SPEAKER_0 [00:00:00]
Hey there. This is Lemon. First, thank you so much for taking the time to listen to John and Mai's podcast.
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:06]
I still find it a little surreal that anyone besides John's sister Elizabeth tunes in each week.
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:11]
So we are hot on the hills of Advent, which means Christmas is not too far behind.
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:16]
Advent reminds us that Jesus is coming via a manger in Bethlehem,
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:20]
and we rejoice with the whole Christian church at this miracle.
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:23]
God made manifest for us.
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:26]
It's common this time of year to have a special emphasis on giving back. In that spirit, John and I wanted to take the opportunity from now until the end of the year to raise support for our friend, pastor Joel Fritchie, and his family who are serving in The Dominican Republic.
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:41]
Here's the deal though. As awesome as it would be for us to just say, hey, go give some holiday cheer to Fritzy via your checkbook.
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:49]
We want to sweeten the deal.
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:51]
So the first 25 folks who donate $50 or more and let us know about it, either via Twitter,
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:57]
Facebook, or email, will receive a complimentary three by three life with a twist of lemon sticker from Sticker Mule as a thank you from us for your donation.
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:08]
Oh, but it gets better.
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:10]
I will also personally match any donation that we know about up to $1,000.
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:17]
You can donate direct to pastor Fritzschi at l c m s dot o r g
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:23]
slash
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:24]
f r I t
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:26]
s c h e.
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:28]
That's l c m s dot o r g slash f r I t
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:34]
s c h e or swingby twistoflemonpod.com,
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:39]
and we'll link to it on our front page.
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:41]
All donations are a 100% tax deductible,
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:45]
which means that even if you don't like Fritzsche or even John or I for that matter, you still win. Stickers and tax deductions.
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:53]
What's more not to love? If you donate and you want a sticker or just for the donation to be matched, let us know by sending us a screenshot showing you donated.
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:02]
There's more info on the website, and thanks again for listening, and enjoy the show.
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:08]
Dramas,
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:09]
please.
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:22]
Yeah.
SPEAKER_1 [00:02:29]
This is life.
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:30]
With a twist of lemon. So, John, how's the snow out there?
SPEAKER_1 [00:02:35]
So there is no snow in Cedar Rapids.
SPEAKER_1 [00:02:38]
You drive thirty minutes south, and I think they got eight inches of snow.
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:43]
So
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:45]
I I just
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:46]
I'm not bitter. I wanna be upfront, but I just wanna make sure I understand. Would you have been hit by snow
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:54]
if you had left Louisville on Sunday as planned?
SPEAKER_1 [00:02:57]
I would have.
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:59]
Okay.
SPEAKER_1 [00:03:00]
Alright. Across 80.
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:03]
The dear listener
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:05]
for the dear listener, you were going to leave Louisville on Sunday and come up and stop by our house to play some board games,
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:13]
maybe
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:14]
have a milkshake,
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:16]
and then you're gonna head back home. But you due to weather.
SPEAKER_1 [00:03:20]
Right. Went home early. I should have stopped on Tuesday nightstand.
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:23]
That's what I should have done. Did you feel guilty when you got to the state line?
SPEAKER_1 [00:03:28]
I did. What? I really felt guilty when I woke up, and there wasn't
SPEAKER_1 [00:03:33]
a bunch of snow on the ground.
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:35]
Well, rejoice, dear brother. You're forgiven.
SPEAKER_1 [00:03:39]
Will tell you It sounds like you have enough going on where, it might have been a blessing in disguise.
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:45]
Well, I so I will tell you this.
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:48]
So so two things. One, we were gonna make chicken tortilla soup, the New York Times recipe that, I don't think we've made for you yet. Correct? I don't I don't believe I've had that one. No. Yeah. That that one will blow your mind. Like, it is just a really good soup.
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:02]
And
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:03]
we do some, like, cheesy tostadas on the side and things of that sort.
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:06]
We I I ran out of the grocery store, got all these things in prep for y'all because I didn't think that your father-in-law would be too comfortable with the idea
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:14]
of more leftover turkey.
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:17]
We made the soup despite y'all not stopping by, and I just want you to know it was amazing.
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:24]
So
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:25]
someday,
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:26]
when you make it out here, spend the night, we will do the New York Times chicken tortilla recipe
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:32]
soup.
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:34]
Alright.
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:35]
Sounds good.
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:36]
It's been a crazy year.
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:38]
It has been a crazy year. When you I was gonna spend the whole
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:42]
When I called yesterday?
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:44]
Yeah. I was actually painting. So it was the I I got I almost lost my mind painting. So if you had stopped, it wouldn't have been the end of the world. I just would have probably stunk and been covered in paint. So there's that.
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:56]
Right.
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:57]
See, you got stuff going on. And then if you perfect your painting skills, you can come help me paint some rooms.
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:05]
No. I don't know, John. Do you like to do you like to do trim work? Because that's the thing that's, killing me right now. I can do trim work. I don't love to paint. I don't hate to paint. But
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:15]
I I genuinely enjoy the roller work. Like, I I Right. That's right. Cathartic. Is that the right how I say how I say it? Cathartic?
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:23]
Anyhow, you know what I mean? It's Sure. It's soothing to me to do the roller work, but the trim work, I I literally wanna scream, and I'm I may have once or twice yesterday.
SPEAKER_1 [00:05:36]
So Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:37]
On that note, we've totally digressed. This is not the intro intended. I intended to say,
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:43]
hey. We finally made it to the twentieth episode where we were going to do the fritchy thing.
SPEAKER_1 [00:05:49]
Woo hoo. The fritchy thing for the sticky purple lilac colored squares.
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:56]
Yeah. Yeah. So,
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:58]
you know, if you're if you made it this far,
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:01]
you survived
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:03]
the Chris we're calling Christmas intro, whatever you wanna call it, and then, you know, our usual musical thing. And now you're here, and you're probably wondering, like, tell me a little bit more about
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:12]
about this. So here's here's, like, the the nitty gritty. Right?
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:16]
You didn't stop by, so you didn't get to see him. You also didn't get to take your complimentary
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:20]
stickers. So, you know, you missed out on that. No. I missed out. We got we
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:25]
got, our little podcast art made
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:29]
into stickers by Sticker Mule. They're three by three,
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:33]
you know, stickers,
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:35]
and I applied one to my work laptop already.
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:38]
Nice. Now do you put the sticker directly on the laptop, or do you have a case?
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:43]
So I have never put a sticker on a laptop before
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:47]
this one.
