Conquering the Victim Mentality: Balancing Faith, Choice, & Sacrifice | Ep. 96 with Preston Morrison

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Host

Welcome back to the No Gray Areas podcast. I'm your host, Patrick McCullough. Today I am so excited to introduce our guest, Preston Morrison, a beacon of wisdom who unveils how God intricately guides our journey even amidst life's uncertainties. He speaks on victim mentality, how to be obedient to sacrifice, and how we all have a plan and a purpose.

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Host

Let's get started.

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Pat McCalla

Preston Morrison, welcome to the No Gray Areas podcast. So good to have you. We have some mutual friends,

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Preston Morrison

We do.

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Preston Morrison

Much. It's a delight to be here, my man.

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Pat McCalla

well, I want to just jump into the deep end of the pool here.

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Preston Morrison

Okay, let's go.

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Pat McCalla

part of this podcast, no gray area is built around this idea of the power and complexity of human choice that we're both people faith.

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Pat McCalla

So we recognize that

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Pat McCalla

as humans were created the image of God. We're the pinnacle of God's creation. And with that came what we might call a double edged sword. Right? We have we have choice. We're not animals. We're not running on instinct. So I want to just ask you to unpack that theologically, philosophically a little bit. we often say here that we make our choices and eventually our choices make

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Preston Morrison

us,

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Preston Morrison

know, human

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Pat McCalla

beings. So,

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Pat McCalla

theologically, philosophically, unpack that a little bit. That's good and bad, right.

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Pat McCalla

the power of complexity, human choice,

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Preston Morrison

Sure. It it is.

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Preston Morrison

Good and bad, but I think it's a lot more good than it is.

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Preston Morrison

Bad.

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Preston Morrison

we have to be cognizant of how much power that really is. But in that conversation, I like to start with why? Why do because it's about freewill, that that's what the conversation is about. Why were we given free will? Why does the God of the universe, who has all power in heaven and on earth, bestow upon us the ability to choose?

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Pat McCalla

now let me just because I know you're going to, you're going to start unpacking the

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Preston Morrison

answer. Yeah,

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Pat McCalla

I love that you're asking that question. Because, again, when we get to the dark side of it, that's that that's

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Pat McCalla

connected to

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Preston Morrison

that.

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Preston Morrison

Right. Okay. For sure. Yeah. All right.

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Preston Morrison

So

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Preston Morrison

love cannot be forced. So with our kids, if I said to my son, you must love me. Well, he's pretty strong willed. He's probably going to push against me anything I try and force him to do. He's going to push in. And you can't make the case that if someone isn't allowed to choose, that they were actually able to choose love.

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Preston Morrison

Love is always given the opportunity to choose. We're not robots having said that. So of course God is not into forced marriage. All right, so we have to choose the other side of that coin. The power to choose is a lot of power. Yes. Yeah. So anybody who says there's only one way my life is going to end up, I personally don't get anywhere near the camp of what's meant for me will eventually get to me.

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Preston Morrison

I don't believe that at all. our choices do. God's will stands firm, but I have the ability with my choices to screw things up

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Preston Morrison

so.

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Preston Morrison

That.

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Preston Morrison

Absolutely.

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Preston Morrison

human responsibility.

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Preston Morrison

Absolutely.

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Preston Morrison

Absolutely.

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Preston Morrison

Intent on an.

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Preston Morrison

Absolutely.

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Preston Morrison

Divine sovereignty and human responsibility have to be held. Intention. Yes. God is sovereign, but he has chosen to give us the ability to choose. And it's an amazing thing. But I, I think if people have, what most of us call a victim mentality, that we really don't have any power, you know, that is an amazing seated, weak posture to take where?

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Preston Morrison

Well, it's kind of case for us around. Whatever's going to happen is going to happen. No, no, no. Empower yourself. You can by your choices. I could have chosen anyone like marriage. Let's say, as an example, some people say, well, there's only one. I don't believe that. And nor do I think that's romantic. How do you, after you get married, if there was only one, you get into a big fight.

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Pat McCalla

clearly not the one.

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Preston Morrison

And and you go.

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Preston Morrison

I didn't really have a choice. I don't even want to be here. But you were the one that's not nearly as romantic as waking up every day of my life and saying, I choose you all over again. There is power in choice.

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Pat McCalla

worse. We're in a worse moment right now, and I'm still choosing.

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Preston Morrison

Absolutely.

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Preston Morrison

There's power in that.

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Preston Morrison

Right? It is.

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Preston Morrison

So people who say my choice is really don't matter. That is one girl read through the book of Proverbs. That's one of the most foolish ways to live this life. Your choices in many ways dictate the outcome of your life. So when things take a dark turn, I don't like to just looking at all what was the enemy?

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Preston Morrison

You know, we don't wrestle against flesh and blood, which is of course, Ephesians six. But I had I had a role to play. I didn't somebody didn't just get me here. I had a role to play.

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Pat McCalla

James says where says you were led astray in a sin,

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Preston Morrison

Absolutely, James, you made a.

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Preston Morrison

Choice to do.

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Preston Morrison

That 100%. James also says a man divided between two opinions is unstable in all of his ways. Personally. Is that Preston? If you're going to be back and forth between this choice and this choice and never really making up your mind, here's what it creates instability in your entire life. Okay, that's an empowering passage. So I just think we have to be very mindful, that our choices aren't idols.

