The Tools To Unlocking Resilience When Life is A Mess

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With our world being in shambles today, it looks everywhere you go that there is craziness happening,

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and the Bible tells us in John 10, 10 that the thief comes to steal, to kill, and destroy,

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and it looks like that's really what's happening, but there is a promise. Jesus says in that second

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part of that verse that I have come that you might have life and life abundantly. So how do we deal

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with it whenever you have the thief coming to steal, kill, and destroy, but we know that the

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Bible says that God has an abundant life for us? Well, in today's interview, I'm going to be talking

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with Daniel Fusco, and he is an author, he's a pastor, he's a speaker, and his book, you're going

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to make it, Unlocking Resilience When Life is a Mess, is going to help you right after this short

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break here. Read more stories on spirit-led living when you subscribe to Charisma Magazine.

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Go to mycharismashop.com and enter in the promo code CPN to receive 10% off the price of a

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subscription. I'm John Matarazzo back with our guest, Daniel Fusco. It's great to be able to

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have you here to talk about your book, You're Going to Make It, Unlocking Resilience When Life

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is a Mess. And Daniel, I just mentioned the verse, John 10, 10, the thief comes to steal, kill, and

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destroy, and it seems like that has been a big thing that has been happening in our world with

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COVID, with the lockdowns, with government unrest, with wars and rumors of wars. It definitely seems

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that the abundant life that we're promised is out of our reach sometimes. Help us, brother.

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Yeah, I mean, so I think for all of us, we look at the world and we see all these things going on,

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and we have to remember Jesus told us that all this was going to happen. And so when Jesus said,

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like you read John 10, 10, that I've come that you might have life, you might have life more

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abundantly, like he's the king of kings and the Lord of lords, he's the savior. And so he's not

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lying to us. So really for us, it's about learning how to unlock this abundant life in the midst of

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all of these really messy, really hard, challenging things. And I think that over the last number of

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years, the impetus to write this book, the genesis of it was in the midst of the beginning of the

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pandemic, everyone I talked to, every pastor I talked to, everyone was just like, how are

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we going to make it? What's going to happen? And I caught myself saying that as well. And

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at one point I said, I felt like the Lord was like, Daniel, of course you're going to make it.

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You're more than a conqueror. It doesn't mean that everything's going to work out the way that I

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wanted to, but God already knows all this stuff. And I realized I needed to learn how to live that

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overcoming life, that victorious Christian life, but I was struggling to do it. Everyone I knew was

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struggling to do it in the midst of it. So I began to search the scriptures and say, hey, what does

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the Bible say about this? And what is the spirit of God trying to teach us? And I actually, you know,

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with the publisher, we came up with that title, you're going to make it. Cause I wanted to make

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a prophetic declaration over the people of God and say, hey, listen, I know that sometimes we

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don't know if we're going to make it. We feel like, man, I'm just, I'm barely hanging on,

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but no, it's like, we're going to make it because Jesus already made it. He died and rose again.

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And that for us is huge. Yeah, it really is. I mean, we know that Jesus is the author and

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finisher of our faith. So if he's the author of that, he knows the beginning from the end.

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And even though it feels that, you know, we're, we're in the middle, you know, sometimes what we

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think is a period is really a comma and God's giving us, there's more to come. There's more

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to come. So tell me about some of the things that you've dealt with that made you question

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if you were going to make it. Yeah. So like, so I came to know Jesus at the very end of my college

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experience, but in the beginning of my college experience, my mother was diagnosed with cancer

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and I'm an all Italian kid from New Jersey. And so, you know, that, that stereotypical like large

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Italian family, that was not definitely the family that I was. I know what you mean to know about

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this. Right. We both have those at the end of our last names. So we know what we're talking, we know

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what you're talking about here. Yeah, totally. And so like, and, and, and, and, and in every family,

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you know, moms take that central place. And when my mom got sick, it was real devastating. And I

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didn't know the Lord at the time. And after a two year battle with cancer, you know, she went home

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to be with the Lord and I was ill equipped. I had no, I had no framework to process through what I

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had gone through. And very quickly I found myself like in that hole where I was just mangled, you

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know, and I was numbing out, it was just sin. But what was amazing was, is even in, in, in how

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tragically that situation went and how terribly I was, I couldn't handle it. I came to know Jesus