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:49]
Wow.
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:50]
I very deliberately chose to put it on my work laptop rather than my personal laptop.
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:55]
Alright. So it is it is directly on there. And I will say this,
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:00]
it it is right over the Apple logo.
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:03]
So it's smack dab middle. I debated on where to put it, and I don't know if you remember, but Mac laptops, they used to glow. The Apple logo would glow. They don't do that anymore. I know. It's sad. Yeah. I I felt less, I don't know, dirty about it, but I I put it right there. Heading to Atlanta tomorrow. Everybody and their mother's gonna see it, and, yeah, I I think they turned out pretty well. You know, I think
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:25]
the next time we do it, we'll make the smaller text a little more bold, but I don't know. They're they're slick little stickers,
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:33]
and they can be yours,
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:34]
dear listener.
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:37]
When
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:38]
when did you first meet pastor Fritzsche?
SPEAKER_1 [00:07:41]
I first met pastor Fritzsche in 2008
SPEAKER_1 [00:07:45]
maybe
SPEAKER_1 [00:07:46]
at Higher Things Conferences when he was an admissions counselor for the seminary.
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:51]
Yep. Okay. So I met him a little bit before that down in Houston
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:55]
back while I was visiting our friend Borghardt.
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:58]
It's just like in passing though, and then I got to know him a little bit later, you know, through the seminary connection.
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:04]
But he I'm trying to think now how many years ago this was. He took the call down to be a missionary
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:09]
in the Dominican Republic. Do do you remember was this, like I feel like it's been a while. Four or five years? Yeah. I'm saying four.
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:16]
Okay. Let's stick with that. We probably should ask him. So he's down there. Right?
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:20]
And if I remember right, wasn't he on the south part of the island to start with?
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:25]
Santo Domingo. Is that where he was? I don't know. I don't know. I think about the Dominican Republic. Because if I remember right, he started off on the opposite side of the capital.
SPEAKER_1 [00:08:34]
Right.
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:36]
And the
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:37]
so he was he was doing, you know, missionary work down there,
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:41]
and at some point, he got called to
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:46]
help out with the seminary. They're really kinda kick start the seminary to train pastors in the region. So rather than, you know, like, ship all your pastors to The United States,
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:56]
teach them about Jesus in English, and then ship them back into the countries they came from to,
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:02]
you know, preach and teach Jesus in their native tongue, Spanish. Right? In this case, they you know, the the powers that be determined
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:11]
seminary in the Dominican Republic made a lot of sense and, you know, gave that that responsibility to pastor Fritzsche. And have you seen him do his seminary presentation
SPEAKER_1 [00:09:21]
that he's had? I have not. I have not seen the pre official presentation. I've talked to him about stuff he's doing, but never seen the official thing. It's it's pretty cool. I'm not gonna do it justice, but I'll say this. They've got
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:33]
they have a building there where the First Floor is for mercy care. And what I mean by that is if if I recall,
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:39]
it's special needs individuals. It's a it's a residence type facility, and they've got a garden out back
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:45]
that some of the residents help with, the seminarians help with. The seminarians
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:50]
live up the hill
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:51]
in a in a house,
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:53]
together kinda like, you know, dormitory style,
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:56]
and then their classrooms are in this building
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:59]
above the the kind of the Mercy Care Floor. And again, I'm I'm totally botching my explanation.
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:04]
But what what I think is neat is they've got all of these,
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:08]
young men who are being formed in the pastures,
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:11]
who have, you know, moved to the Dominican Republic. They are actively engaged with the people in the Dominican,
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:17]
and, you know, just learn about Jesus so they can bring Jesus to,
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:21]
you know, the the people in their their native countries. So I think I think it's pretty cool. I don't actually know how pastor Fritzsche survives
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:29]
because,
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:30]
like,
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:30]
he's got he has to raise money for himself to do this missionary work.
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:35]
And, you know, like, it's not it's not cheap to live. Right? It's not cheap to live in a in another country. You gotta raise funds to cover
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:43]
your health insurance and your family's health insurance plus, you know, to put food on the table so you can minister to all these people who, at the end of the day, probably are not putting in big fat checks in the plate. Right?
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:54]
Right. So,
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:56]
you know, my family for a long time has
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:58]
kept pastor Fritzsche not only in our prayers, but also in our pocketbooks.
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:03]
So we've made we've we've made regular contributions,
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:06]
and we kinda,
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:08]
you know, thinking about our podcast. We're at the twentieth episode. We're getting into Christmas time.
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:13]
It just seemed like maybe this was a way that we could, you know, get some get some support for our friend.
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:22]
Guess that's where the stickers come in. Right, John?
SPEAKER_1 [00:11:25]
Yeah. So you
SPEAKER_1 [00:11:27]
talked about this at the beginning.
SPEAKER_1 [00:11:29]
We'll do that pre
SPEAKER_1 [00:11:31]
show intro kinda the same thing for the next several weeks, through Christmas at least.
SPEAKER_1 [00:11:39]
So, yeah, it's what? If they give $50 or more and either
SPEAKER_1 [00:11:44]
send us a screenshot via Twitter, email, or something else, then
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:48]
Facebook. A sticker. Yeah. Don't put it on Reddit. We won't see it. But yeah. I mean, basically, you you give $50,
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:56]
and you let us know where to send. You you gotta, like, prove it. Right? Like, you know, I I don't just a screenshot, whatever. Hey. You gave $50.
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:02]
And,
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:04]
give me your address, and I will send you one of these
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:07]
beautiful three by three life with a twist of lemon
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:11]
stickers that we had made from Sticker Mule.
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:13]
But wait, there's more.
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:15]
I'm going to match every donation up to the first thousand dollars that we get. And I I honestly don't know. I'm I'm hopeful. I don't know if we'll get to a thousand dollars. I really hope we do. I would love that. If people only give $50,
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:29]
how many people is that? 25 folks will get us to a thousand dollars. So first 25. Right? Did I do that right? That doesn't sound right. When it would be '20, wouldn't '20. Yeah. 20. But we're doing stickers for the first 25. That's what it is. Right. So first 25, you get a sticker. The first if you, you know, 20 people give $50,
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:48]
then all that money will get matched. But basically, a thousand dollars, if you only give a buck, I'll still match that. But if you give $50, I'll not only match it, but I'll also get you a sticker. So, you know, that's cool. You put it in your laptop on your favorite notebook, whatever. I I don't really care. It's a nice sticker,
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:04]
and there aren't that many of them. So, you know, like, it's kinda unique. Right? Right.
