2024 In Review: Election Chaos, AI Revolutions, and the Quest for Inner Peace | Ep. 104
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2025 is upon us, so a 2024-wrapped podcast with your favorite host and co-host is here! In this insightful episode, Pat McCalla and Brandon Lopez unpack the events of 2024, touching on the turbulent election cycle, extreme weather events, ongoing Middle Eastern conflicts, artificial intelligence advancements, and evolving gender norms. With a focus on maintaining faith and resilience, they discuss how to navigate political and societal fears without losing hope or surrendering inner peace. From reflecting on the historical and spiritual dimensions of the Middle East crisis to grappling with the role of AI in reshaping the job market and daily life, they challenge listeners to see the bigger picture while staying grounded. The conversation also ventures into the complexities of gender identity in modern society, as Pat and Brandon discuss how faith, identity, and purpose interconnect in times of uncertainty.
Throughout, Pat encourages listeners to stay anchored in their beliefs, emphasizing that true stability and peace come from faith rather than fleeting societal structures. This episode offers a refreshing perspective on handling the anxieties of today by relying on timeless values and a steadfast sense of self.
No Grey Areas is a motivational podcast with captivating guests centered around how our choices humanize, empower, and define who we become. This podcast is inspired by the cautionary tale, No Grey Areas, written by Joseph Gagliano. Learn more about the truth behind his story involved with sports' biggest scandal at https://www.nogreyareas.com/
Transcript
Host
Welcome back to the No Gray Areas podcast. I'm your host, Patrick McCullough. And today, my co-host
::Host
Brandon Lopez and I have an exclusive episode in store for you.
::Host
As: ::Host
We're diving into some of the year's most complex
::Host
controversial topics. Let's get started.
::Pat McCalla
Brendan Lopez. Welcome back, back, back,
::Brandon Lopez
back back back back. You've been on here quite a few times. Yes.
::Brandon Lopez
happened
::Pat McCalla
this last year and really tied into the core of this podcast, which is the power and complexity of human choice that we make, our choices and eventually our choices make us
::Pat McCalla
So let's unpack, just briefly, some key things, like the election.
::Pat McCalla
We're actually
::Pat McCalla
recording this the day before the election is going to happen. And this is actually
::Brandon Lopez
yeah,
::Pat McCalla
But,
::Pat McCalla
we want to talk about the election. Want to talk about the hurricanes.
::Brandon Lopez
That was a huge thing.
::Brandon Lopez
yeah,
::Pat McCalla
one. It is completely changing how work is going to be done now and in the future.
::Pat McCalla
and maybe even some other
::Brandon Lopez
Yeah,
::Brandon Lopez
All right. Let's open.
::Brandon Lopez
Tomorrow. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
::Brandon Lopez
The
::Brandon Lopez
is,
::Pat McCalla
I'm not going to say is as strong as it's ever been in our country because if you believe that you haven't read Civil War history,
::Pat McCalla
but
::Brandon Lopez
it feels.
::Brandon Lopez
Heavy right.
::Brandon Lopez
Now. Yeah, yeah. It's up. Yeah.
::Brandon Lopez
that.
::Brandon Lopez
So
::Brandon Lopez
Yeah I think that some paranoia is okay. I think it's good to try to be prepared for whatever you think is going to happen. I think that's okay and I think that's good. But I do think.
::Brandon Lopez
Just.
::Brandon Lopez
Yeah, especially.
::Brandon Lopez
Since
::Pat McCalla
we live in a form of government that we actually get to have a say
::Brandon Lopez
Exactly.
::Brandon Lopez
Yeah. Most of human history,
::Brandon Lopez
Yeah.
::Brandon Lopez
We're saying
::Brandon Lopez
Exactly. And especially right now with how polarizing everything is and how different policies and ideologies are on both parties. It's pretty inherent for people to want to be probably a little bit more paranoid, and I think that there is in any kind of culture at any stage of life,
::Brandon Lopez
got to be paranoid to an extent to survive.
::Brandon Lopez
Right? Not saying that we're going to be in a survival mode by any means like that, but I do think that at the same time, on the same token, is that a lot of people become false prophets over their own life, and then, of course, everybody else. And so they start to predict like, oh, this is going to happen if so-and-so gets elected.