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about a year later and Jesus, as he began to put me back together, started to show me like, Hey,

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Daniel, the reason you couldn't handle that is because you don't, you didn't have the tools at

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all. And so, you know, I had that experience. And then, you know, as I went into, you know,

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and I talk about it in the, in the intro of my book, I kind of put together a couple of different

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things. One was a nine 11. So, you know, being from New Jersey, my brother-in-law at the time

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was one of those miraculous stories of somebody who worked in the, in the, in the towers, worked

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late the night before, came in late by his boss's thing the next morning and, and made it out. But

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they lost a bunch of coworkers in that because they were on like the, I think they're on like

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the 99th floor of the law firm. So, you know, you have that and then, you know, when you fast

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forwarded into COVID, you know, I use all these different things to, as a way to frame the fact

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that, you know, God still works in the midst of the hardest things. And I'm trying to help people

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because I needed my own, my, how to, how to not divorce my faith in Jesus and the fact that he

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is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, and he is the all-knowing and all-powerful one.

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We don't want to divorce Jesus from the hardest things. We actually want to see him working in

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the midst of it because he is. Amen. Amen. So yeah, I mean, everybody has things that we're

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dealing with and I know you, you kind of break down in your book, the different categories or

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buckets of fear and worry, stress and suffering. Could you explain why you broke those down

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that way and, and how we deal with some resilience when it comes to those?

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Yeah. So, I mean, I broke it down into those three categories because, you know, obviously

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it's all through scripture that, you know, where, where we have fear and worry. I mean,

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you know, they've said, people have said that in the Bible, there's a derivative of do not worry

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365 times. I've never counted it, but I just trust that. And I'm like, you know, that that's

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important because we all battle with that. You know, a stress is something that everyone in the

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West talks about. It's, you know, it's, it's how our body responds to uncertainty. And then obviously

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suffering, nobody likes times of suffering, but it's, it's an inevitable part of life, whether

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it's physical suffering or relational issues or emotional, you know, spiritual stuff that like all

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of that is very real. And I've been, I've been a pastor now. I love getting to be a part of the

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local church. I've been a pastor for over 20 years. And, and Sunday by Sunday, meeting by meeting,

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I sit and I pray with people who are going through all those different things. So I really wanted to

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look at it through, you know, rubber meets the road street level stuff that we're all dealing with.

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And one of the things that I did in the book is I unpack what I like to call the resilience equation.

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Now I didn't invent the resilience equation. I just stole it right out of chapter 12. You've,

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you started with, you know, cause Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith. But what it

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teaches is that for the joy that was set before him, Jesus endured the cross. He's despising the

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shame. And then he's glorified. He's seated down at the right hand of the father. And so really what

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you have there is you have for the joy that was set before him, I call that hope, right? It's the

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ability to look at something and say, even though I don't know what's going to happen, I trust that

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something good's coming from him. So we need a mindset of hope and then we need to marry it to

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grit. Now, you know, it says there for the, for the joy that was set before him, he endured the

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cross and he despised the shame. So really grit is a popular word. I mean, people think of John Wayne,

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you know, little Western kind of stoic mindset, or there's a very popular business book that came

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out called grit bio, a brilliant researcher named Angela Duckworth, amazing book, but I define grit

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biblically, which is to continue to do the right things the right way for the right reason, no matter

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the outcome, because what we realize is that what God is interested in is building Christ like

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character. So the key is, is if we, we have a mindset of hope that keeps us believing and trusting

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God, and then we marry that to the continued doing the right things, the right way for the right

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reasons that, that, that, that integrity lifestyle, when you come out the other end, you have

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unstoppable hope. And if we can grab hold of that, because if you have hope without grit,

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you're believing that God's going to do something, but you're actually not going to be there to see

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it because you're not going to continue on. Or, and if you have grit without hope, you might make

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it to the end, but when you get to the end, you'll be cynical, hard hearted, and, and, and crispy,

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which is not the abundant life. So we really need that mindset of hope married to, you know, actions

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and decision making of grit. And when we land there, then we're literally living that abundant

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life, that unstoppable resilience, as I like to call it. Wow. I like how you express that, you know,

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with hope married with grit. That really is a good equation there and just how one without the other,

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you're going to fall flat in some ways. I mean, you, you might get to the end goal, but it's how

