in. There was some great moments that happened and I love sharing with the friends who were part of that, where you just have conversation, you're not in a rush.

Justin: 37:36

yeah, so for us, um, it was, uh, some really good friends of ours named jeremy and heather and, of course, they went with you to idaho so great friends of yours too and now they're back, and so we were just having a dinner together, and so Summer and Heather, they're doing the dinner thing. The kids are all having a great time playing around the house and hanging out. But we were just talking about something, and I was actually mentioning a song that I heard at. I heard it at a concert one time, and it just it moved me and it was actually a song called I See you.

Justin: 38:13

It was a song by Rich Mullen. It said everywhere I go, I see you.

Justin: 38:16

I love it, and it's kind of like a call and response song, where you sing a line and then someone repeats it yeah, and I was just sharing with him a story, like he was with me and that he was with me when this particular situation happened, and so when I'm talking to him he was like, oh, I don't remember that. So now I realize I'm with my buddy and I'm about to tell a good old story. Yeah, and you'll hear this story too. So this song is really awesome. It basically goes like everywhere I go, I see you. Everywhere I go, I see you.

Rhett: 38:47

Everywhere I go, I see you.

Justin: 38:49

And everywhere I go. And you get that and it's like you just repeat it. It's very simple, but it's powerful. It's just talking about how God is present and he's with us. He sees us, he cares for us. He's there to be worshiped at all times, all these things you can get from that.

Justin: 39:05

And I was at probably a month before he passed. Rich Mullins was in Birmingham, alabama, and for those who don't know Rich Mullins amazing songwriter, he was a wonderful musical artist, christian artist, very deep he would go with his words and maybe even the affirmations and even the corrections he would bring even to the local church. Really I mean tough topics to swallow at times and I just I remember helping him, me and Summer came and helped him with like his merch table and it was just a very impactful day for me. So anyway, I got to that right. There is a story I'll tell one day.

Justin: 39:43

It was a great interaction with him, but in his concert he did that song Everywhere I Go, I See you. In those days I couldn't just look up my iPhone.

Rhett: 39:56

This was 1997.

Justin: 39:58

I was like what is this song? I couldn't find it. Late 1900s, everybody. It's crazy, by the way. So finally, later, another artist did it and I heard the song. So at one of our concerts, me and Rhett, we played in a band together me, you, ryan Jennings, who we've talked about before, and a drummer named Billy Jack Kirk.

Justin: 40:19

Us four had a band called His Image Band and we would do just worship-filled concerts where people would come and we would all together, collectively, we'd worship and just give God as much glory as we could give him, because he's so deserving of it. And really powerful things would happen in these rooms and lives would be changed. People were called into missions or whatever their life would look like. They felt the sense of the call of God on their life, whatever it is yeah, the sense of the call of God on their life, whatever it is.

Justin: 40:46

Yeah, and so we're at this concert. And you got to remember this is 1998, now, probably the iPhone wasn't created, nope, there was such a simple time, uh, really, and it seemed like it was cutting edge then, but it was very simple compared to today. And so we're up there, uh, doing our concert and the way we used to do this I don't know why, maybe it's the side of us going to concerts and they were always like an intermission We'd have concerts at churches and you might have 150, you might have several hundred people there, but either way, they were always special nights and we would have people come to our shows. And so we at some point, maybe 45 minutes into it, we would call, we would take an intermission, we'd go back and change.

Rhett: 41:31

And intermission then was like I mean, every concert we ever went to had some type of some type of intermission. Oh, yeah, I mean yeah, well, if I remember they had the band out there playing while the music's going, and something they would.

Justin: 41:43

they would turn on some house music, People would go to the restroom do whatever.

Justin: 41:46

Maybe if there was a concession stand, and then they'd come back to the event. We were sweaty because we'd give it our all. We're now in a fresh outfit, ready to do the next 45 minutes, and so we start back, and so on this one night, now that I knew the song, I remember getting with the band and we learned that song Everywhere I Go, I See you. And in the middle of this worship moment I would just sing that Everywhere I go, I see you, and they would repeat. And so at one point I looked at one half of the audience and had them sing, and then I look at the other half and have them respond and they just kept going. So the goal was we slowly faded out the music and, one by one, billy walked backstage, ryan walked backstage, rhett and then me. They kept going. It sounded beautiful. Well, we went back to go ahead and change, to get ready to come back out for the second half, and we were going to take another 10 minutes probably.

