Rhett: 0:00

Imagine a world where every conversation feels like a genuine connection with authentic people, a place where you truly feel like you belong and where everyone's got a chair at the table. Friends, welcome to Armchair. Authentic, alright, we're starting with a blank slate today, literally looking at a solid piece of paper with nothing on it. I'm sure I'm inspired and I'm sure this conversation is going to go somewhere, but here we are. It usually does. It usually does.

Justin: 0:32

We usually just start this in faith. It is a faith with friends, faith with friends. Welcome to the Faith and Friends Hour with Jason.

Rhett: 0:40

Justin.

Justin: 0:41

And whoever that guy is.

Rhett: 0:42

I don't know who that is and whoever that third person is.

Justin: 0:45

Who is that third person? I don't know. Let's hear from him.

Rhett: 0:51

Why are you laughing?

Justin: 0:56

That's the voice you're going with.

Rhett: 0:58

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's not the voice I'm going with.

Justin: 1:00

I don't know, that wasn't even me, that was somebody else just walking through the podcast studio.

Justin: 1:03

What if that was your job? What if you got to do voiceovers for a living? What if I did?

Rhett: 1:09

I mean that would kind of be cool. I appreciate that very much, Thank you. I'm just making up all kinds of new voices today.

Justin: 1:19

Sounds like the same voice.

Rhett: 1:20

Okay. So, friends, thank you for joining us.

Justin: 1:29

We hope you have had a great, wonderful weekend joining us now on this beautiful uh, we hope it's beautiful monday, wherever you might be we're, we're, we're pretty much guaranteeing wherever you are, there's either sunshine or rain and you might be listening to it on tuesday or wednesday or thursday, but you know what monday is that release day for us, so it's sunshine, it's moonshine, or it's what happened to moonshine.

Rhett: 1:51

Once I said that I was like oh wait a minute. It sounds like a country song that you're writing.

Justin: 1:55

Sunshine and moonshine Gonna have a great time. It's not a bad line, actually it's not a bad line.

Rhett: 2:05

Surely that exists Somewhere. Great time it's not a bad line actually. It's not a bad line.

Justin: 2:08

Surely that exists Somewhere in time. It's sunshine till moonshine.

Rhett: 2:13

I think, we just gave some inspiration to some natural artists right now, if you're a writer, take that.

Justin: 2:18

And just maybe include us later, yeah please, we'll co-write with you.

Rhett: 2:28

There's no sunshine without moonshine.

Justin: 2:30

it's just in time.

Rhett: 2:31

I don't agree with that statement yeah, in the alcoholic sense that's right, but in the sense that the moon actually does shine at night. But we did talk about andy griffith, a couple episodes back right. Think about this hold on the science. The scientific proof to this is that the moon doesn't shine without sunshine. That's true, yeah, because the moon shines because of the sun shining on it.

Justin: 2:56

So nothing really shines without the sun the sun shining. Deep thoughts, deep thoughts. There's some deep thoughts there. And then the billions of stars that evidently shine really, our sun isn't as powerful as they are.

Rhett: 3:11

What if it's all fake?

Justin: 3:13

Oh boy, what if there is?

Rhett: 3:14

stars out there. What if the sun is glistening off of whatever those stars supposedly are? Well, I mean, I guess then our satellite imagery of telescopes that we've sent off into nowhere are all lies. Truman Show, truman Show. We're living it. We're just eventually going to hit the edge and the boat's going to hit up against a concrete wall that's painted white or blue and white. Yeah.

Justin: 3:40

That was a cool scene. If you haven't seen it, go watch the Truman Show. It's a really good movie. Yeah, that was a cool scene. If you haven't seen it, go watch the Truman show.

Rhett: 3:45

It's a really good movie yeah.

Justin: 3:46

That was pretty great Cause that was seaside.

Rhett: 3:48

Yeah, yeah.

Justin: 3:49

Matter of fact. Fun fact here. Fun fact, Fun fact. You were going to make a song about that at one point. Fun fact. And so when I met Summer at UAB in math class, there was a girl that like it was a packed class so they had to like literally draw names to get the last five people in oh, and like into the class to be accepted into the class, and summer was one of those, and she made it praise the lord, there you go but she also had a friend of that and the sovereignty of god to make sure that she got chosen.

Justin: 4:24

Also the fact that I missed out on my earlier class we referenced earlier, if you're listening, taylor McIntosh. I really have Taylor to thank for it because I was in line to get my math, like the class. You had to go get them signed up by the registrar and me and Taylor are standing in line. It was one of those things like he drove me to UAB that day.

Justin: 4:45

I think I think he drove me. No, maybe he didn't, we were just there, yeah, and um God, now I'm having a mind block here, cause I feel like he drove me sometime, but yet I had a car.

Rhett: 4:57

I don't know. Anyway, that makes sense.

Justin: 4:59

Yeah, maybe. Yeah, because it's not like we had a lot of money then.

Rhett: 5:03

Sure you can take me to school. Yeah, please, Taylor. Thank you, yeah, like a red hatchback Honda. Crx.

Justin: 5:11

Maybe CRX, I forget. But so we're standing in line to get our sheet signed, like we are organized, we're ready, we're going to get in this three o'clock math class and as we get closer to the registrar, taylor says oh my gosh, I do like he didn't have what he needed for the math class to get his hand. He was like bro, come with me, we'll be right back. I'm like man, what if? What if we miss our spot? He's like we'll be fine, my loyalty is a friend. I gave up my spot. I'm like let's go. Oh my gosh, we ran to get something out of his car my spot. I'm like let's go. We ran to get something out of his car, came back, got in line and they closed the class on us.