::Brandon Lopez
This is what's going to happen if this happens. And so we have a lot of people saying a lot of different things, whether it be Trump or Kamala, of what they're predicting life is going to look like for America. And we don't know. And I think what we really want to dive into specifically on this topic is especially for people of faith, for the Christian is where do we have hope and where do we have faith in?
::Brandon Lopez
And how is that different than just a
::Brandon Lopez
regular civilian in any kind of form of government?
::Brandon Lopez
It's a
::Pat McCalla
great point about the false prophecy thing because and I find myself doing it, I
::Brandon Lopez
mean, I really do think
::Brandon Lopez
I would say
::Pat McCalla
on what you just said because I want to be a false prophet, but maybe it has some of the,
::Pat McCalla
most important repercussions
::Brandon Lopez
And there's a paranoia part of it where it's appropriate to, you know. Yeah.
::Pat McCalla
But there's a maybe
::Brandon Lopez
there we don't know. Yeah. No,
::Pat McCalla
I mean, if you back up, you guys, you're too young and some of our listeners too young for this, but I can remember back, with, Bill Clinton, that one. And it was the same kind of paranoia I was hearing.
::Brandon Lopez
And I remember him.
::Pat McCalla
the next day, I was actually in Bible college at the time,
::Pat McCalla
after he got elected, and there was a lot of people in that, at that time that were definitely thinking, like, okay, if he becomes president, this is going to be blah, blah, blah, the world's going to end all that stuff.
::Pat McCalla
But I remember the professor, just started the class by saying, hey, quick question for you all who's still on the throne today. And that was such an appropriate question because it, it it adjusted our thinking. And in fact, when I was driving here today to do this podcast, I pulled over to the side of the road and wrote this down because I thought of this little quote,
::Pat McCalla
our hope is in who governs us?
::Pat McCalla
We're going to, we're going to have some
::Brandon Lopez
issues.
::Brandon Lopez
okay.
::Brandon Lopez
coming. You know.
::Brandon Lopez
Yeah. No this.
::Brandon Lopez
you're not, you're
::Brandon Lopez
know.
::Pat McCalla
We can also sit back and go. I can rest in the fact that it doesn't really
::Brandon Lopez
matter.
::Brandon Lopez
And I think just take responsibility and ownership of your own life too. It doesn't matter who wins is what really matters honestly is what you're doing in your own house right. Yeah. Have like what we talk about is often like what do you have dominion over. Right. And what do you have actually leadership in. And
::Brandon Lopez
oftentimes when we invite other things in we open ourselves to other things or we just give ownership away to other things.
::Brandon Lopez
Then we become subject. We become reliant and dependent on those things. We're no longer self reliant or independent. And so excuse me. So when it comes to elections, we can get frantic, we can do all that. But if we aren't doing our part as far as what are we going to be like in our home, what are we going to be like in our work, our families, our community, whatever that looks like?
::Brandon Lopez
If you're not doing your part of just being whatever leadership that's pulled out of you to be able to fulfill in those areas,
::Brandon Lopez
then you're doing yourself a disservice.
::Pat McCalla
Great. Great point. And again,
::Pat McCalla
you know this. But one of my things that that I'm holding onto for the last couple of months has been I'm not giving away my peace.
::Brandon Lopez
Yeah.
::Brandon Lopez
as our God. Not
::Brandon Lopez
can, you know,
::Brandon Lopez
that you give our listeners
::Brandon Lopez
give it away. So this like an
::Brandon Lopez
in
::Brandon Lopez
Yeah,
::Pat McCalla
but what
::Pat McCalla
we can control, what we can have within that peace is what God has put in dominion
::Brandon Lopez
for me. I, I can't you
::Brandon Lopez
do my part vote.
::Brandon Lopez
Yeah, but
::Brandon Lopez
I'm
::Brandon Lopez
are.
::Brandon Lopez
Yeah. Very important.
::Pat McCalla
Let's jump into the next one.
::Pat McCalla
A current event that happened this year that that was heart rending,
::Pat McCalla
wrenching. If people really looked into it
::Brandon Lopez
one was the hurricanes.