Rhett: 42:44

Well, the youth pastor was going to come up and like hey guys, and dismiss them, yeah, and say hey, we're going to take an intermission, come back and we're thinking all that's going on.

Justin: 42:52

Well, probably three to four minutes later the youth pastor comes back and he says guys, I need y'all. I'm like, what's going on? They won't stop singing. What are you talking about?

Rhett: 43:04

He's like you'll tell him it's an intermission.

Justin: 43:06

He's like I can't. They won't listen, they're just. They won't stop singing. Wow, god is doing something like yeah can y'all?

Rhett: 43:12

come out yeah.

Justin: 43:14

And well, I mean, I mean we get up. You know, you got one guy finishing putting on some clothes and just being a tight band and just kind of really being of one heart. We didn't talk about what to do, but it just in one moment, as they're singing, we brought it full in and it was just that moment when the full music is in again.

Rhett: 43:41

Everywhere I go, to see you.

Justin: 43:42

And you just oh man. And I remember being up there in that moment thinking like God. Thank you that.

Rhett: 43:51

I am getting to be a part of this, yeah it was pretty good.

Justin: 43:54

This is amazing and so I'm sharing this story with Jeremy, kind of reliving it like, oh, it was so good and Jeremy asked me this question, which I've actually thought of, but I love that. He asked yeah, and he said can that still happen, do you think? And I wanted to jump in and say well, yeah, and I did. I was like sure, I think it can. But it was still like, as friends, we're going to now just have this conversation about why do you even have to ask that, ask that? And he basically said I just feel like the whole room they would just pull out their phones to capture the moment. That would happen. And then I began responding like yeah, and then by capturing the moment, they would miss the moment and the moment wouldn't even end up happening. Yeah, exactly.

Justin: 45:00

And so just thinking about these moments that we can experience, it was one of those conversations where we were reliving some old days, but it also carried some.

Rhett: 45:07

No, no, no, but it's a recognition of.

Justin: 45:11

Is it possible that we can get so caught up in the amazing moments that we're at or the events that we're at that we end up shaping it more towards that experience being captured, that we really end up only capturing it now digital, but we miss the real moment. That would have happened, that would have been in our mind's eye?

Rhett: 45:29

So we're living in a moment, creating a moment to live in another moment, sharing the moment to try to recreate a moment that we're currently in, but having thinking through all that process, we're missing the moment.

Rhett: 45:47

Yeah.

Rhett: 45:47

Because, dude, how many times have you been somewhere, whether it be a concert, whether you know, you travel in the country you're taking a picture and then you're sharing it and it doesn't do it justice, it doesn't capture how beautiful the moment is. You're in Right and, man, when I go to concerts now I was telling you this earlier and man, when I go to concerts now I was telling you this earlier I said Linda and I will usually take one just photo of us together, just stapling, whether or not we share it or not, that we're here. But the rest of the time I'm engaged with the artist. Thomas Rhett was a country artist who came through a couple years ago. We went to his concert.

Rhett: 46:27

Every single person around me is on their phone, yeah, and they're not looking at thomas rett or the band or the artist. They're looking at their phone, looking at the artist, yeah. So it's like what they're looking at is a carbon copy of something that's not. I mean, it's real, but it's not real because you're looking through the lens of a glass phone yeah but everybody's looking through their phones and then they're looking at themselves in the phone and they're missing it.

Rhett: 46:54

And what I noticed, and it's interesting, I didn't really come away going hey, did you notice that? But having Linda and I not living through our phone and we're actually close enough, we're on the fourth row or something like that, because that's a sour roll. You know when, how much eye contact we actually made with the artist? Because you think about it, these artists, they're like they're trying to connect but they're looking at screens yeah looking at.