Justin: 5:49

I said I'm sorry you're not in time and we like, but we got to have this math class this semester. This is 1996, september, and I'm in the registrar. She said the only class that you can take if you have to get this math class in is on tuesdays and thursdays, and it was like uh 6 45 pm and so we signed up for that one and I was so frustrated because I've never been to night. That was like a night class yeah, I've never been to that and I wanted to.

Justin: 6:19

I wanted to end my day like at five and I'm, I'm gone, yeah and yeah, and then, um, it would be that class that I met summer. But so what I? The reason I brought that up is summer. Also, there was a friend that she had met named Arminda.

Rhett: 6:32

Yeah, do you remember Arminda? I know, yeah, yeah, she was in our wedding. They were filming the movies sometime around that.

Justin: 6:37

Yeah, arminda happened to be there. I don't know if she happened to be there or went there for that, but she was in the Truman show. So if you're watching the movie and Jim Carrey, he's looking through the rear view mirror with his wife that he's starting to realize this is a weird conspiracy. It's like just wait one minute. There's about to be someone go by on a bike, and that was her and that was Arminda, like a second, yeah, there it goes.

Rhett: 7:02

And that was her and that was Arminda, like a half a second yeah, there it goes.

Justin: 7:04

I mean, I know, I know a movie star too. Well, yeah, yeah.

Rhett: 7:07

Or two Was she in the credits Like the girl on a bicycle, girl on the bike, surely yeah.

Justin: 7:13

I've never looked, yeah, but we watch it whenever we go to Florida and we're going to go visit, like Monica Market.

Rhett: 7:20

Yeah, yeah, which is the little downtown when his best friend supposedly worked.

Justin: 7:23

Okay, that was actually. There's a scene where the guy's on a ladder like putting groceries up and that really is Charles Modica, the son of the owner, charles Modica Sr. Well, you mentioned Taylor McIntosh.

Rhett: 7:37

I don't know if he listens to this or not, but if you do, you know love you bro. I pulled one on him the other day and I say other day, as if we've been hanging out and like have connected. I don't think I've seen him since high school. Oh yeah, I remember you telling me you were at an Indy race, birmingham, Alabama, barber Motorsports Park. I'm sitting now I'm 47. At the time, you know, I got some gray hair going on but I got my hat on sunglasses. I'm sitting in my little uh, on the side of a hill and and a little fold out chair.

Rhett: 8:06

You know, in the shades by the tree and so. I'm just minding my own business. And then I look over and I see this guy, you know, wearing a racing shirt and he's talking to a buddy. And he's talking. I'm like God, his voice sounds familiar. Took me back to high school school for a minute. I look over is taylor mcintosh? Now, granted, I recognize who he is because he's like found a youth.

Justin: 8:31

Oh yeah, he almost looks like I hadn't changed. I mean, it's amazing. You know, we all need a little bit more weighty.

Rhett: 8:35

But just you know, just enough as you're, you know filling out, so we're not super skinny like we were in high school right, you know, me included, right. We're like bean poles, yeah right but we're like okay, you know he's, he's, you know it's taylor, taylor yeah, and so I'm going.

Rhett: 8:52

How can I want to play this? Do I number one when I act like I'm not here and not saying anything? Do I want to get up and then, when he turns around, go, taylor, what's up, it's red. Hey, good to see you. Or do I want to just like go? I don't know. I've never done this before, but I did. I was like I'm going to just say Taylor, what's up, man, and just sit there. I'm sitting in my chair, found a moment of break when he would stop talking. He was watching the cars and I look over what's up, Taylor?

Rhett: 9:17

He looks at me, he kind of you know, I'm sitting in the chair and he's standing up and he's looking down at me and I'm like what's up? And that's it, and I'm throwing. I'm like how does this man know my name? Who is this guy?

Justin: 9:30

and I looked at him.

Rhett: 9:31

I pulled my sunglasses down just a bit as I arched my head up looking up and I was like dude, he's like rat. Is this rat, oh my god yeah, peter pan yeah, I'm like, yeah, I know I'm older, I know, but like dude, I still stay seated. You know, I'm like what's up man?

Justin: 9:50

you know, yeah, and we just just start laughing and start talking and he's like oh my god, I said, yeah, it's me like you know, beyond the gray hair and the little bit of chub that I'm trying to work through, you know, know.

Rhett: 10:04

He's like, oh my gosh. I'm like yeah, and so we call it anyway. That's my Taylor Mac story, and that's so good. And then I mentioned that whole like hey, you know, you were in the class, you're like I want to marry that girl and just like no, I want to marry her, yeah.

Justin: 10:29

You know he was like the. He was the heartthrob to a lot of people in high school, so I really appreciated the fact that he supported me.

Rhett: 10:39

I'm sure he'd be like what do you mean in high school? He would have? What are you talking about?

Justin: 10:45

I mean beautiful family. He definitely, definitely has got a beautiful family, but he he would have been classified as my wingman at that moment and it was very, very where was? I in all this, not in college. You were, yeah, you were, you were um you were no, no, no, no not in college. No, you were at jeff state I was at jeff state.

Justin: 11:07

I wasn't in texas at that time, no, okay no yeah no, yeah, that's right, I wouldn't unless you took it kind of like a gap year. You're, you did, you did jeff state first, I don't know, took kind of like a gap year.

Rhett: 11:15

You did Jeff State first, I don't know if I ever called it gap year. When did that become a thing I don't know?