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you're going to get there is the real issue. And that's, that really does show resilience,

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you know, as, as you're talking about these different things that we have to deal with in

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life and different sufferings and worry and stress. I think biblically about the character Job,

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the book of the Bible Job, you know, there's somebody that just went through suffering after

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suffering after suffering. I mean, in the early part of his story, I mean, he loses his, his family

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and then, you know, before that person, before the messenger is finished telling Job about what has

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just happened, another messenger comes and says, your other kids has, has been killed as well. And

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then another one, it's like all these things just keep piling on. And I think that's something that

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definitely we deal with whenever something goes wrong. I mean, sometimes people say, well, bad

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things come in threes, you know, but look out for that. Like how, what advice do you have biblically

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to help us with resilience? And, you know, let's maybe even look at the life of Job in that.

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Yeah. And so, you know, in, in the section on suffering, I take a whole chapter and I

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unpack all the, cause there's, cause the Bible teaches us so many important things. Like one of

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the things that we learn in the life of Job is that, so Job had a lot of questions and God

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didn't answer any of Job's questions, which is really kind of, and when you read it, you're just

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like, wow, like in Job is he trusts God, but he has no clue what's going on. Right. And he has all

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these questions. And then when God shows up at the end of the book, God doesn't say, Job, let me

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explain to you what this all was. He just pretty much just says, Job, like, where were you when I

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created the waters and where were you create, when I created the beautiful mountains and where were

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you when I create, and really it ends with God just being like, Hey, look, I'm God and I do what I do.

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Yeah. And he doesn't answer it. Another thing you learned from, from the story of Job, and it's very

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important for us when we're suffering is that sometimes your family and your friends fail you.

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So if you think about like Job's wife gets a bad rap, but she was grieving too. She saw him and

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she's like, curse God and die. Now, you know, I remember when my mother passed away, walking

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through that grieving process with my mom, my grandma, who I love so much. She's 96 years old

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today. And, and just the like, and my grandma used to say, nobody should have to bury their children.

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And I remember hearing that. And that now as a parent, I'm like, I can imagine,

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I don't want to imagine it, but that would be so devastating. So like Job, but Job's wife was

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broken and hurting and she couldn't be there for Job. And then Job's friends show up. And in the

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beginning, they show up and they just kind of hang out. They just kind of take, take up some

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space there, which was beautiful because Job needed some fellowship, but then they started

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talking and they're, and really what they're saying is Job, like, you must have done something

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wrong for all this bad stuff to happen. And so when you look at all that stuff, really what you

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learn in the midst of it is that like for Job, he had no chance to get ready for what he was going

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to go through, but God did a work in him in the midst of it. And so one of the things I always

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try and one of the tools I talk about in the book is being able to take the long view, you know,

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like to remember that, you know, suffering by and large is temporary. We know like that the best is

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yet to come because we know that after, like, even if, if our suffering lands in the loss of life

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for the follower of Jesus, like that's actually like, you know, Paul said to live as Christ and

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to die as gain. He's like, listen, while I'm here, it's good. I'm going to walk with Jesus,

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but when I die, it's going to get better. So we always have to take the long view that, listen,

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whatever I'm going through, it is temporary. It is, it might be painful, but it is temporary.

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And when we start to grab hold of some of these concepts, it helps frame our suffering as we're

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going through it because we begin to realize like, Oh, like when I'm suffering and the people who

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should be there for us fail us, it's like, Oh, that happened to Joe. Like remember Jesus, I mean,

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what a terrible example, but remember Jesus on the cross, like all of his disciples were gone. I mean,

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John was still there. His mom was there and a couple of ladies were there, but all like, you

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know, Peter's like, Lord, I'll never deny you. I'll fight. I'll kill people for you. But he

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wasn't even there. And so, so Jesus knew what that was like in his time of suffering to have

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most of the people who were closest to him not there. And so it's just a great, these are just

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all great principles and tools and lessons that if we can grab them from the scriptures,

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trust the Lord with it and, and put feet on them as we walk through life,

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there's just a ton of fruit that can be born.

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Amen. Amen. I mean, there's, when you're in that moment, I mean, that's, that's, it seems so big

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like that your world is falling around you. There's, there might be nothing that you can do.

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How do you keep a heavenly perspective or how do you keep a eternal perspective and healthy?