Rhett: 47:21

They're watching people looking at a screen, looking at them yeah so there's like so when you're actually making eye contact, they're actually like looking at you because like whoa, there's a human experience happening right here yeah, we're engaged with each other. It's like we're missing the value. It's so like we're missing valuable moments that are right in front of us, in an effort to share a moment, to recreate a moment where we're actually living in, that we should appreciate, and anytime we try to do that, it's a.

Rhett: 47:50

it's like well, you mean you had to be there.

Rhett: 47:52

Well, of course, right.

Rhett: 47:53

Yeah, I mean I don't know. So to to Jeremy's question I love that, jeremy. What's up? Dude, love you bro, appreciate you guys so much. It's a great question to think about, because what would happen in a worship moment now is, like, you're right, everybody's going to pull out their cameras. So how cool would it be if we were like hey, listen, like let's try to create a distraction, free environment here, like if we're doing a concert or whatever. How great would it be to create and there are some artists that are doing this. Now they actually give you like a bag that you put your phone in and you have to lock it, so when you're there you can't access your phone but, you still keep it on you to try to get people to really engage in the moment and just appreciate it.

Rhett: 48:31

Because, yeah, could you imagine now? Just take that moment. For instance, I got to pull my phone out. You gotta capture this, and yet they're missing what's happening and what god's trying to speak to them in, and really in an effort to share this later.

Justin: 48:44

You you're breaking your concentration when you're, even in that moment, like you're so yeah you're so locked in you're distracted.

Rhett: 48:52

It's a distraction.

Justin: 48:53

There's so, and I can only recall from personal experience.

Justin: 48:57

But there have been some amazing moments that have happened in my life that I'm reaping the benefits of it today and I can. I mean it's why I can recall so many moments. I can't recall a lot of the moments where I've kind of been holding the phone up trying to capture it no, because it's almost, it feels more just like a novelty up trying to capture it Because it's almost, it feels more just like a novelty. This, you know, we can be at great conferences, even for our line of work and what we get to do as pastors. And we'll be at a conference and instead of having this corporate moment of engaging, you're seeing something really amazing on that stage because it's a conference and it's going to wow you to a degree and I think that's wonderful. But you're trying to capture the wow instead of experience. The wow because you're probably you're in work mode Instead of receive mode. You're thinking, oh, I need to record this.

Rhett: 49:47

I got to get this angle.

Justin: 49:48

We're so going to do this yeah, and so now you've swapped and you're picturing yourself. How would we pull this off? And the moment's happening, yeah, and you are missing out on that it's July 4th.

Rhett: 49:59

How many people at a July 4th event are sitting in their lawn chairs singing God bless America, with their phone in front of them, taking photos and videos of fireworks? Okay?

Justin: 50:10

And videos that you never, actually never going to go back and watch them. You might share it.

Rhett: 50:14

It might go on a story.

Justin: 50:15

You're just hoarding pictures.

Rhett: 50:18

It's going to be in a mix of a billion others on that hashtag, july 4th, that nobody's paying attention to, and you watch it and you're like eh. Like you know, ka-doom, doom, doom. It's like it does not capture the experience. So put your stupid phone down and enjoy the moment with your family and your friends singing God bless America. And just look at it for the moment that it is yeah, I mean. And just enjoy it, because it's going to live longer in your brain and your mind than it will on the screen.

Justin: 50:47

It will and you're going to the impact it's going to make.

Rhett: 50:50

And I tell you, man, every year, like I always kid around and you know it's almost to the point. We know we're not going to pull out our phones and do this, right, but it's like, it's fine. I just don't want us to live through our phones doing this, because I want us to look at each other and remember the moment where we're smiling and we're together as a family, thanking God for our freedoms yeah, not thanking God for our phone that we're taking a picture of. Just try to show how cool we are, that we were at this event.

Justin: 51:14

I mean, come on and and try to you know a way for me to try to help myself on this instead of, instead of saying, just stop cold Turkey, it's have a moment that you've recognized, to go ahead and capture where you're at, get that shot and then fully focus and be present where you're at, because the cool thing is now you've got a rare shot.