Justin: 11:19

That's what I'm calling it, because I hear people call it that.

Rhett: 11:22

I don't know what I want to do. Why do I just want to waste money at school? I literally did not know what I wanted to do. I did my first.

Justin: 11:30

Because the goal was second year was going to be me. You and Mike are going to Lee University.

Justin: 11:35

That was the goal, so, but no, Taylor was like I mean, he was one of my buds, we played sports together. It was great to have someone on campus that I knew, even though I didn't live there. But yeah, but then the next year me and Summer had met. We later had really gotten together. That next spring that was more of a distant you know, just hello. You know, I wasn't even dating at that time, like I was kind of, I was just in a different mode, and it would have been that next spring of 97.

Rhett: 12:07

Were you in a mode of like I don't want to date anybody because I don't want to go through whatever all that emotional stuff is? Or are you like I'm getting closer to God and I'm the only person I'm dating is Jesus?

Justin: 12:17

Yeah, Well, I mean, I was, have you ever? Have you ever been?

Rhett: 12:19

there, the friends that do that. Oh, I'm on a date with who? Well, I'm going out on a date with Jesus. Yeah. The people who do that to escape. That was the thing, man. And then I'm going on a date with Jesus.

Justin: 12:32

No, with me. It was just I was hitting that age where I knew that these next years and I had just gotten out of a relationship, and it wasn't like heartbreak or anything, it was actually a great person.

Justin: 12:42

Yeah.

Justin: 12:43

Love Jesus with all our hearts. Still to this day, loves Jesus with all our heart. But I just knew, you know, it was just a mutual thing and but I knew at that time like I don't even really really want to pursue relationship at all. Number one I got to figure out what's this college thing.

Justin: 13:01

Yeah, me, you and Micah were preparing stuff. You know what's this music thing going to look like. Are we really going to move away in a year from now to go to, you know, cleveland, tennessee? All these things are going through my head, yeah. And so when I saw Summer, it was more just a. You know it's fun to get to say it, because I did tell Taylor I'm going to marry that girl. You did. But there was nothing behind that. No, you were just playing.

Rhett: 13:26

It was just like she's the most beautiful person I'd ever seen.

Justin: 13:29

And so that just, and then we moved on. And then she gets into a study group for the finals. A girl we met in the class you know would be like she said would y'all like me to go get that girl to come be in our study?

Rhett: 13:42

group and we were like yes, okay, yeah, of course. So her and Arminda came over, okay.

Justin: 13:48

But it would be that next spring and I didn't know this she had a boyfriend at the time, so she was being loyal to her boyfriend. But they went through a tough breakup and she was in the same state of mind, like I'm not looking to date, but I had given her on the last day of class just our 24-7 card. We had our little business card.

Rhett: 14:10

So if you can imagine this you get your business that was the big deal.

Justin: 14:14

You know you get your. It would have like manager Rod Solomon, yeah, and it was like Micah Rhett, Justin, had our last names on there.

Rhett: 14:22

And that was the equivalent to like a really good Tik TOK or, or social media. Oh, it was huge.

Justin: 14:27

Oh my God, oh yeah this is amazing had our logo had the church's number, because that was pastor, I was our manager, that's where all the calls would go through, and so I gave her that, just to tell her. Here's where our church is.

Rhett: 14:40

I love that. Here's my card. If you want to get ahold of me, I'm going to go through my manager. Yeah, that's, I know. I'm sure you had your. Surely you wrote your number on that, like you? Literally, you, literally.

Justin: 14:51

I gave her that.

Rhett: 14:52

No.

Justin: 14:52

I didn't give her my number, but I did ask her for hers. Okay, and, just like she did give me her number. Yeah, um, and I remember calling her, and, and I got to finish the story to make it make sense but, I, called her and it's her voice. She's like hey, you've reached Summer and Tommy, we're not here right now. And I heard Tommy and I thought oh my gosh. She lives with her boyfriend or her boyfriend lives with her, whatever.

Rhett: 15:21

Yeah, Tommy's a dude's name.

Justin: 15:22

And so I called again. I don't even know why I called again. Then I got the voice message hey, you've reached Summer and Tommy, and my thought was like I ain't getting involved. This is weird. I don't getting involved. This is weird, I'm not. I don't even know why I'm calling in the first place, cause I'm not looking to date. Yeah, I'm, I've backed off, so I just tried to forget.

Rhett: 15:40

You didn't even leave a voicemail.

Justin: 15:42

Oh, no, cause I didn't want to make Tommy. I'm like, who is this? He'd be like some real strong dude.

Rhett: 15:58

He's going to beat me up lens. Where you didn't have call waiting, not waiting you didn't have caller I d right.

Justin: 16:00

So when you call somebody, you didn't have this reference point of here's the number of who called. Yeah, so it's literally just an answering machine. Yeah, I didn't want to be like a massive cassette player, hey summer, with one tape in it, or two.

Rhett: 16:05

If you had the double tape on it you would live in large baby oh, yeah, right, and then you, like you, you hit a record button, you go, you know whatever, wait for the beat, you know, yeah, and then, and then you just left your your voicemail, which was voicemail. It was a answering machine, yeah, and you're talking to a machine and the tape's recording at that moment, yeah, spinning.

Justin: 16:27

So yeah, you get home, and if it's beeping, it means you got.

Rhett: 16:30

You actually got a message and you'd love to go press it, but I don't want to be like hey, hey, summer, it's Justin from math class and then don't know who.

Justin: 16:41

Tommy is.