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:10]
And in my heart of hearts, we're gonna we're gonna make this happen.
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:13]
And,
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:15]
you know, it'll be awesome. I don't Maybe, like, we he doesn't know we're gonna do this. I don't think he listens to the podcast. I assume he's gonna hit Thursday.
SPEAKER_1 [00:13:23]
We're gonna tag him on Facebook,
SPEAKER_1 [00:13:25]
and then he might find out.
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:27]
Yeah. So, hey, pastor Fritzy.
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:30]
Tag. You're it. No. No. So here's here's the thing though. Right? Like, I I'd love to love to hit the full match. That's really the goal, and unloading the stickers is is cool along the way. And and I think I think I said this in the intro. I recorded the intro couple weeks ago. But basically, like, I if if you don't if you're not into the whole Lutheran thing or the Dominican Republic thing or just the missionary thing, that's fine. I you know, whatever. Like, you do you. But it's a tax deductible donation. Right? So you go to and again, this is in the intro, we're gonna have a page on our website. Right, John?
SPEAKER_1 [00:14:02]
Right. I need to get to work on that. Yeah. You do. So,
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:06]
basically, you you donate online. It's a five zero one c three, so you get to mark it off on your taxes at the end of the year. So it's it's a double whammy. Right? Like, if if you don't even care about the Lutheran mission field and you just want the sticker, that's cool. You know, write off on your taxes, and I'll send you the sticker. So
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:24]
I'll let you donation. So there you go. We'll say twistoflemonpod.com/fritchie.
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:31]
There we go. Fritsche.
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:35]
Yep. And we'll we'll link to it on the front page or something like that. We'll probably list it on Twitter, Facebook. I'll put it put it in the nav bar. And and here's the thing. If you like, we we've not gone into a lot of depth about, like, what he's doing and all that jazz, and we can definitely talk about that in the future. But if you've got questions,
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:50]
by all means, hit us up. I think we've got a pretty fast response time on Facebook Messenger,
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:55]
and, you know, we respond to the tweets. So you can track down our emails. That's fine. Whatever.
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:01]
By all means, hit us up with a question if you wanna, you know, learn a little bit more about what's going on or if you're just really curious to see what the stickers look like when applied to a laptop.
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:11]
Yeah. That's fine. Just a question. There you go. Let us know.
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:15]
Was trying to Awesome, man. I was trying to remember, like, I I I can't so I took Spanish in high school, but I was terrible.
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:21]
And I was trying to remember how to pronounce things. So did you ever take Spanish, or were you a German guy? I failed Spanish, if that counts.
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:28]
Okay. Well
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:31]
alright. On that note, so the the seminary is Seminario Concordia El Reformador
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:37]
Republica Dominica,
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:38]
which is a mouthful. And pastor Fritzsche can say it really, really fast and smooth. It's just, like, silky smooth.
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:44]
But, that's that's basically Concordia Seminary,
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:48]
of the reformer,
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:49]
which, you know, it's like the Lutheran thing. Concordia is like a it's a Lutheran word that we tend to use a lot. And then Republica Dominica, obviously, Dominican Republic.
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:58]
Seminarians there, if I recall, he's got them from, like, Spain, Mexico,
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:04]
a whole bunch of places in in South America. Like, the whole whole kinda
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:09]
Atlantic Coastline is encompassed
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:11]
in terms of who they serve. And, you know, if I recall right,
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:17]
pastor Fritzsche,
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:18]
the what what he what he said was that if the church bodies in these countries get their seminarians to the island,
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:25]
then, you know, the seminary figures out how to take care of it from there, which is kinda cool. So you think about that too. Like, your dollars are helping support those young men,
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:34]
as well as, you know, the the people that are being served directly
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:38]
at the parish, which he serves.
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:40]
And I think
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:42]
what is he? He's in Palmar Arriba,
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:44]
which is in the Santiago Province. So if that means something to you, my geography of the island, pretty bad. But yeah. There you go. We should go visit sometime.
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:54]
We should. We and we should record
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:56]
on the island, John. Right. We could do a live
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:00]
on the island episode. We could even, like, have pastor Fritzsche. So here's one of the things. Maybe we should set this as a long term goal. Maybe if we get to episode a 100, we'll go to the island, and we'll record an episode where we discuss
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:13]
Dominican Republic
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:14]
milkshakes.
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:16]
I wonder if they have any. They've got to. How can they not? That's Pina colada is only thing we'll have to ask pastor Fritzsche.
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:23]
Do they do they have do
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:25]
they have milkshakes? Milkshakes.
SPEAKER_1 [00:17:27]
Alright.
SPEAKER_1 [00:17:28]
Anyway,
SPEAKER_1 [00:17:29]
donate. Pastor Fritzsche is awesome. Good guy. Doing good work. And you get a life with twist of lemon sticker for a donation of $50 or more.
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:38]
I'll put a picture of my laptop on the Facebook page so everybody can see it. Awesome. Kinda gleam.
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:44]
I think I know how to post a picture. We'll figure it out. It's pretty intuitive.
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:49]
Well, I don't spend that much time on Facebook, John. It doesn't matter. You use a computer.
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:54]
Well, that's debatable too.
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:56]
Very debatable.
SPEAKER_1 [00:17:58]
Anyways
SPEAKER_1 [00:17:59]
You ready to shift gears? Yeah. It looks like now we have bad news.
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:03]
Yeah, man. Alright. So, also, if you were not if you were not looking for a theology podcast, you probably
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:10]
might have stumbled out here. But, unfortunately, today, or maybe fortunately, depending on your perspective, we're gonna do a little theology.
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:16]
So I was in I was in church today, and, I was in bible study beforehand,
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:21]
and we're reading through Exodus.
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:23]
And there's,
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:25]
I
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:26]
don't know if if you remember in Exodus 15, the bitter water made sweet, that whole thing.
SPEAKER_1 [00:18:34]
Not really. What's the greater context?
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:37]
So it's after the song of Moses. It's it's after, you know, they've they've left Egypt
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:43]
Right. Crossed the Red Sea. So it's a little little bit after the Red Sea. Think the Red Sea is chapter 14.
SPEAKER_1 [00:18:48]
And 20 is Sinai. Right?
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:52]
That sounds right. So we're not quite to the 10 commandments,
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:55]
but they're, you know, they're they're dealing with their their faithful faithlessness
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:59]
on the way there.
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:01]
So I I don't know if you saw CPH, Concordia Publishing House, the publishing house wing of our
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:10]
interesting church body. They
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:13]
they they did that whole Lutheran Study Bible thing a couple years back, and they had a big sale recently.