::Pat McCalla
and,
::Pat McCalla
couple of directions. I want to take this. One of them is just what should our response be to human
::Brandon Lopez
suffering.
::Pat McCalla
And then secondly, it's tied to the environment a little bit here. That's
::Pat McCalla
that is very controversial because
::Brandon Lopez
some people are like, no it's not. And other
::Brandon Lopez
Yeah.
::Pat McCalla
again, I'll jump into this one. We'll come back to the one where we're talking about what should our response be to human suffering?
::Pat McCalla
I do believe that
::Pat McCalla
we don't know for sure.
::Pat McCalla
We can't know for sure how science might be twisted when it comes to environment. And but what I do know is the beginning of the narrative. The biblical worldview. Narrative is God created humans, the pinnacle of creation. And he said, I'm putting you in dominion over this earth. So if there's anybody on this planet that should care about environmental issues, it should be Jesus followers.
::Pat McCalla
And unfortunately, because it's gotten so political, we're sometimes
::Pat McCalla
we're not at the point of the spear on it. We're dragging behind. Not to say that again, there's not. The
::Brandon Lopez
environmental issues have
::Pat McCalla
been made very, very political. There's been a lot of lies on it. But whatever the case, I do think that as is as Jesus followers, we should deeply, deeply care about our environment and we should be at the point of the spear and saying, we got to take care of this because God,
::Pat McCalla
in the very first chapters
::Brandon Lopez
Should you take care of this.
::Pat McCalla
but let's jump into the human suffering part. What, what is our role as we navigate the power and complexity of human choice that we make our choices on human suffering?
::Brandon Lopez
I think for one simple question. Yeah, very simple question. And it's perfect because I actually have the answer for this. So we're going to solve all our problems. Good, good. Yeah. Just do better.
::Brandon Lopez
Now I think that, for one, I think that human suffering or suffering suffrage is honestly like a baseline human experience. So I think that anytime that we everyone has it, everyone experiences stress, everybody experiences anxiety, everybody experiences suffering. We might be in seasons of good times, right? But oftentimes we feel like that we're owed and we have the right to happiness.
::Brandon Lopez
And a a a thriving life. And that's just not what reality tells us. And so I got it.
::Brandon Lopez
I got oh yeah.
::Brandon Lopez
Yeah because I don't. Yes yes.
::Brandon Lopez
Yes yes.
::Pat McCalla
we do, I think especially our Western mindset
::Brandon Lopez
I think so
::Brandon Lopez
a good.
::Brandon Lopez
on?
::Brandon Lopez
Yeah.
::Brandon Lopez
suffering
::Pat McCalla
is going to be part of that.
::Brandon Lopez
Yeah.
::Brandon Lopez
Yeah.
::Brandon Lopez
And in this instance very drastic, very like on a big big scale of course. So when I say this it's not to minimize what's going on at all. But what I'm saying is, is that when we look at suffering and we look at our, our role in engaging with suffering, for one week, I find that we have to have a more of an appropriate view of what that is, but to it helps us if I feel like if we have a better view of suffering, we could actually help people better in the sense that if you feel like you're owed everything, that means that you don't feel like you're probably owing anybody else, right?
::Brandon Lopez
If you feel like you're entitled to something, it doesn't mean that you're entitled to do it. You know, just because of just the nature of the entire entitlement and and ownership that you think that you should have the right, that you think you should have. I think that when we see and experience suffering in other people's lives, and that even on a big scale, I think it is moving, I think it does hurt people, deeply seeing that just because that's not how it should be.
::Brandon Lopez
It is how it is because that's the world that we're in. But that's not how it should be. And so we have something in us that's like, this isn't right. You know? Yes.
::Pat McCalla
And and let
::Brandon Lopez
me out in
::Brandon Lopez
speaking from our biblical
::Pat McCalla
worldview.
::Pat McCalla
There was eternity. Put it in their heart, like it says in the Bible, which means they know this isn't right.
::Brandon Lopez
Yeah.
::Brandon Lopez
Like
::Pat McCalla
I'm not getting out of this world. You're not getting others. We're alive.