Rhett: 16:43

Were you satisfied with your message? If so, press one.

Justin: 16:46

If you want to re-record, press two. It was real time. There's no correcting Exactly, and so I kind of just forgot. I had to just move on.

Rhett: 16:54

And you didn't know who was in the room listening either, because it was.

Justin: 16:56

Because they could be listening.

Rhett: 16:57

It's not like you're. It's being hidden in some device that only you can access with personal passcode. You can't just send a text. No, it's like yeah, it's real time. Yeah, people are here. Like I could be in the message live over the recording right now. Yeah, man, I have times change.

Justin: 17:14

What we were doing. It was funny, you know, given the Christmas card, given the 24-7 card.

Rhett: 17:21

Yeah.

Justin: 17:22

Because I remember we were doing the Easter drama, we were doing drama rehearsal where we were the disciples or 24-7. We'd sing a special but we'd be in our disciple robes. Yeah, and all I remember, and this is now March. This would have been like March, maybe March 1st, or, I'm sorry, this would have been March 7th of 1997.

Rhett: 17:45

How do you remember those dates?

Justin: 17:46

I do not know it was a Saturday and we were having an Easter drama rehearsal. And I'm up there with our sandals and our robe zone and Miss Cherry, Brenda, Cherry shout out to Brenda Cherry.

Rhett: 18:00

Let's go.

Justin: 18:01

Miss Cherry. I still got to say Miss Cherry, it feels weird to say. Brenda, miss Cherry.

Rhett: 18:05

She'll be like call me Brenda. I know she's like you're 47. You can't do it, hey, miss Cherry.

Justin: 18:12

Hey, miss Cherry, that's me, I just got to. I can't do it. Hey, miss Cherry. Hey, miss Cherry, that's me. I just got to, I can't. Yeah, it's like, it's like Robert Smith, the hero of mine, I just goals. One of the greatest marriages he and Miss Pam. I can't call him Robert, if you're listening, robert that feels weird, mr Smith.

Justin: 18:26

It's always Mr Smith, yeah. And so she comes into the auditorium and she says Justin, you got a phone call because she was in the reception area. She's like a girl named Summer and first of all, we had friends named Season and Summer who were in our youth group. So shout out to Season and Summer. We're giving a lot of shout outs today.

Justin: 18:51

We needed to tag everybody and say, by the way, you get a shout out, shout out for you, shout out for you, and so I thought it's plausible that summer at that time, summer more could be calling Like we were all buddies.

Rhett: 19:05

Yeah.

Justin: 19:06

But, but yet there was a little bit of hope to like what if it's?

Rhett: 19:10

what if it's?

Justin: 19:11

the girl from math class. Yeah, cause it was like. She was like the dream of am I ever going to see her again? You know all these things and I just remember. I just remember hiking up my little robe skirt, so I could run real fast.

Rhett: 19:29

In context, we're in a drama and we're playing the part of disciples. That's right.

Justin: 19:37

And the disciples in that day would have worn a robe of sorts. Yeah yeah, the long suit. So I just kind of pulled it out, running in my Teva sandals, as you like as you like.

Rhett: 19:44

Do that physically right now, like pulling it and making me feel a little uncomfortable. You're like pulling that out a little and you're wearing jeans. Sorry about that.

Justin: 19:52

Yes, you're like pulling that out a little and you're wearing jeans. Sorry about that. Yeah, yeah, Well, you know it went up above my knees.

Justin: 19:56

I needed to have some running power you know, oh yeah, and I had the back heel on the, I had the little back gripper on my Tevas, yeah, so I could run faster than things. That's awesome. I ran down the hallway and it was summer and she was like gone through a tough breakup and she wasn't looking for me. She was looking for just to have that moment with a church of people who are pursuing Jesus. Yeah, and so she, um, she reached out to the church number and I said why don't you come tomorrow? She's like, yeah, I'd like that. And I said why don't you come tomorrow? She's like, yeah, I'd like that. And we met at McDonald's down the Roebuck Parkway in Birmingham, alabama, got an Egg McMuffin.

Rhett: 20:43

And when she first met me I have memories of that McDonald's I think I had In the play place. I know we used to always go play. They were called like the mass. I know you're telling your story.

Justin: 20:50

This is our podcast.

Rhett: 20:51

We interrupt literally if you remember, when the I don't know what they're called so, but we called on the balls. Yeah, playing in the balls yeah, yeah, yeah, the slide, the slide I mean, what are they called?

Justin: 21:07

I mean, what else do you call it? You're playing the circular things that you can throw at each other yes and and.

Rhett: 21:13

And, and, and, and and. Thinking back, man like looking at it now through an adult perspective of going God, the germs and the nasty, oh gosh, yeah, All the gross stuff that are on those things we were swimming in there. Yeah, your dad would your dad would get the paper. I'll never forget it was Showbiz before, it was Chuck E Cheese or whatever, but that big play place and like it was massive.

Justin: 21:36

Always. You could climb around, you could jump in the balls You'd jump into it, man, and you'd disappear.

Rhett: 21:40

Oh, that's amazing, it's so small and yeah, so when you say that, mcdonald's in my mind.

Justin: 21:46

I think of their play space.

Rhett: 21:47

My dad would take his newspaper and drink his coffee, and he'd three or four hours. Yes, we had a blast.

Justin: 21:54

We had a blast, yeah. So there you go. Yeah, those were fun. Those were some fun days.

Rhett: 21:58

That's a little insert of my memory when I drive by that McDonald's, which is very rare.

Justin: 22:03

I think of that.