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:19]
And against my better judgment,
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:21]
I went ahead and I purchased
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:23]
another copy of the Lutheran Study Bible. And I say against my better judgment because I have a love hate relationship with this thing. I think you're you're vaguely aware. Right. I never bought one because I was angry with one of the editors.
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:34]
But Yeah. It's well, I don't know, man. Like,
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:38]
you can get me all started on, like, CPH and their their social media bullying.
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:43]
But
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:44]
if I don't digress on that topic too long here,
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:48]
there are these moments in which the notes, the study notes, which is the whole reason you buy this particular edition of the study bible, they just go way out in left field and, like, straight up deny
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:00]
the scriptures, right, and the divinity of the scriptures in in ways that leave me dumbfounded.
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:06]
And I had one of those today. So, you you know, the the long and short of it is
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:11]
the Israelites are marching through the the desert or whatever, and they drink some water and it's bitter, and so they complain about it, but they got water. Right? Like, you know, it's a good thing. So Moses takes a hunk of wood, tosses it in there, and it becomes sweet. And so, you know, I do I do what I do, and I look down, and this is this is Exodus fifteen twenty three,
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:32]
which here, let me see if I can read it. When
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:36]
they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter. Therefore, it was named Marah. You know, real
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:43]
real impactful passage. So I scroll down just to let know because It means bitterness, Mara does. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. So so here's the thing. My pastor is like, it's bitter because it's they're they're drinking their sin. Right? They're they're suffering. This is the long suffering on the way to the promised land, and the Israelites are are whining and just doubting the Lord and and doubting the Lord being faithful
SPEAKER_1 [00:21:06]
and and all that. So your pastor's type typologist.
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:10]
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He is. Typologist. Google that. So here's the thing. Right? Like, it it sounds all good to me. He's got this whole, you know, the the hunk of wood points us to the tree on Good Friday. He throws it in the water. The water goes from bitter to sweet because,
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:24]
you know, human
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:26]
flesh is redeemed there on the cross at Golgotha. It's great. Like, I'm I'm I'm just loving it. And then I scroll down,
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:32]
and and I'm thinking to myself too, like, bitterness,
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:35]
this being sin, these are not, like, foreign concepts.
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:38]
This this is, like, this is pretty Lutheran all around. Right? And then what do I get? Lot lots of people don't like typology, though.
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:46]
Well and clearly, the editors of the Lutheran Study Bible don't because they wrote, it probably contained
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:52]
excuse me. It probably contained dissolved minerals
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:55]
that gave the water a disagreeable taste.
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:58]
Not that the Lord God just made it bitter because, you know, of of their their suffering on the way to to Sinai.
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:04]
No. No. No.
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:05]
It's the middle composition.
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:07]
And I had this I had this red allergy moment, John,
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:10]
because it's the same book, right, as the as the infamous. Yeah. So probably the same author of the study notes. Very well could be. And and so, like, my blood's boiling,
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:20]
And this is the thing that drives me nuts. This this study bible,
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:24]
which has, at various points in time,
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:27]
second guessed,
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:28]
like, the the power and divinity of God, and have doubted
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:33]
the miracles of the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:35]
So, you know, I like, wherever you stand theologically,
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:38]
you either look at the scriptures, and they mean what they say or they don't. And, yes, there's there's, like,
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:44]
room for interpretation on on what they mean when they say certain things that are ambiguous,
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:50]
but the water's bitter. And if you decide to, like, start,
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:54]
you know, postulating
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:55]
on the mineral composition,
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:57]
you're just making stuff up, and you're, like, you're, like, talking away
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:01]
from the divinity of the scriptures.
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:03]
So
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:04]
this got me worked up, and I I had to go back and because I you know, I'm in the moment. Right? I go back, and I look at the infamous
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:12]
red algae
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:14]
reference. Do do you remember the red algae reference?
SPEAKER_1 [00:23:16]
Right. So during the plagues, which would have been, what, five chapters earlier?
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:23]
Yes.
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:23]
So seven.
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:25]
Seven. Not not that I have it up or am trying to find
SPEAKER_1 [00:23:32]
So,
SPEAKER_1 [00:23:33]
you know, the Nile turns into blood,
SPEAKER_1 [00:23:36]
and
SPEAKER_1 [00:23:38]
then
SPEAKER_1 [00:23:39]
I don't I've never actually seen the footnote in the study bible because I never bought one.
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:44]
Alright. Let me see if I can find because the so here's the here's what I learned today.
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:50]
I don't I don't know if you remember. I might have posted, like, a review on amazon.com
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:55]
or or something that might have upset some people about this particular thing.
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:01]
Do you recall this at all, John?
SPEAKER_1 [00:24:05]
I I recall
SPEAKER_1 [00:24:07]
lots of stuff.
SPEAKER_1 [00:24:09]
I feel like this has come up more than once.
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:13]
Okay. Here we go. Verse 17.
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:15]
Alright. So,
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:17]
let me read the actual verse,
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:20]
which says something to the effect, thus says the lord, by this you shall know that I am the lord. Behold, with the staff that is in my hand, I will strike the water that is in the Nile, and it shall turn into blood.
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:32]
What shall happen to the water, John?
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:34]
It shall turn into blood. Right. So in the original printing, and this is an important detail here, in the original printing of the Lutheran Study Bible on verse 17, there was a note, my hand, Moses and Aaron are god's servants,
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:48]
turn into blood. The same sense as in I think this is Joel two thirty one where the moon is to be turned into blood. Thus, it was not a chemical change into real blood. Wait. Wait. What?
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:59]
Thus, it was not a chemical change into real blood, but a change in appearance
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:05]
possibly because of red algae. So, John, if something doesn't actually change but is only in appearance,
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:13]
would it be blood?
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:15]
No.
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:16]
So here's the thing. Verse 17,
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:18]
as far as I'm concerned,
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:20]
the note there, straight up
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:23]
denial
SPEAKER_1 [00:25:24]
of the scriptures. Right? Especially as you read the next four verses where all
SPEAKER_1 [00:25:31]
the water in the Nile turned into blood.
SPEAKER_1 [00:25:34]
Now I never took Hebrew,
SPEAKER_1 [00:25:36]
but
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:38]
turned into blood, and I I did, John. I took Hebrew. Yeah. He did. Blood.