::Pat McCalla
we've been at funerals before. We're going to be at funerals again. But why is it that we're always shocked by it? But this is your
::Brandon Lopez
point.
::Brandon Lopez
it's not
::Brandon Lopez
to be. Yeah.
::Brandon Lopez
Yeah.
::Brandon Lopez
Yeah. So and I.
::Brandon Lopez
Think on a big scale like this, this is where I'm going to have a hot take.
::Brandon Lopez
I think on a big scale from this, either people are being a silent party about it or they're being very vocal. But I think across the board, the majority, I think it's fair for me to say the majority of people will look at the instance when it comes to these hurricanes and seeing our response to it not being adequate at all, because when you see suffrage and our suffering in another human at a small scale, on a macro scale, it's easy for us to be like, I could I could step into this.
::Brandon Lopez
But when you look at something at a big scale, this is where we usually look at systems and places to be like, okay, what do we have here to actually like tackle this? Like we have phenomenal stories that we can read about people entering the space and lending help to, you know, their communities and everything. And I think that's wonderful.
::Brandon Lopez
But we have a situation when we when we did this where I think we got to like this, the hope for the Christian is putting their hope and faith in God. And we walk by faith until that faith becomes a reality, right? When we see that faith come to fruition in in real time. And this is why I don't think like I think everybody that puts their their faith and hope in a government is not setting themselves up, right or, well, just because one to give the government grace, it's full of people, and people are just like you and I, we're all flawed and we're not perfect, and we.
::Brandon Lopez
And there's a lot of stuff there, too.
::Brandon Lopez
But when we look at the government and we look and be like, hey, you need to step into this. And if we don't agree with how they do it or the lack of what they're doing, and it brings frustration and anger, I think like that, and you just really live by like that being the ruling factor of your life.
::Brandon Lopez
Like government's here in this, this is you and you look up to the government for all the problems be solved. You're always going to be disappointed. You're always going to be disappointed. And I think that when you have hope in God and you see the way that he's able to work in this, as disastrous as it is we're seeing also, we don't want to be blind to all the goodness.
::Brandon Lopez
And this is something that you do really good. And I've been practicing this myself for myself. You do a really good job of constantly reminding people of like, well, let's not forget and was not turn a blind eye to all the good that's actually going into this space. And we often get lost in how ugly something is. But there's so much beauty in people entering and helping and providing resources and, and, and getting involved.
::Brandon Lopez
And so whether that be on a huge scale or a micro scale like that's.
::Brandon Lopez
Yeah. You know.
::Pat McCalla
Yeah, yeah.
::Pat McCalla
Great point.
::Pat McCalla
One of my favorite quotes that I used to give a lot years ago when I was working in the anti-human trafficking field, and I can't remember the author of this, but he said part of the morality of our culture is this tragic rationale that if I can't do everything, I can't
::Brandon Lopez
do it.
::Brandon Lopez
you know,
::Brandon Lopez
something you can do
::Brandon Lopez
You're doing that for
::Pat McCalla
world. We saw it this year in: ::Pat McCalla
So, conflict in Israel, in the Middle.
::Pat McCalla
East,
::Brandon Lopez
It just keeps getting worse.
::Brandon Lopez
Social
::Pat McCalla
something it actually blew up a lot there.
::Brandon Lopez
No pun intended. It blew up a lot there, and it really did. And it's always been a little easier. The tire world.
::Brandon Lopez
It's a tinderbox.
::Brandon Lopez
Yeah. Which
::Pat McCalla
shouldn't surprise
::Brandon Lopez
us against some
::Brandon Lopez
on Genesis
::Pat McCalla
And what happened there.
::Pat McCalla
4000 plus years later, we're dealing with the repercussions of that. But what I don't want people to miss, and this is what's so amazing. We live in one of the most exciting times in all of human history.
::Pat McCalla
Like, think about it, Brandon, since 586 BC. So over 20, 500 years ago, Israel was not a free nation.
::Pat McCalla
They
::Brandon Lopez
did not.
::Brandon Lopez
rule. And
::Pat McCalla
And now they do. And it's new since
::Brandon Lopez
1940. So
::Brandon Lopez
to the beginning. And
::Brandon Lopez
planet.