Rhett: 22:04

And, by the way, that's a 24 hour McDonald's Dang. Yeah, I can't imagine that place being open 24 hours hours.

Justin: 22:14

Yeah, that's a special mcdonald's. A lot of, a lot of great childhood memories. I mean we would, we would meet so many people. We just I mean they could know that you're going to go there on that saturday and those ret and justin boys are playing in the balls they're sliding the slides.

Rhett: 22:24

They're in the play space. My dad took us there and your dad took us to mcdonald's up further up center point parkway. Yes, they had a different kind of playground different playground.

Justin: 22:32

Yeah, and my dad would take us to chucky cheese showbiz pizza. That was all the stinking time those playgrounds had the.

Rhett: 22:39

You remember those little. They're like a horse or a cow or whatever. They're like purely made out of concrete, yeah, with like metal bars coming out where you would. You'd sit on it and you, the handles were like a metal bar. But then then this massive spring that might as well live on. Some, like you know, battleship of spring that's used for some kind of mechanical thing is just like the spiral spring. Huge spring Goes down. I mean, dude, we're talking like 12 inches wide spring.

Rhett: 23:08

Yeah, you're talking like pinch your hand off spring, oh man, it goes down into concrete as the foundation and the only purpose of this thing is to get on it and rock back and forth and go bonkers and what? We would do bananas baby we would pull back on that thing and lean all the way back and then let it go, kind of letting off the seat. You can annihilate somebody.

Justin: 23:29

You can kill somebody with that it's crazy, the stuff that they want to knock you out, I mean, we never did. No, I don't know how we survived the 80s. You've been like hey little kid, come here, stand right there in the metal slide.

Rhett: 23:41

Oh dear god, in the heat it was so hot.

Justin: 23:44

It was so hot and you're out there in shorts and you're like, I mean you scald yourself and it burned right through the mumbros unbelievable yeah, every, every time, and they had a little fort thing with those fake little steering wheels that I remember. And they were just like little round Kept. You entertained for hours. And I literally remember this I was steering that McDonald's up the parkway.

Rhett: 24:03

Well, yeah, so we would pretend that the cars going down the parkway. We were controlling them with our little steering wheel.

Justin: 24:10

And they didn't know it. Imagine the imagination they had no clue, they didn't know it. Imagine the imagination they had no clue. Imagine the imagination. Think about that. I can't imagine the imagination. That's what adults say.

Rhett: 24:17

Imagination. Imagine the imagination we used to have.

Justin: 24:21

Imagining I mean, what if we could take over those cars? Those people would be freaking out. What is happening Every time?

Rhett: 24:29

It's like the Bermuda Triangle Every time you drive by the mcdonald's, but in our minds we thought we were controlling those cars.

Justin: 24:39

We I mean, oh man, it's the stuff that wired us, yeah eight, nine, ten, eleven had to be yeah, because dad found out that we were excited to go to showbiz pizza, but we would find out later that he would go there. Yeah, he wanted us to have a good time, but they had big TVs before. Every household had big TVs. Yeah, only people who had a lot of money had big TVs.

Rhett: 25:00

I didn't recognize what it was, but it was really a place where adults could come and I'd say your dad did this, but drink alcohol and watch your kids, just you know, dribble away.

Justin: 25:08

You can have a beer and watch college football. It would be Saturday nights and he'd watch college football, yeah. Or there'd be NFL football during the week, monday nights. And it got to the point he wanted to go to showbiz so much that we would be like no let's don't go to showbiz again.

Rhett: 25:27

Because he would give us a $5 bill each. Oh man, you put that $5 bill into that big machine and you hear the like man.

Justin: 25:32

It's like I just won the lottery I just got 20 tokens, which literally meant 20 games. Yeah, it was rare to have a 50 cent game.

Rhett: 25:38

Oh, and when you walk up to a game. If you were on that game Mario Brothers, let's call it what it is If I had 25 tokens I would layer my quarter boom, boom, boom, boom, like one, two, three, four the game. And then you had to watch for the little sneak that would come in and like try to watch and then take a quarter or two.

Justin: 25:56

Or there'll be the kids that just walk up and try to take control of it for you and I'm like get off me Exactly.

Rhett: 26:02

Exactly. Hey friends, if you're enjoying today's conversation, could you do us a huge favor, Would you share the link of this episode with a friend, with a coworker, with a buddy. I email it, airdrop it, text it, comment on Facebook. However you'd like to share it, man, it would mean so much to us to help us get the word out, to have more friends join us in on this journey. Thank you All. Right now back to the conversation.

Justin: 26:27

In college. By that time my hair was longer, I had our you know, I had our band name shaved in the back of my head. Okay, so you had the butt cut yeah okay, when, when she met me at uab down to like your chin level yes, about march of 97 I had cut it all off so it's gq'd up.

Justin: 26:44

So when I go into mcdonald's she didn't even recognize it was me yeah yeah hopefully she was doing that like, hey, she came to church and we, literally, even though we were more trying to be like friends, we knew but we stayed we tried to be friends for like a couple of months, but yet, at the same time, we knew this is not going to stay friends.

Rhett: 27:08

Something about the presence of God that just is attractive.

Justin: 27:10

Yeah, I mean praise the Lord, we dated three years. Yeah, got mean. Praise the Lord, we dated three years. Yeah, got married April 2000.

Rhett: 27:18

Yeah, baby.

Justin: 27:19

Thank you, UAB. So once again, I started out by thanking Taylor, so really I do owe Taylor a big thank you for getting to have what he had to sign to get us in that original math class.