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:44]
So so here's the thing. Like, you may be thinking, what in the world would have dear Stan Lemmon jumping into his Lutheran Study Bible as soon as he got it and checking verses seven seventeen of the book of Exodus? And I will tell you why, John, because I had an Old Testament professor who, with the previous Study Bible, the Concordia Self Study Bible, had us actually turn to this study note and cross it out. Nice. He insisted everybody
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:08]
in class cross it out. So, of course, I checked it. Right? Right. Now here's the thing though. Did they change it? I've got that I've got that new study bubble. Yeah. And I went And those faith those faithless slugs,
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:20]
who edited the note on '17 came back, and they wrote,
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:23]
my hand, Moses and Aaron are god's servants. Same. Turn into blood. Moses gives us a historical description of god miraculously
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:32]
changing the water of the Nile into actual blood.
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:35]
Moses frequently uses the Hebrew word for blood and always in a literal sense,
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:41]
never figuratively.
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:43]
Denying that the Nile turned to blood opens the door to denying Jesus changed water into wine into John two.
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:51]
So so okay. Let's let's just compare that. I'm gonna read the old one again
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:56]
one more time. This is the one that made it through doctrinal review at Concordia Publishing House.
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:03]
The same sense as in Joel two thirty one, where the moon is to be turned into blood. Thus, it was not a chemical change into real blood, but a change in appearance possibly because of red algae.
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:13]
So
SPEAKER_1 [00:27:16]
I will say this. Props to CPH for doubling down on fixing that.
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:22]
Yeah. But
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:23]
what about what about all the other crappy notes in this bible that outright deny,
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:30]
the godhead?
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:31]
Right.
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:32]
So my blood coagulated in bible study.
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:35]
CPH thinks my pastor's wrong. It's just minerals.
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:39]
But, at least at least they don't, think
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:42]
at least they don't think the Nile was red because of algae.
SPEAKER_1 [00:27:45]
Well, I'm glad they fixed that note.
SPEAKER_1 [00:27:47]
I didn't I did not know that. So Yeah. I didn't either, and that's the thing. That seems like a good marketing tactic for CPH. So and Bruce Kins listens to this because we talk about CPH in the description.
SPEAKER_1 [00:27:59]
Kudos on changing that note.
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:02]
And Yeah. Maybe maybe you should have broadcast that one a little there, Bruce. Right.
SPEAKER_1 [00:28:07]
Might buy one thing for that fix. We've now talked about CPH. You realize that there is social media bullying in our future because that's that's what the leadership of CPH does. But you know what, Stan? We're free. I also hear that you were nominated for the CPH board of directors at the next convention.
SPEAKER_1 [00:28:22]
So if you're a delegate to the LCMS synodical convention,
SPEAKER_1 [00:28:26]
vote Stan Lemmon for the CPH board of directors
SPEAKER_1 [00:28:29]
to fix the bible footnotes.
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:32]
I am so glad you have a sense of humor, John.
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:36]
Don't know if you'll make it through nominations committee and actually be on the ballot, but you were nominated. Not a chance. There's not a chance. There's not a chance. So here here's the thing. Right? To come full circle and to kinda take it down a notch,
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:48]
What frustrates me the most is, like, this is this is the study bible that all of our pastors are fearlessly recommending,
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:55]
and they've got these, like, ticking time bombs buried in these notes.
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:59]
And and you just don't know you just don't know what what you're gonna stumble into. And then I've got like, I look over, and Lucy so desperately wants a self or a a Lutheran Study Bible because, you know, it's it's pretty. It's got all this additional detail, and she wants to learn. And I wanna be excited for it, but I at the same time, I'm like, look, kid, Honestly,
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:17]
you might you might just be better with the ESV version that's got the, like, kid pictures in it. I I feel like there's less that could go wrong there. You know? Yep.
SPEAKER_1 [00:29:26]
And So So for our non Christian listeners, non Lutheran listeners, if you are looking for a church to attend or looking to learn more,
SPEAKER_1 [00:29:35]
find
SPEAKER_1 [00:29:36]
yourself a good pastor
SPEAKER_1 [00:29:38]
whose focus is always on Jesus Christ crucified
SPEAKER_1 [00:29:42]
for you,
SPEAKER_1 [00:29:43]
and that will be worth far more than any footnotes that you can read in a book,
SPEAKER_1 [00:29:49]
because he will help you read the scriptures in a Christological way
SPEAKER_1 [00:29:53]
for the most part. Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:56]
Alright.
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:57]
Time to talk tech. That's a lot of Lutheranism for a podcast that's not about theology. It's true. But you were angry. And, hey, we love Joel Fritsche.
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:06]
We do. We do. Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:09]
I hope man, can you imagine? But I hope that poor guy doesn't like it to the second segment there. He's like, holy crap. I gotta distance myself from these boneheads.
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:18]
What
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:20]
are you gonna do? Money's money. Right? Right. Take it to the bank.
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:24]
So I gave up on Gmail this week. That was what I did over Thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:28]
Interesting.
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:29]
Yeah. I'm I'm totally done, man. I I deleted all my email
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:33]
off their servers. Granted, they probably have 50,000 backups, but I just I'm done. I still have the email addresses. They're gonna forward to my live dot com address,
SPEAKER_1 [00:30:42]
which yes, John It's a mic that is the old Hotmail.
SPEAKER_1 [00:30:46]
But
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:49]
yeah. I'm I'm just over it, man. I don't know.
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:53]
I I I think I think it's so I've I've had this love hate relationship ever since they stopped doing push notifications
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:59]
to
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:00]
Apple Mail. Do you remember when this happened? This is, like, five years ago.
SPEAKER_1 [00:31:04]
Maybe. But didn't you turn off all notifications?
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:08]
Well, I so for personal email, I still let those come through because truthfully, I don't get that much email. Nice. Like, I I I really don't.
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:15]
And the stuff that I get my personal email, the stuff that I get is,
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:20]
you know, usually pretty important or or, like, something I wanna actually see in near real time.
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:26]
So I'm okay with those. K. And the problem is they're on, a, you know, fifteen minute polling interval or whatever, because Gmail
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:34]
doesn't support push anymore over Right. Their
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:38]
their thing. And this I I remember when this changed,
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:41]
because you used to have to set up Gmail as an exchange account Right. And you could get push,
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:47]
but now that doesn't work.
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:48]
So that that that kinda, like, in the back of my head, teased this idea that Google was not the best place for me to store my email.
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:57]
And I haven't I mean, I don't use any other Google products. I've kinda got, like, a rash
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:01]
in terms of of my reaction to Google.
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:05]
They're they're good people that work at Google. Google does awesome stuff. I just don't like being the product.