::Brandon Lopez
So
::Brandon Lopez
Yeah. And I think
::Brandon Lopez
what ever your take is on that conflict whether you're anti or pro, whatever it is I think it's very important for us just even as America is to understand in that region how important Israel is just strategically. Yes.
::Brandon Lopez
So like not even just like a believer, but even just as an American on a strategic level of how important this act, this conflict actually is.
::Brandon Lopez
Like you want to play this out, right? Logically, to the logical extent of it, it does not look good without Israel in that region. And so, no, I, I agree 100% with you. I think it's very a lot of things can be frightening with that. I think that, a lot of people either just turn a blind eye or a deaf ear to it, I think.
::Brandon Lopez
I think everybody ought to be more invested in it as far as just even looking into what's going on. I think it's very important that, like we mentioned off, like yesterday, too, like, it doesn't necessarily mean you have to agree with everything or disagree with everything either. This is this is a,
::Brandon Lopez
2004 thousand year, geographical issue that's been going on way before we've been on this planet.
::Brandon Lopez
Even like the last hundred years, this has gone far longer than that. And so there is a lot of mess here. And
::Brandon Lopez
I feel like, let's have some grace when we approach this conversation.
::Brandon Lopez
So about what we said on
::Pat McCalla
the other issues. It's not to live in fear though.
::Brandon Lopez
Yeah.
::Brandon Lopez
control
::Brandon Lopez
process,
::Brandon Lopez
Yeah. And
::Brandon Lopez
most people
::Brandon Lopez
because
::Pat McCalla
rejected them and the church age now he's he's going to give it to the church, the Gentiles and the Jews that are believers.
::Pat McCalla
I don't actually believe that. I don't think that's good theology. So that goes back to the promises that God gave Israel
::Brandon Lopez
Way back to Abraham
::Brandon Lopez
in our time?
::Brandon Lopez
Yeah. In our lifetime
::Brandon Lopez
Yeah.
::Brandon Lopez
Dig into it.
::Brandon Lopez
recognizing
::Brandon Lopez
world. Yeah. We need to pay attention to them.
::Brandon Lopez
I yes.
::Brandon Lopez
Little lighter
::Brandon Lopez
people. Yeah, and I.
::Brandon Lopez
Don't think they should
::Pat McCalla
Why,
::Brandon Lopez
It's only going to bring fear to people that are one already, just fearful already. And it's most likely just because. And this is this is gonna be a little bit more blunt. So receive it as well as you can. It's going to harm the people the most that aren't bringing enough value to their life.
::Brandon Lopez
And to the marketplace. This is a very exciting. And and I'm telling you, like, you can even be a low skilled person, but if you're using AI to the extent of somebody that's maybe super skilled but not using AI, this is an even playing field now. It's really cool. Like we see the internet,
::Brandon Lopez
the internet boom, this is the next internet boom.
::Brandon Lopez
Like this is huge. This is the one thing that potentially could take down Google. Yeah. Like no one thought that would be possible. This is a thing that we're going to go now. We're not going to be you know it's insane how powerful this is.
::Brandon Lopez
Yeah.
::Brandon Lopez
For us. Yeah.
::Brandon Lopez
Yeah.
::Pat McCalla
But we're already starting to see where people are starting to go. I don't Google things anymore.
::Brandon Lopez
Yeah I
::Brandon Lopez
and it's going to
::Brandon Lopez
I don't think so. I think there's bigger like on the macro level there's a lot of things like we could of course false prophecy of like oh shoot what happens if they get smart? And you know,
::Brandon Lopez
I've seen Arnold Schwarzenegger like.
::Brandon Lopez
That, right? Like I talk very politely. Yeah, yeah.
::Brandon Lopez
Give me an answer. I'll say thank you very much.
::Brandon Lopez
Yeah. Thank you. Remember who.
::Brandon Lopez
Me? Yeah, yeah. I'm back. Robots? Yeah.
::Brandon Lopez
Mr. ChatGPT, sir?