Rhett: 27:33

There you go.

Justin: 27:33

God works things out, but Taylor helped speed that one up there. So, taylor McIntosh, thank you, buddy, appreciate that.

Rhett: 27:44

Seriously, man, God's going like.

Justin: 27:46

I had a lot of parts to play in this too, buddy, you've given Taylor a lot of credit for something.

Justin: 27:52

I sovereignly ordained. That's right, you just happened to be the God to it. Yeah, lord gets all the credit All the praise, all the glory.

Rhett: 28:00

You mentioned something and I was thinking about okay, do I take this here and it might be a good way to kind of like to bring some healthy perspective of Scripture into this. But you mentioned being, you know you were wearing a robe and you you wanted to get to the phone call a lot quicker, so you pulled up the robe a little bit so you could run.

Justin: 28:19

Oh yeah, all right. So I was telling you something that I've been down the hallway.

Rhett: 28:25

It brings up something. It's going to take me a minute to pull this up, so so then while you're pulling that up.

Justin: 28:31

yeah, just picture that fast disciple running by the lady in the hallway who's like where is?

Rhett: 28:36

he in a hurry to.

Justin: 28:37

Yeah. Yeah, I was in a hurry to talk to my future wife that I was hoping was my future wife. It could have just been one of my other buddies named Summer, but it ended up being the Summer Copeland, bradshaw. Okay, you ready?

Rhett: 29:01

Okay, yeah, I think I've got where I need to be. Okay, yeah, so I all right. So, before I share this because I there was, I was reading a scripture the other day and there was a. There was a context of where I actually read something or got a perspective of what would actually have been happening in the story of the Bible, which is exactly similar to what you were saying about pulling up your robe a little bit so you could run fast. Yeah, so, but before before I share this nugget which might land the plane here and actually give some people some like healthy perspective and and and some, you know, god's truth is always wonderful. Who in the world is Tommy?

Rhett: 29:41

Cause, I'm sure some people are sitting there thinking like who is he living with?

Justin: 29:44

man, like what in the world? So, as I said earlier, the voice message, the voicemail, said you've reached Summer and Tommy. So when we got to hang out at that McDonald's and then church, and we started going out to eat and know each other actually way before that I would have needed to know who is Tommy, by the way. And she said Tommy's my mom. So her mom's name was Tommy. Sweetest lady, fun, very fun. Yeah, I went to be with Jesus.

Rhett: 30:15

When did you ask for that, though? Like when did you? Oh yeah, oh it was, it would have been before we go on anywhere, oh yeah, before you went to McDonald's?

Justin: 30:21

Yeah, no, because McDonald's was about getting her to church.

Rhett: 30:25

Okay, gotcha, it was all about her and Jesus first Did you go like, hey, I'd love for you to come to church. What does your husband think about this? Or your boyfriend, is he cool with? This and she's like what I wouldn't have had boundaries in like that.

Justin: 30:43

In my way of thinking I would have met a married woman at McDonald's and said hey, you want to come to church with me, and I just know me. I wouldn't have thought anything of that.

Justin: 30:54

Now I can look and be like, oh, that would have been weird. We were young, I didn't ask any questions, I just knew she wanted to go to church.

Justin: 30:59

I went and met her there and we went. But when church is over and she's, I guess I don't even remember how it worked, but we're like you want to go eat lunch somewhere? The answer was yes okay but I wanted to know before this is going anywhere in my mind. Yeah, so who I actually? I called a couple of times and your voice message said it's summer and tommy, who's tommy? And she she said tommy's my mom and I was so relieved you were, I was like.

Justin: 31:33

I can't wait to meet her. I mean, it was like it was, we were ready to roll after that point. So, yeah, that was the little minor detail we needed to find out who Tommy was. Oh man, okay, tommy, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful lady Went to go be with Jesus in March of 2022.

Justin: 31:52

We miss her.

Justin: 31:53

Wonderful lady, so great job raising Summer. Greatest woman in the world. Love her, love you, sammy.

Rhett: 32:00

Okay, so shifting gears a little bit here.

Rhett: 32:02

Yes, back to the robe thing, oh yeah, many people are probably familiar with the prodigal son, whether you grew up in church or not. This whole story of you know a father and a son and we know that father at least had a another son. So two sons, brothers, right? Yeah, so the one son's like hey, give me my inheritance. I want out like your money means more to me than the relationship. I just give me my portion, I'm out.

Rhett: 32:26

The father gives them the money, goes away while wild living, spends it all ends up in a pigsty. Then in the pigsty I'm giving you a very brief version of the story. In that moment he's thinking man, the servants in my father's household eat better than this. The pig food's starting to look good. The kids? He comes to his senses, the Bible says. Then he starts making his I'm sorry speech, heads off to his father. We get the perspective of the father being kind of like on the front porch, waiting, looking for his son. Sees his son runs to his son, okay, hugs it out, doesn't even give him a chance to even tell his I'm sorry speech. Hey, what does he do? Puts a robe on him, puts a ring on him, gives him fresh sandals my son is home, kind of like, hey, he was lost, but now he's found, he's back, right, huge party.

Rhett: 33:18

So Jesus is telling this story to the Jewish culture and so there's perspectives that the Jewish, that the Jewish culture, would have heard this told in a different way, told in a different way, right? Um, and there's a lot of things that are happening in this story and that are like would have blown the people away who were hearing this Jesus telling this story. And so this idea now I again I don't have all this kind of laid out the way I would like to lay it out, cause I wasn't even expecting to say this yeah, okay, um, but I really want to try to get this right. So I, I pulled this up in chat, gpt and it doesn't always get things right, but I'm like I want to learn this story from like a messianic Jew perspective, meaning somebody who is understands very Jewish culture, jewish traditions, but has given their heart to Christ as a full, deep understanding of Old Testament, new Testament, context, all these things like a rabbi type thing, right, and so it's interesting.