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:11]
And I know that's a Steve not Steve. That's a Tim Cook
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:15]
reference. If you're not familiar with it, you should Google it because it's kind of an interesting little dig.
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:20]
But I I even, as of late, have switched to using Bing
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:24]
for search.
SPEAKER_1 [00:32:26]
Can you believe that, John? Not really. You know, Google has kinda made me angry recently too because they changed,
SPEAKER_1 [00:32:34]
access to their Maps JavaScript API.
SPEAKER_1 [00:32:37]
So, like, you know, all those contact pages you go to, and there's this nice map of where the office is located?
SPEAKER_1 [00:32:43]
Yeah. So if you
SPEAKER_1 [00:32:45]
have a whole bunch of those on different sites or if you get a whole lot of traffic on your one site, they start charging you after a certain number of uses per month,
SPEAKER_1 [00:32:56]
for that maps API.
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:59]
So if you don't have a lot of visitors,
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:01]
no problem. But if people start going to your site,
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:05]
Google's gonna cash in. Right. And
SPEAKER_1 [00:33:08]
if you're, say, an agency that builds a bunch of websites,
SPEAKER_1 [00:33:12]
now you have to make the owner and talk them through this not very intuitive prog
SPEAKER_1 [00:33:17]
process to generate a Google Maps API key
SPEAKER_1 [00:33:20]
because
SPEAKER_1 [00:33:21]
eventually, that all adds up for the agency.
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:25]
Can you are you able to, like, create an email address
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:30]
that you own for the agency and generate individual tokens that way?
SPEAKER_1 [00:33:35]
Am I able to
SPEAKER_1 [00:33:37]
so give me an example.
SPEAKER_1 [00:33:39]
I don't think I follow. So
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:41]
let's say, you know,
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:43]
your your marketing company is handling marketing for a podcast,
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:47]
like Life With a Twisted Lemon. Right. Could you make, you know, Life With a Twisted Lemon at john'smarketingcompany.com
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:55]
and use that and create an individualized token that way?
SPEAKER_1 [00:33:59]
Yeah.
SPEAKER_1 [00:34:00]
But you would still run the traffic or call
SPEAKER_1 [00:34:04]
limit on that.
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:06]
For for the individual client. It it only becomes a problem as they like
SPEAKER_1 [00:34:10]
If they
SPEAKER_1 [00:34:12]
or Google. Well,
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:15]
I mean, I think it if you're doing I guess it's a it's a double edged sword. Right? Like, if you're a good marketer, you're gonna drive additional traffic, invariably,
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:23]
it becomes a thing for you. Right. I wonder, have you looked at, Open Maps at all? I have not.
SPEAKER_1 [00:34:29]
A lot of this, like, WordPress plugins have this Google Map integration built in. You just paste the API key in. But I am
SPEAKER_1 [00:34:38]
looking for alternatives
SPEAKER_1 [00:34:39]
that will hopefully get me the same result.
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:43]
I feel like that's I I I just don't know
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:46]
enough about how it's hosted or what, like, what type of embed
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:50]
options there are, but I feel like that's gotta be not OpenMaps. OpenStreetMap,
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:55]
which I think
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:56]
doesn't Strava use that? Am I misremembering that? They might.
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:01]
Yeah. I feel like that could be a possibility. So,
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:04]
basically, if if,
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:06]
you know, I recall OpenStreetMap
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:08]
is supposed to be, like, an an open source mapping solution
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:13]
to compete with Google. It's very hard to compete with a machine as large as Google. Right.
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:17]
But I it could be worth looking at, especially, you know, your customers as they kinda cap over.
SPEAKER_1 [00:35:23]
Out of curiosity, how many requests is it that that Google limits you to? Oh, I don't know. It hasn't been a problem for me yet, but we did start switching over to
SPEAKER_1 [00:35:33]
having the client generate a
SPEAKER_1 [00:35:37]
API key.
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:39]
Yeah. See, again, I kinda wonder rather than have the client do it, just set up a separate email address until they Yeah. Until they bubble up Until they do it all. Be big. Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:48]
I mean, it's transparent to them.
SPEAKER_1 [00:35:51]
What am I looking for? Web.
SPEAKER_1 [00:35:56]
So you get 25,000
SPEAKER_1 [00:35:58]
map loads per day.
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:01]
Man, it seems like a lot. Yeah.
SPEAKER_1 [00:36:04]
Now if you have it on every page
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:09]
or something like that Then yeah. And especially if you've got,
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:13]
am I gonna say this right, John? A low bounce rate? Right.
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:18]
So the meaning like, a low bounce rate would mean that someone comes to your site, and they stay there for a while. They click around, look at a couple different pages
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:26]
rather than,
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:29]
you know, go and then close the window or go and navigate off-site to something else?
SPEAKER_1 [00:36:34]
So for the web, for the maps, JavaScript API, map static API, and street view API,
SPEAKER_1 [00:36:40]
that's the number. So I imagine it's those three combined.
SPEAKER_1 [00:36:43]
And then it's 50¢ for a thousand additional map loads up to a 100,000
SPEAKER_1 [00:36:49]
daily if billing is enabled.
SPEAKER_1 [00:36:52]
Then there's a premium thing that I don't really know what's all involved.
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:56]
And I wonder what happens
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:58]
when like, to the the
SPEAKER_0 [00:37:01]
advertisements in Google Maps. If as you pay,
SPEAKER_0 [00:37:05]
I would think that maybe they tone it down a bit.
SPEAKER_1 [00:37:10]
May I don't know that advertisements
SPEAKER_1 [00:37:12]
actually appear using the API
SPEAKER_0 [00:37:16]
Okay. For JavaScript.
SPEAKER_1 [00:37:18]
And then there's, like, web services
SPEAKER_1 [00:37:20]
for, like, geolocation,
SPEAKER_1 [00:37:21]
geocoding,
SPEAKER_1 [00:37:22]
directions, things like that. That's only 2,500
SPEAKER_1 [00:37:26]
requests per day.
SPEAKER_0 [00:37:28]
Okay. And I can definitely see
SPEAKER_0 [00:37:30]
burning through that. But Yeah. So
SPEAKER_1 [00:37:35]
that's what it is. Wow. I'm just why are you gonna make this tool that everybody uses your service for and makes Google Maps really valuable and start charging for it, especially when you're making money off everybody who uses you anyway because the advertisers are paying to advertise?