::Brandon Lopez
Yeah. So I think there's like that macro, of course. And but as far as on the, on the, on the micro, at least focusing on the now the thing is, is like AI is not going anywhere. And people that think it's like, oh, it's not like that. Great. It's a fad. Like you're, you're missing
::Brandon Lopez
the internet, you're missing the Google boom. You're missing Facebook, like you're missing all of it. You're like, you're the same person that said all this stuff. And I think that, with AI specifically, it's one of those things that will get smarter and smarter and smarter. It's like that kind of technology that's that's going to be different
::Brandon Lopez
hugely.
::Brandon Lopez
and this is one thing I think that's scarier for people is because people initially thought I would be replacing jobs like the the blue collar jobs, the lower skilled jobs. But we're finding that it's actually flipped. It's the people that are actually higher level skill.
::Brandon Lopez
We're seeing it affecting people that are doing copy. We're seeing people that doing like editing. We're seeing people that are even like, we, even like coaching, like fitness, everything, everything across the board. Like, imagine if if you're able to feed an AI software, all your data on the last ten years of all your sales rep recordings of all your salespeople, and you're able to, you know, put it into the AI and is able to learn everything, and you make it.
::Brandon Lopez
So I can now get on a sales call with somebody and it sounds like a real person, and now it knows how to filter through everything based off the prompts that the person is giving to them in the responses to know exactly the best way to sell to this person, this individual we see like just play this out logically, like you can now crush, you can get rid of the Salesforce right now.
::Brandon Lopez
This is maybe this is where people are like what Brandi just said you shouldn't be afraid of. I'm going to get there. I'm gonna weave back to you right?
::Brandon Lopez
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
::Brandon Lopez
But like, even like, I think even on the medical side of things,
::Brandon Lopez
I love doctors, I love nurses, I love the medical field. But at the same time, I do think that the medical field is very highly dependent, not on individual knowledge, but on technology. And AI has the capacity. And imagine now you are somebody in AI if you're able to where like have a, a wearable tracker or something and you're able to get all these different kind of metrics on your health and give it to AI, and now it's able to spit out and be like, oh, these are all the markers and the metrics that we're going to follow to
::Brandon Lopez
be able to help pinpoint what's actually wrong with you.
::Brandon Lopez
Yeah.
::Pat McCalla
from all over the world, all at once.
::Brandon Lopez
Yeah, yeah.
::Brandon Lopez
You can see this in therapy. You can see this everywhere. Now, I think why we shouldn't.
::Brandon Lopez
Have to be afraid because you just
::Pat McCalla
just eliminated, a third of the jobs in the
::Brandon Lopez
world. Yeah.
::Brandon Lopez
I don't think you should be afraid, because if you are it. Because, again, it's one of those things. It's not going anywhere. So it's it's a question of are you going to use it or not? And if you're going to use it or not, is it in question or are you going to suck at using it or not?
::Brandon Lopez
And the person, the people that are able to utilize it, the best are going to be just fine.
::Brandon Lopez
I've heard this. I can't remember where I heard it from. Often not people bet on the jockey. Not the horse. And this is one of those situations in what you want to bet on the jockey, not the horse.
::Brandon Lopez
The individual that knows how to use AI and leverage it and and take advantage of it. Right. Like it's going to hurt people in that workforce. But it's either going to have them have to up their game or in addition. Another thing, if you feel like you're somebody that's not getting like the edge, if you're somebody that feels low skilled, whatever that might be.
::Brandon Lopez
AI's
::Brandon Lopez
making an even now.
::Brandon Lopez
Yeah, yeah, it's.
::Brandon Lopez
You could be the best person. Yeah, yeah, you can be the best person in your field, but if you're not using it, give it some time. Somebody that doesn't have a degree but knows how to use AI properly. Yeah. Come on.
::Pat McCalla
current events that we saw in: ::Brandon Lopez
and
::Brandon Lopez
good like every other
::Brandon Lopez
because it's not going away. No. And
::Brandon Lopez
thing.
::Brandon Lopez
Yeah.
::Brandon Lopez
Yeah.
::Brandon Lopez
Programing or. Yeah.
::Brandon Lopez
Yeah,
::Brandon Lopez
Yes.