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And how do you, how do you keep from having yourself in a downward spiral? How do you keep

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looking up? Yeah, it's, it's, that is the million dollar question. And I would love to tell people,

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listen, you grab my book, you're going to make it. And I'm going to give you the, like the easiest

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way to do this. The only way to fight that battle is to everyday choose to fight that battle. So,

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so what I have, what I'm learning is that, and I'm so grateful for the grace of God is that

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oftentimes my initial thoughts and reactions are not always biblical reactions. Like I like to say

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that discipleship is transforming our natural reactions to biblical responses. So oftentimes,

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like when, when, when it's all crashing down, but my initial response, my, my initial reaction is

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going to be, Oh, this is all bad. Here we go. It's all coming down. But then when I catch myself

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doing that, and I don't say this as like, I'm not an expert on it. I'm a practitioner. I'm learning.

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I'm walking by faith like everybody else. But really what it is, is when you catch that, and then

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with faith, you say, I'm going to take my eyes off of all this and I'm going to put my eyes on Jesus.

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And what I do know about life is that even though I don't know how a situation is going to work out,

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I know that God is good and that God loves me and is for me. And I know that Jesus died and rose

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again and that God doesn't waste anything. And then I remind myself that I love the outcome,

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but God loves the process. I like getting to the end of something when I, when it all makes sense

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and hindsight's 2020, but really what God loves is when I choose to trust him in the moment and say,

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God, I don't like any of this that's happening. This is horrible, but God, I know you're working.

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So I believe Lord help my unbelief and that little step off of the circumstances,

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you know, off of the situation and onto the savior to make it real pithy. You know what I mean? Like,

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like if you just, if we get that, and that is the life of faith is just off of the situation

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onto the savior, all off of the circumstances onto Jesus. And that's like a all day,

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everyday type of thing. You know, I referenced one of my favorite verses, Lord, I believe help my

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unbelief. You know, I think that is one of the most honest prayers or honest petitions that somebody

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has ever made. You know, like Lord, I believe what the word says is true, but help my unbelief.

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You know, that is something that I, I pray all the time. You know, I've seen God do

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amazing miracles. I've seen God, you know, heal the sick. I've seen God do financial miracles.

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I've seen God, God do weather miracles. Like I've seen all these different things, but I still am

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saying, Lord, I believe help my unbelief because of the moment that I'm dealing with in that

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instance where I just feel like I'm overwhelmed and I don't know what else to do. I really appreciate

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that you're taking the time to talk about hope and grit and how to get through all these different

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things with a heavenly perspective. You know, Daniel, I know that as you write a book, I mean,

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this is something that you've, you poured yourself into your, you know, that this message is going to

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impact lives because God gave it to you and it's, he's holding you responsible to get it out there

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the best way that you can. And we believe that it's going to go far and wide and it's going to,

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it's going to impact a lot of people. But I know the time has passed since you initially wrote that

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until now. So what has happened in your life since writing this book or that,

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that you can use as an example, what has God taught you in this process since the book's

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completion? Yeah. So what's, what's beautiful is so when I wrote the book, you know, I was in the

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midst of the pandemic and, and I, and I'm like, I knew I needed to write it, you know, because I was

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like, man, I need to figure this out. And I was looking for something and, and I didn't, I couldn't

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find what I was looking for. And so I wrote it, but now in the years since I wrote it, I am more and

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more convinced that I'm so happy I wrote it. And because I wrote this stuff now I'm like, oh, I

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need to, I need to put feet on this and walk this out, you know? So the number of times in my house

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with my, with my bride and my kids, where someone's like, Hey, you're going to make it. And we all

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start giggling, you know what I mean? Because it's, it's, and so for me, you know, what I'm

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realizing is although maybe the pandemic is over and like, I mean, I live in Washington state,

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which we had some of the most intense, you know, kind of government, you know, pressure

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and all this stuff. But like, I, what I realize is that, you know, the people are struggling,

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you know, like, it's not like, like we're, we're maybe out of that, but like with all that's going

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on, even as we're recording this right now, there is like, if we were just to go down the list of

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there's this and there's this and there's this and there's this, everyone I know is still kind of in

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that, like the reeling phase. And so, and as a pastor, you know, as you know, meeting by meeting,

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as I hang out with people in our, in the church, I get to be a part of, and you know, people are

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struggling. And so for me, I'm more and more convinced that like, Hey, like hope is a decision.