Justin: 51:34

That shot now will be what an image is supposed to be. It's not one of a million, it's one that will stick with you. You can frame it, you can set it as the picture that's on your screen, your home screen, whatever it is. You'll remember that and if you enjoy the moment, that one picture can recall everything that your mind captured and I speak to myself on this, to remind myself of, you know, not missing out on some of these amazing moments. You know we recently went to the Grand Canyon. I mean we got some great pictures, but I can tell you we spent most of our time not making it about pictures and just looking around the beauty. If anything distracted me, it was making sure my two youngest didn't fall off the mountain.

Justin: 52:18

I mean other than that like I can recall every moment of this trip and tell you where we were, on what day, and you know that's true because you had to hear me tell you.

Rhett: 52:29

And I got to, you got to.

Justin: 52:31

Appreciate that. Yeah, man, but I remember the moment. I remember the feels that came with it. Yeah, it's the moment. I remember the feels that came with it. Yeah, it's the moment. I can remember moments with my friends, and we've talked before about going to this event. That was in Vegas and we walked around because I wanted to eat a meal at the Bellagio.

Rhett: 52:47

I want a lobster.

Justin: 52:49

I want some lobster. I want crab legs.

Rhett: 52:51

Crab legs and lobster in the desert. I really don't remember recording much, but I can recount to you, the people I was hanging out with and our conversations. It's so special the camaraderie, the facial expressions.

Justin: 53:05

Oh man, the moments.

Justin: 53:06

I'm still close when I think of John Larson. He and I have had so many moments. So he's been a great boss, he's been a great leader, he's been a great friend. But we got these moments that I can look back and recall and it's like my heart is, like it's warm. I can think back on so many people and it's those moments where we're just engaged. And even when we started this podcast, you know I've I've been vulnerable about this. For me it was tough, the first. You know so many episodes. It wasn't tough, it was fun, but I had to work harder to kind of stay focused. But as we've relaxed ourself and as we've just enjoyed this process, like I'm enjoying these moments, because I think it's why we stayed away from video who knows, we might try it, but for the first 70, at least, we've stayed away from video because I'm really locked in with you and I'm not having to glance to see what.

Rhett: 53:59

I'm looking like I'm not having to think how cool we look in the camera.

Justin: 54:02

Oh, is that the right angle, or do I?

Rhett: 54:03

got a triple chin going on right now Can we just be real.

Rhett: 54:06

That's some authentic conversation right there.

Justin: 54:08

This is not very complimentary.

Rhett: 54:17

I'm bending over here engage with rhett focus. My stomach is kind of poking out a little bit in that shot. I think I need to suck in a little bit and yeah, no, I'm all in.

Justin: 54:21

I'm all in on the moment, and so moments, I mean they can be so wonderful and and, as we said, this isn't to say take away everything with the phone with me.

Rhett: 54:31

It's like learning just how to balance some of these, my mind is going in so many different directions, Like remember that song? Was it Living in a Moment? Or Hanging on a Moment with you Hanging on a moment?

Rhett: 54:45

here with you. Oh yeah, you remember that A life house.

Rhett: 54:49

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm like come on, man, like there's these moments, man, and I think that's kind of a thread that weaves within our podcast of nothing wrong, we're not demonizing taking a picture or taking video.

Rhett: 55:03

We're giving you something to consider, but consider.

Rhett: 55:06

I mean, imagine what it would look like if you could actually go to an event, take your one photo just for you and whatever. It doesn't have to be great, just take it whatever. But then put your phone away and soak it in. Yeah, like, just soak it in, look, ask yourself questions like man, wow, look at that, look at, I mean, enjoy it. I promise you, man, the moment that will live forever in your memory. Oh, it will go on. It will go on for a lifetime, yeah, much more than. And then, like you said, that photo, you go back and look at it and that's going to spark so many other great memories.

Rhett: 55:42

Yeah, I heard something that Jim Carey said, and I don't know when he said it. You know he could have since changed his view on it, sure, but he was talking about he loves to be kind to people, but he no longer takes photos. Like, if he's in public he's like you know, I'll be kind, but he doesn't like taking photos, not because he's against a photo, but he's like a photo is just like, it's just this little snapshot of just that doesn't even capture the moment. And he said I would much rather be present with somebody in a moment and have a, even if it's a 30 second conversation, then just give them a photo. So he's like I'm kind.