Rhett: 34:19

It said, when Jesus told the parable of the prodigal son of Luke 15, his Jewish audience in the first century Middle Eastern context would have heard it very differently than we do. To them, the details weren't just a narrative color, they were shocking, even offensive, because they violated deep cultural norms about honor, shame and family loyalty. All right, so number one the son asking for inheritance. Early In Jewish culture, asking for your share of the inheritance while your father was still alive was essentially saying excuse me, I wish you were dead, like I value your money more than I value you. Yeah, that was an extreme act of dishonor. Okay, there's verses that support this.

Rhett: 35:04

Number two the father letting him go. Check this out. The listeners would have expected the father to refuse to rebuke or even physically drive the son out for such a request. Instead, the father divides his property. The word is bios, b-i-o-s in the Greek literally means life. So what the father was actually doing was dividing his life and letting his son go, so to the audience that Jesus would have been speaking to. This made the father look weak, foolish and dishonored. We wouldn't pick this up in this story, but this is what the context is Now the son living among the Gentiles most of us have heard this portion.

Rhett: 35:44

The younger son ends up feeding pigs. I mentioned this. It's the lowest possible point for a Jewish man, pigs run clean. To Jesus' ears this signaled complete moral and spiritual bankruptcy. Four, the father running to meet him. This goes along with what you were saying. I cannot believe that you mentioned that detail. Maybe the Lord's in this.

Rhett: 36:05

In Middle Eastern culture check this out. Patriarchs, the father right that household. They didn't run. Running meant hiking up your robe, exposing your legs, undignified for an older man of standing. So Jesus telling this, depicting this picture of the father running, he says by running to his son, the father breaks cultural dignity norms. He running to his son, the father break, uh, he breaks cultural dignity norms. He gets to his son and this is interesting before the village can enact and I'm gonna butcher this word a kazaza ceremony, k-e-z-a-z-a-h. Okay, I didn't understand this. I didn't know this, I didn't know this.

Rhett: 36:48

But the reason the father ran to him was to get to him before the village and the other people could to enact a ceremony which was a public cutting off of a dishonored family member. Okay, blows my mind. And God, the father, basically, is showing a picture. Jesus is teaching us a picture of God the father who's willing to get undignified to run to us to intervene so we would not be publicly dishonored by a village which was ultimately going to say hey, you're disowned from this community altogether. Father beat him to it. I was like Whoa, I've never heard this before. So the robe, the ring in and the sandals Robe represented restoration of honor, ring authority to act in the family's name. Sandals sons wore sandals, servants went barefoot. Wow.

Justin: 37:40

I didn't know that.

Rhett: 37:40

Yeah, first time I'm hearing that these weren't just welcome home gifts, they were symbols of full sonship. The older brother's reaction Interesting In Jewish expectation, the older brother should have acted as a mediator. In their culture the brother would have been a mediator, going to the younger urging him to return. Instead, this son refuses to enter the feast, publicly shaming the father in front of the guests. The father leaving the banquet to plead with him would have been just as culturally shocking as running to the younger son. So here's the cultural punchline.

Rhett: 38:14

Jesus' audience would have heard this not just as a touching family reunion but as a radical redefinition of God's love Grace over honor rules, compassion over social custom. A critique of the Pharisees and teachers of the law, the older brothers right, who refused to rejoice when sinners returned to God, and a portrait of the Pharisees and teachers of the law, the older brothers right, who refused to rejoice when sinners returned to God, and a portrait of the father and this is the whole point of the robe thing who takes on shame to restore his children to honor. Hey, friends, rhett here Just want to take a moment to speak to those who may be joining us for the first time. We want to say welcome, friends. However, you found us. We are so glad that you did, and we believe it wasn't by accident.

Rhett: 38:56

We're so glad that you joined us in on this conversation today. In fact, if you haven't already done so, could we encourage you to follow us on social media. You can find us on Facebook or Instagram at Armchair Authentic, or over on X at Armchair Auth Pod. That's Armchair Auth A-U-T-H-P-O-D. All right, thanks for taking the time to do that. Now let's get back to our conversation.

Justin: 39:21

Beautifully said, and I've heard some things from some theologians that I've never heard that, but I've heard it said and that's true about the mediator how the older son should have actually gone to him. I've never heard that before and I've heard this comparison before that the oldest son if you look at biblical analogies, the oldest son would have represented Adam and where Adam felled the moment the father stepped off the porch, it was a, it was a symbol of Jesus.

Rhett: 39:51

Yeah.

Justin: 39:52

So the father is still represented on the porch and it's Jesus running towards. So he's putting himself in shame.

Rhett: 39:58

Yes.

Justin: 39:58

So where the first Adam fell, the second one would not.

Rhett: 40:01

And, and and the visual I would have never pictured the visual the father wearing a robe, having to pull that up, exposing his legs, meaning a shameful thing in that culture. So these aren't just. Well, he just ran to meet him. No, no, no. Like he's speaking specifically what the father did by sending his son to take on our shame and to intervene. I love this.