SPEAKER_0 [00:37:52]
Yeah. I guess it's just another revenue stream, but I I'm with you. I think what's kinda messy about it, or at least I think is messy, is is one of the reasons that they roll these things out free, right, is because they want people to start using them. And then it becomes a stickiness factor where you essentially have a dependency, right, on Google.
SPEAKER_0 [00:38:12]
Your business is is, like,
SPEAKER_0 [00:38:14]
less functional without it.
SPEAKER_0 [00:38:17]
And that's it's a bait and switch tactic where you've had this thing that's free. It's enabled you. And, oh, now now Google wants a little bit more of the pie.
SPEAKER_0 [00:38:25]
And and I believe me, like, I'm all for
SPEAKER_0 [00:38:29]
a company that provides a service being able to make money doing it. I think what I would prefer is Google just upfront be like, hey. Look. You can embed this, but here are the constraints on day one Right. Rather than kinda do the the bait and switch thing. Just seems more
SPEAKER_1 [00:38:44]
more of an ethical way to go about it.
SPEAKER_0 [00:38:47]
Yeah. I imagine it was like somebody looked at a,
SPEAKER_0 [00:38:50]
some ex Excel spreadsheet excuse me. Not Excel. A Google Sheets Right. Document and saw that they, could inch out a little more money on a particular product. Those are the MBAs of the world hard at work. Right.
SPEAKER_1 [00:39:05]
Anyways,
SPEAKER_1 [00:39:06]
we got off topic from your email. You're Google free now.
SPEAKER_0 [00:39:10]
Yeah. So here's here's the thing I did though. This was kinda weird. I actually went through,
SPEAKER_0 [00:39:15]
gosh,
SPEAKER_0 [00:39:16]
like, ten years of email
SPEAKER_0 [00:39:18]
and
SPEAKER_0 [00:39:18]
saved
SPEAKER_0 [00:39:20]
some stuff, deleted a whole bunch of others. Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:39:23]
Do you ever look at all the email? Like, do you or do you just you hit the archive and you've got this massive big bucket of email?
SPEAKER_1 [00:39:29]
Yeah. So I clear out the archive pretty pretty regularly
SPEAKER_1 [00:39:34]
because usually, I'll just, like especially on the phone, I think I have a default to archive if I want it out of my inbox.
SPEAKER_1 [00:39:41]
So I'll go through and mass delete things
SPEAKER_1 [00:39:43]
a lot of the time.
SPEAKER_1 [00:39:45]
But then I keep things that I could probably move somewhere place else, like recipes or other things.
SPEAKER_0 [00:39:52]
So have you have you always done that, or is that, like, a relatively new thing for you? So I started doing that when I
SPEAKER_1 [00:39:59]
got serious about inbox zero.
SPEAKER_1 [00:40:04]
So maybe
SPEAKER_1 [00:40:06]
three, five years ago.
SPEAKER_0 [00:40:08]
Okay.
SPEAKER_0 [00:40:09]
I I've not really been in that habit. So my my kind of behavior was I had a folder called saved.
SPEAKER_0 [00:40:16]
If it was really important, I threw it into there. Otherwise, I hit archive. And then at some point, I switched so that
SPEAKER_0 [00:40:22]
I would delete.
SPEAKER_0 [00:40:24]
So so my my decisions were, like, I would read it. Would I either leave it in the inbox.
SPEAKER_0 [00:40:28]
I would move it to saved,
SPEAKER_0 [00:40:30]
or I would delete it. Or I had a couple of other folders that were very specific. So, like, you know, I'm I'm on the board of directors for the Indiana District. They got a folder for them, got a folder for church, that kind of thing. Right. But I I didn't
SPEAKER_0 [00:40:44]
I tried to get away from the archive. The problem is, I had, like, eight years of just blindly archiving
SPEAKER_0 [00:40:50]
that I had to deal with Right. Which, you know, took a while to get through. But here's here's an interesting observation.
SPEAKER_0 [00:40:56]
Do you
SPEAKER_0 [00:40:57]
how how would you describe the way that you use email today?
SPEAKER_1 [00:41:03]
How would I describe it?
SPEAKER_0 [00:41:05]
Yeah. Like, so so rewind
SPEAKER_0 [00:41:08]
a decade and a half.
SPEAKER_0 [00:41:10]
Is is the way you used email, you know, fifteen years ago different than the way you do now?
SPEAKER_1 [00:41:17]
Probably.
SPEAKER_1 [00:41:18]
I mean, now it's a lot more business related, either personal business or something else.
SPEAKER_1 [00:41:26]
So I still do a lot of client communication via email,
SPEAKER_1 [00:41:30]
and then I usually task it in a different program.
SPEAKER_1 [00:41:36]
And then personal email is a lot of I mean, I do stuff for chapel because I'm on my church's board of directors,
SPEAKER_1 [00:41:44]
and, like, all my utilities and stuff come through there.
SPEAKER_1 [00:41:48]
But I don't I don't do a lot of personal correspondence through personal email.
SPEAKER_0 [00:41:53]
Okay. So that that's the kicker. And this is, at least for me, what's changed. And this is what I I realized this as I was going back through email because
SPEAKER_0 [00:42:01]
I
SPEAKER_0 [00:42:02]
I started to look at how many messages
SPEAKER_0 [00:42:05]
had I sent
SPEAKER_0 [00:42:06]
over the last Right. Ten years, kinda broken up by year.
SPEAKER_0 [00:42:10]
And it it has just, like, dropped dramatically.
SPEAKER_0 [00:42:13]
So then I was like, well, that's interesting.
SPEAKER_0 [00:42:15]
Am am I actually using email less,
SPEAKER_0 [00:42:18]
or am I just sending less email? And I'm pretty sure based upon the amount of email I get that I'm just sending less. And as I looked at it, what I what I realized
SPEAKER_0 [00:42:27]
was
SPEAKER_0 [00:42:28]
the I used to actually write people
SPEAKER_0 [00:42:31]
letters
SPEAKER_0 [00:42:33]
just send them by email. Like, and family, here's what's happening. Or even in college, I sent Sarah, like, you know, and I don't call them love notes, but they were Right. Affectionate
SPEAKER_0 [00:42:44]
letters.
SPEAKER_0 [00:42:45]
But they were they were, you know, I I was retelling what was happening in my day or a thought process,
SPEAKER_0 [00:42:50]
and I don't do that anymore. I in fact, from the last year,
SPEAKER_0 [00:42:54]
I've got maybe one or two threads with close friends, mind you, but just one or two threads total
SPEAKER_0 [00:43:00]
for all of 2018
SPEAKER_0 [00:43:01]
that look like that type of conversation. You know, there's no like, there's not a lot of John Adams, Thomas Jefferson style correspondence going on in my inbox anymore. Right.