Rhett: 56:12

They're like, hey, do you want to take a picture? He's like no, but I'll talk, tell me a little bit about yourself, because there's something in that human exchange of conversation, of connect of I don't know man and so while phones are great, it just removes you and I don't know. It's going to be interesting to psychoanalyze, as if they call it, another 5, 10, 15 years, of kind of all the stuff of how this is actually affecting us. Yeah, because it hasn't been that many years since we've had this.

Rhett: 56:42

It seems like it's been forever but it really hasn't.

Justin: 56:44

We haven't really seen the full toll.

Rhett: 56:45

That's what I'm saying, right.

Justin: 56:47

And so. It's like when people thought cigarettes were cool and good for you, yeah, and then you find out they're killing you.

Rhett: 56:58

Oh well, I've already got 40 years of this under my belt. I guess I'm going to die. I hope that doesn't happen. With coffee, I mean right, you know exactly, yeah, with this digital stuff, yeah, yeah, there's a lot that we're still learning and we're probably seeing a hint of it.

Justin: 57:09

Yeah, because I do think, as knowledge has increased, what may have used to take 40 years to see an outcome. I do think time will tell even more. But we are seeing some short deals with mental health, because contentment, as we talked about in many episodes we did it last week as well it's hard to stay content. You have to put a lot of work into it because what used to be this beautiful picture now is just one scroll and you're going to see thousands of others and so the speed of which this is going we don't really know how it affects, and we've also seen the great benefits of technology. So this podcast today is really about speaking to all of us on. Just consider there could be some ways of taking in moments, and these are even great. So I mean, I was talking to you, I sent something to you as my best friend that you know would be something very vulnerable for me to do.

Justin: 58:09

For socials, I've almost been more the guy who doesn't participate as much, but I've tried over the past couple of years, especially coinciding with us doing this podcast where I try to give a post to it once a week and that does keep me in this and instead of, I think, I've tended to stay away from it more and maybe demonize it, I've tried to even be more embracing of it, in the way of saying, okay, what can I at least do to not let a cynicism kick in which would then omit me from participating in creating a moment? And so you know I've been talking about it, but I told you that when summertime kicks in, I've had this privilege to the school that my two youngest go to. I went every Wednesday, every Wednesday of the school year, and did what we call worship Wednesday, and I wanted it to be something that impacted them and, as you've heard, it impacted me greatly, because I'm getting to lead worship and watch these students come alive.

Justin: 59:11

And it's that reminder they had no devices there. By the way, at school they're locked in.

Rhett: 59:16

It's illegal in Alabama now. By the way, in public school. Did you see this? They just passed that bill.

Justin: 59:20

It needs to be. They're like I don't know, we'll see how it goes over Well their attention is there and they're young I mean different ages, Of course but they're locked in.

Justin: 59:32

And as we did that when the school year ended I taught with Summer I was like I think I'm going to keep this going and yes, for them, because I've been doing it every Wednesday, but almost more.

Justin: 59:46

I've enjoyed getting to get on my instrument and sing just songs that have meant something to me, that have impacted my walk, and so, even as you're listening to this, it may have just been posted or it will post in the next couple of days, but I'm trying to create these weekly moments, at least for the summertime, where I'm taking whether it's a worship song or a song that calls for a response of worship within you just to have this moment in my little studio at the house, very real and authentic, this moment in my little studio at the house, very, very real and authentic and just singing and just having a moment.

Justin: 1:00:20

But I also recognize this is where I won't let the cynicism kick in or the devaluing it. I also know I'm now entering into the realm of just. It's just going to be one more scroll of a thousand, but what it's important to me is I was able to express and steward a gifting for maybe one person who wants to hear that and it encourages them before they move on to their next scroll. The past however many years that it's been in existence, I've had very light engagement and zero engagement when it actually comes to playing an instrument and singing. Yeah, never have done this online before.