::Brandon Lopez
Yeah. We can we can be fearful of AI a little later down the road when things start changing a little bit, like when when the robots get into our house like that. Elon's working on that. Maybe we could be like, okay, crazy. I've seen I've seen this Will Smith movie before. I know what's going on. Yeah. You know, until then.
::Brandon Lopez
But I can again because I'm a couple of decades ahead and
::Pat McCalla
some of our listeners. And I can promise you, I've watched this in my lifetime. There were things that were coming out when the internet was coming out.
::Brandon Lopez
There was
::Brandon Lopez
nervous
::Brandon Lopez
good. It was a
::Brandon Lopez
them,
::Brandon Lopez
But yeah,
::Brandon Lopez
it's.
::Brandon Lopez
Going to be more fearful for those that aren't going to use it.
::Brandon Lopez
one more.
::Brandon Lopez
No.
::Brandon Lopez
Different.
::Brandon Lopez
You know, I don't know how to approach this one. Actually, I'm a little bit confused.
::Brandon Lopez
sometimes I have this opinion. Sometimes the next day I go to this one. I'm playing.
::Brandon Lopez
Yeah.
::Host
As we're wrapping up this episode. Be sure to leave us a five star review. And if you're watching on YouTube, leave a comment on something you'll take away. All right, let's hop back into the remainder of the episode.
::Pat McCalla
No, I do think that I, we don't want to ignore
::Brandon Lopez
Yeah. Because
::Brandon Lopez
years, I'm going to
::Pat McCalla
be dealing with it because we're living in a society now that, you know, not going to let my 4 or 5 year old decide what they're going to have for dinner.
::Pat McCalla
But we're letting them decide what kind of sexual identity they want to have. And so what we're going to have is even more confusion down the road. But
::Pat McCalla
even with speaking again, John 114 says that when Jesus came was full of grace and truth, which is beautiful. How do you have grace and how
::Brandon Lopez
do you,
::Brandon Lopez
people don't understand.
::Pat McCalla
Now I'm going to pause for a little bit and let that sink in for listeners. As long as your identity is based on what's between your ears, what
::Brandon Lopez
you think
::Brandon Lopez
issues, whether
::Brandon Lopez
about us.
::Pat McCalla
Anything else is going to confuse you. So we don't just have to go to the gender issue here, we can actually go to I'm not pretty enough. I'm not smart enough. I've failed in the past on this. I'm going to fail again in the future.
::Pat McCalla
If those are things
::Brandon Lopez
that you're
::Brandon Lopez
about him
::Brandon Lopez
Yeah, so, you know, yeah. Without getting us into too much.
::Brandon Lopez
Yeah. I was going to say,
::Brandon Lopez
I think identity in your self-image, I think, is no matter what, the key thing that we're always going to struggle about, that is the thing that we're like, talking about a biblical worldview. The first temptation of, in the garden was about identity.
::Brandon Lopez
The temptations to Jesus after he got baptized was about identity. It all has to like the game plan. Here is all the same thing. All has to do with identity. And I like to view this, similar to how Maxwell Moses put it. But I'm not going to. I'm going to completely butcher it. But he says something on the lines of a a new self image is not a transfer of identity.
::Brandon Lopez
It's not discovering something new about you. It's not something that changes, like who you are. Your mental picture of, like all that changes is your mental picture of yourself. But who you are, your identity, your your actual true, quote unquote self has always been
::Brandon Lopez
and will always be what it is. And what we do isn't a transformation of our identity.
::Brandon Lopez
It's more of a realization of what our identity is. And we live in such a murky, messy world and it could be highly influenced by politics. It could be hyper focused on social issues, whatever it might be. All of these things can be very, very confusing, especially when we start introducing this to like how you mentioned children, for instance.
::Brandon Lopez
Like it gets very, very messy. Like I thought I was a dinosaur when I was five. Yeah.
::Brandon Lopez
I ate like one and rolled like one.
::Brandon Lopez
Yeah.
::Brandon Lopez
And my parents are like a job.
::Brandon Lopez
But yeah. No, but I was not a dinosaur. But I was not a dinosaur. But I think though, like we are when I say that I'm not saying that to like, make some like, judgment or to make fun or poke anything. What I'm saying, though, is that when we're looking at kids specifically, I'm, I'm, I fall in the line of.