SPEAKER_0 [00:43:11]
I I don't know if I should be happy or sad about that.
SPEAKER_1 [00:43:18]
Probably happy that it got moved out of email,
SPEAKER_1 [00:43:20]
as long as you've replaced it with something else.
SPEAKER_0 [00:43:24]
Well so Is it text message that's
SPEAKER_1 [00:43:27]
so, like, I don't really text with
SPEAKER_1 [00:43:30]
people I've kinda lost contact with.
SPEAKER_1 [00:43:34]
Occasionally,
SPEAKER_1 [00:43:35]
I'll get Facebook messages from them or send Facebook messages.
SPEAKER_1 [00:43:40]
I used to I was on a letter writing kick where I actually sent it through the mail.
SPEAKER_1 [00:43:44]
That was a while ago, though. Now I bought a house and have been busy.
SPEAKER_1 [00:43:48]
But that's that's a good way to do it because it's
SPEAKER_1 [00:43:51]
intentional. You have to set aside time to do it.
SPEAKER_1 [00:43:56]
So yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:43:58]
I I'm I'm all for the letter writing. I I think
SPEAKER_0 [00:44:03]
I don't know.
SPEAKER_0 [00:44:04]
I I have written letters, but it's always been to older family members or distant friends.
SPEAKER_0 [00:44:10]
I'm I'm about to sit down and write a Christmas letter, though. So I get I mean, that counts. Right? That's that's worth something? Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:44:15]
But it's interesting to me, because I don't know that I've supplanted
SPEAKER_0 [00:44:19]
how I used to use email with text messages.
SPEAKER_0 [00:44:23]
Maybe I'm close,
SPEAKER_0 [00:44:25]
because I do have, like, you know, randomly
SPEAKER_0 [00:44:29]
I'll
SPEAKER_0 [00:44:30]
Sarah Buddy, Aaron Frank Fanker, from
SPEAKER_0 [00:44:33]
famed, you know, Rubs by Fanker,
SPEAKER_0 [00:44:36]
you know, the the meat rubs company
SPEAKER_0 [00:44:39]
that is pending
SPEAKER_0 [00:44:40]
launch online. Right? Pastor Fanker? Anyhow, so, you know, I'll just, like, text him, and we'll kinda get some correspondence go going. It's it's shorter form,
SPEAKER_0 [00:44:49]
so it's not like a letter send, like, would have done an email. But, yeah,
SPEAKER_0 [00:44:54]
I don't know. It kinda part of it makes me a little sad because I think there's something to that longer form correspondence
SPEAKER_0 [00:45:01]
that maybe I'm maybe I'm missing, John. Maybe I'm missing that from my life.
SPEAKER_1 [00:45:07]
So you should
SPEAKER_1 [00:45:09]
find five people you haven't talked to in a couple years and send them letters, Stan.
SPEAKER_0 [00:45:14]
Just
SPEAKER_0 [00:45:15]
random letters about how things are going? Absolutely.
SPEAKER_1 [00:45:19]
I mean, you could start off with an intro so it doesn't seem creepy
SPEAKER_0 [00:45:22]
or, like, you're losing your mind. But I could intro, like, hey. I've got this podcast.
SPEAKER_0 [00:45:27]
And after after I spent, you know, twenty minutes crapping on a study bible,
SPEAKER_0 [00:45:32]
I
SPEAKER_0 [00:45:33]
was talking about how I don't write letters anymore.
SPEAKER_0 [00:45:36]
I I think part of the challenge is,
SPEAKER_0 [00:45:39]
know, a good letter, you wind up talking a lot about yourself.
SPEAKER_0 [00:45:42]
Right. And
SPEAKER_0 [00:45:44]
it may may come as as
SPEAKER_0 [00:45:47]
a surprise,
SPEAKER_0 [00:45:48]
but I I do struggle with that at least in written form, maybe because it's the commitment. Right? I can talk about myself all day, but if I gotta commit it to the paper, John, oh my word. Ask questions, Stan.
SPEAKER_1 [00:45:59]
Asking questions kinda
SPEAKER_1 [00:46:01]
forces a response.
SPEAKER_0 [00:46:03]
So what do you recommend? Bulleted form?
SPEAKER_0 [00:46:07]
No.
SPEAKER_1 [00:46:09]
String of consciousness.
SPEAKER_0 [00:46:11]
String of consciousness. Be dangerous too. That's how we got down the Exodus 15
SPEAKER_1 [00:46:16]
rant. And now we're on letter writing after talking about you getting rid of Gmail. So
SPEAKER_0 [00:46:22]
Yeah. Well, hey.
SPEAKER_0 [00:46:24]
I guess that's as good a place as any to to say this is life with a twist of lemon. It is.
SPEAKER_1 [00:46:29]
Wouldn't trade it for anything, Stan.
SPEAKER_0 [00:46:32]
Oh, such a good friend.
SPEAKER_0 [00:46:34]
On that note, I have to be up tomorrow at about
SPEAKER_0 [00:46:38]
03:30 in the morning in order to get to the airport because I've got a 6AM flight to Atlanta
SPEAKER_0 [00:46:44]
for a couple days of what I hope will be not too intense meetings.
SPEAKER_0 [00:46:48]
So this, John, is probably farewell for a few days.
SPEAKER_0 [00:46:53]
I
SPEAKER_0 [00:46:54]
I I will do one final plug
SPEAKER_0 [00:46:57]
for pastor Fritzy.
SPEAKER_0 [00:46:59]
If you want
SPEAKER_0 [00:47:01]
a
SPEAKER_0 [00:47:02]
three by three Life with a Twist of Lemon sticker,
SPEAKER_0 [00:47:05]
all you gotta do, all you have to do, it's so simple,
SPEAKER_0 [00:47:09]
is just donate $50
SPEAKER_0 [00:47:11]
to pastor Fritzsche, send a screenshot
SPEAKER_0 [00:47:13]
to us, whether it be, you know, Twitter, Facebook,
SPEAKER_0 [00:47:16]
email, whatever.
SPEAKER_0 [00:47:18]
Just, you know, get it our way, and we will send you a sticker,
SPEAKER_0 [00:47:22]
and then I will match that donation. So use my money, people. What can I say? Use my money. Let's get the match all the way up there.
SPEAKER_1 [00:47:31]
We'll see you next week.
SPEAKER_0 [00:47:33]
Later, John.