Rhett: 1:01:05

Yeah, you're also at a place now, too, to where you're not doing it for likes. You can really care less what people think or don't. You're just being faithful to what is in your hand.

Rhett: 1:01:14

Just do that to be a blessing and creating some moments that's right, and just like with this podcast not everybody's going to like this and enjoy this, you know, yeah, but we're doing this.

Rhett: 1:01:24

We know our why behind it.

Rhett: 1:01:25

Yeah.

Rhett: 1:01:25

And so that's what I think is beautiful. I'm really proud of you for that. I'm really excited about that, thank you. I know in 2020, when all that went down, I was doing a little bit of that through one life in the church that we were leading. I remember that Try to keep that in front of people and creating these worship moments With you on the piano, with me on the piano.

Justin: 1:01:41

I loved it, by the way, when you did that.

Rhett: 1:01:43

You're very kind, it was yeah, and so I know how hard that is to do, to be vulnerable with a gifting in a very raw format.

Justin: 1:01:57

What it's helping me on. It's helping me on it.

Justin: 1:01:58

It's like the podcast and for our listening audience, that you find that thing that fuels you, because it's so much more than just a song, it's so much more than just an instrument, it's more than just this microphone. For you, it's so much more than just going to the gym. Whatever it is that you love, it's fueling something that you really can't see, but it's developing you and everything that we just named, these moments that mean you have together as friends, the accountability even though we're cataloging this the moments of getting on my guitar, which you think of that movie Chariots of Fire, like when he runs, you sense do you remember the line of there? It's like when you run, when I run, I sense his pleasure, like I sense the pleasure of God when I do that because I'm operating in a gift and all it's going to be doing is kind of putting it out there. What I've been doing in my living room for the past 32 years, and obviously more in those earlier years, but it's creating some of these moments.

Justin: 1:02:57

But what it's doing for me is when I step into whatever it is I do, when I step into my job, when I step into ministering to somebody, there is a fuel that I have in me that I'm able to give something to somebody because I have fueled myself up and I'm able to give them more than had. I just decided to bury all that and not steward that. I might be a one talent person who knows three, five, I don't know which one, but I know that we are called, and this is for everybody out here. God never demanded that you go be like the talent guy that's at five or seven or 10 or 20. He just asked what did you do with what I gave you? And so this, to me, is a wonderful moment to operate in stewardship.

Rhett: 1:03:51

You know, God gave me two hands and over Memorial Day weekend he gave me the ability to drop you at Edgar's Bakery and, bro, I filled up more than two handfuls of cupcakes and two cinnamon rolls that I thought I was going to share with my family.

Justin: 1:04:07

And I ended up cutting them, you have any.

Rhett: 1:04:09

I cut them in squares. I cut them in squares and then by the time it was all gone, I'm like am I the only one eating the cinnamon rolls? I ate two edgar's baker cinnamon edgar's bakery cinnamon rolls in two days. Do you have any more?

Justin: 1:04:21

I do not, you have anything.

Rhett: 1:04:22

We bought, like six cupcakes we went through like get that cupcake, get that cupcake, everybody gets cupcake. And then like, oh, cinnamon rolls, like you know, like it was gluttony and uh, I steward I stewarded my hands and I ate both of those cinnamon rolls over two days. And yeah, I'm already going I need to get back at it and start walking again and yeah.

Justin: 1:04:46

Find his pleasure and you're eating cinnamon rolls Find his pleasure and you're walking, you're rucking, yeah, rucking, yeah, yeah, as you carry them rocks.

Rhett: 1:04:55

Be still and know that I'm God. And sometimes we've got to silence the noise and the distraction and there are moments that you're missing. You and I, all of us together, are missing, or God is speaking because we're distracted by that which is in our hand, because we're not living in the moments. Stop trying to create moments, to share a moment, to recreate the moment that you're actually living in. Enjoy that moment and be still and know that he is God. Hey, friends, thank you so much for joining us on today's conversation. We cannot wait until our next episode that drops next Monday. So until then, we hope you have a great day, stay safe and we will see you soon, right here with your friends Red and Justin at Armchair Authentic.