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It's, it's me putting on the mind of Christ and, and, and in all that's going on, I can very easily

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be hopeless. And then again, like coming down to like, Hey, am I going to continue? Am I going to

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cut corners or am I really going to lean into my faith and, and, and being the kind of person that,

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that other people be like, Oh, that person's definitely a Christian. And not because I'm

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carrying my Bible, even though I'll do that. And not because I have, you know, Jesus fish on my car,

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even though I'll do that, you know, it's like, but, but just who I am, how I work and talk to

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people and how I engage with people, you know, just yesterday, I was in a coffee shop and I

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watched somebody just, just really flip out on the barista. And I was just like, Hey,

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Hey, I don't know what's going on in your world right now, but like, let me buy your coffee.

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They're just trying to, they're just trying to take care of your coffee. Like, like, I'm so sorry

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for whatever's going on and let me just buy your coffee, you know? And, and, and, and, and, and so

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they're like stopped and they're like, I'm so sorry, I'm acting that way. And then they started

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sharing, there was all these things going on. And I'm like, listen, I don't know where you're on your

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faith journey, but I follow Jesus. And I don't think it's by chance that we're here right now.

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I'm happy to buy coffee, but can I pray for you? And all of a sudden, the baristas are crying.

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Like literally, it's just like started crying. And, and, and, and in that moment, I prayed for

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them. And then the barista was like, Hey, like, thank you for, for, for doing that. I'm like, Hey,

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I'm so sorry that, you know, obviously they're having a bad day, but it's nothing against you.

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I think you're doing a great job. And, and, and like, in that moment, it's like, I could have very

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easily just stood there and stared at my phone. Like there's a lot of things I could have done,

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but I felt like the Lord kind of nudging me like Daniel, like you want to be the kind of person

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who wouldn't like, yeah, I see someone's upset. They're being rude, but let's not just kind of

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come down on them. That's like, they're hurting maybe, or maybe I would have said something. They

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would have just socked me in the jaw. I mean, who knows what would have happened, but like,

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that's the way it worked, but I want it, but it's like, no, I need to lean into that because

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what I'm finding is as the world becomes more messy and intense, the body of Christ needs to

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shine the light. The light functions the greatest in the darkness. But for so much, so many of my

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brothers and sisters in Christ, we're starting to get a little shady where we're kind of like

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taking that lamp and we're maybe sticking it in a basket or maybe we're just putting a lower wattage

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bulb in. And it's like, no, no, this is the time in the darkness. That's when the light gets all the

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work done. So let's so shine that light into this world that people see our good works and glorify

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our father in heaven. So now more than ever, I'm like, man, I want to see God do a revival

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and we need to lean in, not lean back. Yeah. I like what you did there with

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the barista. I mean, actually the customer who, you know, it's easy to give somebody like,

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I'm going to give this person a free drink whenever they're like, you can see that they're

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struggling with, you know, paying, they might not, they might look like they're not ready to,

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they might look like they can't afford it. But here you're going after somebody that has,

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you know, they've got seriously something going on. They're not acting right that you would want to

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reward that by giving them a free coffee, but God used that moment and you were obedient to the Holy

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Spirit to do that. And that changed the situation and you're able to witness to them. That's

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amazing. That's really, really cool. And that's something that I think we need to look for

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opportunities to do that because, you know, even if you're going to make it, we need to make sure

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that other people are going to make it too, because we're not an island, you know, you can't do this,

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this Christian life alone. We're not called to. And so we got to help each other out, whether you

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know that person or not. So, and so much of spiritual maturity is, you know, like it's like

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when a child is young, they need their parents to do everything for them. And then part of like

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their maturity is they start doing less and less things. They start doing more and more things and

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parents are doing less and less. Like I have an eight year old at home and she's like, dad, I can

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do this. And when she says that, I'm always like, okay, she should do that. I also have an 18 year

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old at home who I'm like, Hey buddy, you're 18. And so like, you don't need me to do this for you.

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And he's like, you're right, dad, sorry, I got this, you know? And so part of being someone who's

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spiritually multiplying in the world is, is inserting yourself in things and helping knowing

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that it won't always be that way, but you do that in the short term, knowing that, Hey, like, you

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know, we got, we have to, you know, crawl before we can walk. We have to walk before we can run.