::Brandon Lopez
we're Americans. We live in this this country of freedom. If you want to view yourself in a certain way, you can but be an adult. When we talk about children now, this is where my hot take is we better be very, very careful when we step into that space. Because when we look back at what's going on right now, however this goes, if we look back on this, how things are going on right now, we want to ask ourselves, how is the future going to look at this history and be able to look through this and be able to decipher of like
::Brandon Lopez
what's going on with this culturally in society, like on
::Brandon Lopez
a social level?
::Brandon Lopez
I'm under the, the belief that and especially, you know, of course, we're we're coming from more of a faith based, viewpoint, biblical viewpoint here is God created you to be like him and to be fruitful and have dominion of all these things. But God made you in his image.
::Brandon Lopez
And so when we talk about identity and we talk about our purpose, whatever that might be, our identity and our purpose is to first know God and to be known by God. That's it. Like when God created everything, he didn't create us to be like, hey, I want you to do like, yes, there's you, be fruitful and do these things.
::Brandon Lopez
But it wasn't be like, I want you to become a CEO of your business. I don't want you to be confused about your gender or anything like this. Gone. All he cared about was walk with me and be in my presence. That was it. And when we look at it this way in the biblical worldview, is if we can identify in what God tells us, then it gets very, very much more simple from there on out.
::Brandon Lopez
Like there's an Uber that the guy wrote a book, guys,
::Brandon Lopez
a long one, a very, very long book. But yeah,
::Brandon Lopez
And so when we get confused about this and no matter what, again, you touch on your point really quickly before we wrap up, is we could talk about we could take this in any direction. Right.
::Brandon Lopez
We could talk about this the way that you view yourself as far as, if you are to, self defecate on your self as far as the way that you appear, in the way you look and the way that you feel and are you worthy of of something?
::Brandon Lopez
there's anybody actually love you or care about you?
::Brandon Lopez
Like, we can get into all these things, right? We can go all, like, in any kind of direction. So no matter what, the big issue is always going to come down to the our self image or our mental picture of that we have with ourselves. The goal here is to unblur that self image and we can and this is where we can, you know, we have to cut this off because we'll be able to talk for hours on this.
::Brandon Lopez
But this is the reality of what's going on. And then the perception of reality, of what's going on. And so we have these quote unquote mini truths based off perception. But we do have an
::Brandon Lopez
absolute truth of reality. And what we do is we interpret through emotion, through imagination, through stories, and we end up living by those truths.
::Brandon Lopez
And when we live by those stories, yeah. Aren't true. Yeah, most of them are lies.
::Brandon Lopez
Yeah.
::Brandon Lopez
Or things that you've been.
::Brandon Lopez
Or half truths, you know. Yeah. And they could be true to some extent, you know.
::Brandon Lopez
Yeah.
::Brandon Lopez
And what happens though is when we adopt these truths, these stories to be true to ourselves, we live up to those expectations of that reality and that truth. So we get this constant feedback loop of this is how I identify. This is my behaviors and actions. Personality traits and habits are going to, of course, reflect that and not just reflect that, but actually be, revealed by my identity.
::Brandon Lopez
But then those reinforce that identity. So it's a cycle right here. And that's so hard to break, because that is a truth in which that you view yourself. But that doesn't mean that is actual reality of what happened to you or the reality of who you are at all. And so we got to make sure that we juggle this appropriately.
::Brandon Lopez
With
::Pat McCalla
full circle. We can land the plane with
::Brandon Lopez
this,
::Brandon Lopez
confused.
::Brandon Lopez
And this is just about
::Brandon Lopez
creator. Author of life
::Brandon Lopez
of who I
::Pat McCalla
am in God and created by God.
::Pat McCalla
that's where we find
::Brandon Lopez
the truth. And so I
::Brandon Lopez
fear, you know,
::Brandon Lopez
Yep. All right. And then. Right. Yeah.
::Host
the conversation recap on this past year, and that it left you with inner peace as we navigate what's to come. As always,
::Host
thanks for your support and be sure to stay tuned for our next and final episode of the year. See you next time!