Rhett: 40:23

To intervene on their behalf, because what was happening and the son would have known this and the Jewish culture would have known this in the context of this type of story, the village would have known this and the jewish culture would have known this in the context of this type of story, the village would have been doing this ceremony. Oh, there he is. We got to go dishonor. He's coming back. Who does he think he is? Not only should his father just own him, right, right, but like we as a village, we as a community of people, we're going to dishonor. Like there's any cut off, cut off, you're no longer welcome here. Yeah, but the father intervened, yeah, took on the shame in front of everybody, public, and it like flies in the face yeah, but this is a beautiful picture.

Justin: 40:57

It's such no, people do not think about that context I love how you brought that up, because that is the context here. It's that it's like meaning you were talking earlier, yeah, and when we're talking about adam and eve, how it's like man will leave his family to go, yeah, we had a pre-call cut.

Rhett: 41:13

We're pretty yeah like our pre conversation for you.

Justin: 41:15

Man will leave his father mother to cleave to his wife. Yeah, but really in context they don't leave their father and mother like they went to their father's house who would build a wing for them, and it was almost like in that first part of Genesis it was already predicting what Jesus would do. He would leave the father to come get his bride being us and then and just so cool when you look at these analogies, but yeah, when you get the backstory, that's awesome.

Rhett: 41:44

It just brings it all to a whole new perspective. And when you did that and you were just kind of like and I pulled up my little robe.

Justin: 41:49

I ran to the phone, talked to Summer.

Rhett: 41:50

I was like, oh my gosh, I just read about something like this, it's so true. And in my mind I was thinking, well, maybe I don't know if I'll go there, maybe we'll save that for another time. But I was like, I guess, man, why not? Maybe, that's a God. It. You're going to run to it and the father loves us enough that he was willing to take on shame in front of public humiliation.

Justin: 42:14

Think of what Jesus did Publicly humiliated, massacred. The father and the son are one.

Rhett: 42:20

He became the son in that moment and ran and looked very foolish to that community. Yeah, and people thought this guy was you know this is crazy, but us knowing now like man, thank you God for taking my shame. Thank you God for intervening on my behalf to not disown me.

Rhett: 42:36

What a brilliant plan, but to honor me and to bring me back to full sonship. You know like, you're not a servant here, man, and that's God's plan, that's God's story. So if you're a friend listening today and this is all new for you guess what God loves you. Not only does he love you, he chooses you, if you'll choose him, and he runs to you and he's just willing and waiting to receive you, adopt you as a son or as a daughter, no guilt, no shame. And if you've walked away, come in, just know your father's running to you right now.

Rhett: 43:04

I just love it, man, and this is the beauty of why I love God so much is because this perspective of heaven and what our loving father he's a loving father. He's crying, he's compassionate, he's slow to anger, he's rich in love, he's merciful. His love is never failing, never to disown us, it's permanent. And the beautiful thing isn't even in the adoption and the kingdom mindset is that we're adopted into his family, in that it is a permanent residence, as a son or daughter, and I love this is that we're adopted into his family in that it is a permanent residence, as a son or daughter, and I love this is that, through the finished work of the cross of Jesus Christ and what he's done for us, with the authority in Jesus's name that God has placed in him, given him the name that's above every name, above heaven, earth and under the earth, and that name every tongue will confess and every knee will bow that he is Lord. So there is this power and authority in his name, which basically means as we're adopted into his family.

Rhett: 43:54

Scripture teaches us that we are heirs, co-heirs with Christ, meaning what is his is ours, what he gives is ours, what he promises is ours. So we can approach him with confidence and humility and knowing that what we ask, according to his will, it will be done. We have this incredible power, this incredible relationship with our Heavenly Father, as represented in this story. Not only do I welcome you back, but I welcome you back fully, as a son or as a daughter.

Justin: 44:19

We've come full circle, because where there is no sunlight, there is no moonlight. Oh, sunshine, moonshine baby, because where there is no sunshine there is no moonshine. Baby, because where there is no sunshine there is no moonshine. Oh, that could have been so much cooler, I thought that was gonna be so cool and I'm like okay, that was great.

Rhett: 44:42

You guys are awesome. Thanks for hanging with us.

Justin: 44:45

We can't wait until our next conversation, because where there is no sunshine, there is no moonshine. I'm going to get that in.

Rhett: 44:57

That's great.

Justin: 45:00

On the next episode of Armchair Authentic, we were talking about prank calls, I might have a quick recording. I would prank call one of our people and I think let me see if that works. Yeah, so here's an example. Hello.

Justin: 45:15

Could I speak with Anthony Anthony? Anthony, my daughter Melody just recently came and did an audition and she came home upset the other night because she didn't make it. Why wouldn't my daughter Melody be a part of a development program? She's a good vocalist. They have to have the audition process first. Hey, listen, she sang at the Chilton County Peach Festival and James Spann said she was awesome. He even tweeted her back during the 10 o'clock news. What we're proud. That's really awesome. That's a great accomplishment. Maybe you can shut her. Let her in now, since I told you that, Because that's kind of like an audition in itself. It's not quite the same thing. She sang the national anthem for the Decatur Hot Air Blunt Festival. It was right when she came to a collective conclusion and it was awesome when Grandma was taking her last breath. She sang, sang her into glory.

Rhett: 46:11

I had the whole room in tears we cannot wait until that conversation, but until then, we hope to stay connected with you throughout the week on social media, on facebook, instagram or even x dm. Message us, email us at info at armchairauthenticcom and let's continue the conversation. So until then, god bless, stay safe and we'll see you soon for another conversation with your friends Red and Justin, right here at Armchair Authentic. Thank you.