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We have to run before we can run a marathon or run an iron man. And so, so, you know, so much of life,

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I think for the believers looking for those opportunities and saying, God, let me help.

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Every day, I'm like, Lord, let me, cause you just said the greatest in this kingdom is the servant

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of all. Right. And so a servant at the very least is someone who helps in it. So like, so every day

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I'm like, Lord, let me just help. Like, is there some situation I can help? And sometimes I try

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and help and I mess everything up. And that's kind of the beauty of the walk with Jesus where

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sometimes like, yeah, I shouldn't have done that that way. That wasn't exactly the best, but then

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you, but you don't, you don't stop doing it. You, you had that resilience. Like I got to keep going

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after I got to seek, uh, you know, forgiveness for how I messed that up and just keep going forward.

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Yeah. And I'm so grateful that, you know, God overcomes our failures. You know, if we're trying,

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he's still going to follow through with us and help us in that, even if we fail.

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And so I want to encourage people to check out, you're going to make it,

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unlocking resilience when life is a mess, um, which happens to be all the time. So you're,

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you're going to want to, uh, check this out. Uh, so pastor Daniel, how can people get a hold of this

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book and how can they get ahold of you? I know you, you've got a great YouTube channel. You've

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got your two minute messages that you do. Uh, tell us about how people can, they can follow you and

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get ahold of you and get the book. Yeah. So if anybody wants to connect with me, if you put my

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name in, uh, whatever, you know, platform you're looking at, I'm sure we have content there,

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obviously wherever you like to buy books, uh, there's, you know, the physical books,

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there's the eBooks. And if you think my voice is super sultry and you like audio books,

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I actually read the book for the audio book as well. So wherever you like to get books, uh,

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you can get it there. And literally I have different content, you know, whether it's podcast,

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I have TV, radio, all the different social platforms. And so, uh, just trying to do,

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to do my best to sprinkle a little, a little hope, uh, a lot of Jesus, uh, all over the place, uh,

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on the interwebs and all, and all the different platforms is trying to reach people for the, with,

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uh, with the name of Jesus. Amen. So that's Daniel Fusco, D-A-N-I-E-L F-U-S-C-O. And you can

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just look him up anywhere and you'll be able to find them. I did that before this interview and

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was able to find him pretty simply. Um, for those of you that are just listening, he's got these

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cool dreadlocks and he's got a great beard and, uh, he's got a great smile that you can tell that

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he really loves Jesus. And so I just want to encourage everybody to check out his book.

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Uh, you are going to make it. That's a great promise that we know that you are going to make

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it. And you know, even though, as we said at the beginning of this, that John 10, 10, the thief

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comes to steal, to kill and to destroy, but God has come that you might have life and life abundantly.

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So pastor Daniel, as we're wrapping up here, would you just pray for our audience here and,

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uh, bless them? Oh, I would love to. If you're able to shut your eyes, if not, if you're driving,

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just keep those eyes on the road, please Lord. I want to thank you for everyone who's listening

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to this. I thank you for John God. I ask more than anything that you would meet us in the messy

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situations Lord, and that you would help us to keep our, our, our minds drenched with hope, Lord,

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because you're a good God and you're the God of all hope. Like to remind people that hope has a

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name. His name is Jesus. And so Jesus, thank you for being the hope giver and, and God, will you

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help us to, to walk in that biblical grit? You want to make us more like Jesus and you don't want

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us to cut corners. So Lord, if any of us right now are cutting corners, Lord, will you just kind of

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hem us in, help us to amend our ways and more than anything, God, we want to know you. We want to

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walk with you. We want to be a filled and empowered by your spirit. So God lead us forward and Lord,

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in the midst of all of the sufferings and the fear and worry and the struggle and the stress,

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God, will you meet us and will you lead us in that way everlasting? So God be glorified in and

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through our lives. And we ask it all in the powerful name of Jesus. And we all agreed and said together.

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Amen. Amen. Amen. You are going to make it. You're going to make it by Daniel Fusco. Check it out,

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go to his social media, his website. You'll be able to find that information there. Daniel,

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it's been a pleasure talking to you here on the Charisma News Podcast. This has been John Matarazzo.

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God bless you.