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Preston Morrison

We don't idolize the power of choice, but we take seriously the responsibility of all of our choices. What I say to my children is a choice. I can use words to harm. Scripture is clear the power of life and death is in my tongue. I have a choice. Yeah, I get into a hard conversation with my son, my daughter.

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Preston Morrison

What's my choice? Every choice I make has an outcome. What outcome do I want? Whatever outcome I want, then I need to rewind and go, well, then I need to make this choice.

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Pat McCalla

What did it cost? God

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Pat McCalla

doing it that way?

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Preston Morrison

Oh my word. Can you imagine being him

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Preston Morrison

think about it from Jesus perspective. He could have jumped off the cross at any point. What did it cost him his life to make up for all of our mistakes? What? What did it cost God? It cost him his best friend. Go back to the garden. Adam, his best friend, is in the garden with him.

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Preston Morrison

Unbridled fellowship with God, giving him the ability to choose. Cost him his best friends. That that is you talk about theologically. Try and wrap your mind around that. That he so wanted to be willingly loved, that he gave his best friends the power to choose. Yeah. And in doing so, they chose the wrong path.

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Preston Morrison

And

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Pat McCalla

he knew they would.

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Preston Morrison

He he.

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Preston Morrison

Totally knew.

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Preston Morrison

Where this was going to go.

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Preston Morrison

He knows the end from the beginning.

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Preston Morrison

It

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Preston Morrison

Right. It was going to eventually cost him his son. Our choosing the opposite direction of God. Scripture's clear. Paul writes it in Romans. He the plan from the beginning was his son. He knew giving us the power to choose was going to cost his son his life. That was the only way to reestablish friendship with God.

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Pat McCalla

So let let's get a little controversial right

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Preston Morrison

now. All right.

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Pat McCalla

this, because this goes back to, you talked about the victim mentality and what what if someone were to say, you know, what if I sat here and I said, okay, Preston, that sounds good to say there, but he has a choice. But there are people are just born certain ways.

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Preston Morrison

Yeah, that.

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Preston Morrison

Yeah. Here's what I would say.

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Preston Morrison

I'm not just talking about the manner

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Pat McCalla

current political

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Preston Morrison

Well,

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Preston Morrison

Right.

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Preston Morrison

Right.

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Preston Morrison

with that.

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Preston Morrison

Yeah.

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Preston Morrison

What I would say is if I were to.

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Preston Morrison

Have look at.

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Preston Morrison

Everything I was born as. So for instance, I'm six foot three, played basketball growing up, against a lot taller guys who were born to be taller than me.

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Preston Morrison

Yeah, like five, nine.

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Preston Morrison

Hey. Yeah, but you were out. You get those elbows out, bro. No no no.

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Preston Morrison

Hahaha. Hahaha.

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Preston Morrison

That's classic 130. Okay, okay.

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Preston Morrison

That's well hopefully good you then play great. Dude.

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Preston Morrison

I was just fast growing for me,

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Pat McCalla

which is why I didn't go any farther than high

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Preston Morrison

school.

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Preston Morrison

Yeah, well, I was playing guys who were much taller than me by the time I got to my senior year in high school, if I would have looked and said, well, I just. I wasn't born tall, here's what would have happened. I could shoot the three. But one of the things I was really good at, I had a nose for the ball.

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Preston Morrison

And so I, I my senior year, I averaged about 12.5 rebounds a game at six foot three, playing against guys who were 3 to 4 plus inches taller than me, if they're always two ways. So the choice we have two ways to look at everything.

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Pat McCalla

rebounder I wasn't born a rebounder because I'm only six three. That would have been one

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Preston Morrison

way right.

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Preston Morrison

And the other way is challenge accepted.

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Preston Morrison

Yeah.

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Preston Morrison

And that is the antithesis of the victim mentality. And I don't like to be disempowered. I really don't think about it like this. I don't think Scripture wants us to be to see ourselves as disempowered. Think about this. Scripture says the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives in you. Okay, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, all things through him who strengthens me.

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Preston Morrison

I have a choice. If I just adopt some mentality, well, it is what it is now man, this is the life God gave me. I want to see how much I can get out of it. Yeah. And so everything I was born into, number one, we're all born in this, in all of us. So it's an uphill battle from the beginning, so I don't want to hear it's harder for some than others.

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Preston Morrison

I get we're born into different situations. I get all of that. But some of the most successful people on the planet were born into very difficult situations.

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Pat McCalla

Sociologists that recently wrote a whole book about that basically saying some of the most successful people are successful because they came out of difficult

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Preston Morrison

You bet they're

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Preston Morrison

better.

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Preston Morrison

Exactly.

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Preston Morrison

Yeah, yeah.

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Preston Morrison

Give me the challenge.

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Pat McCalla

so, would you say that that when we talk about people being born a certain way, that that what we might say, what whatever that is, however, you fill in that blank certain way that there be a propensity, there is true that as we study the brain to understand more about the brain, that people could have a propensity towards something, but it doesn't

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Pat McCalla

determine where they end up.

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Preston Morrison

Absolutely.

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Preston Morrison

would rather give power to my choices than to somebody else's choices. So let's take, for example, someone who was sexually traumatized when they were younger, okay. Someone took something from them against their will. Okay. There are two ways to go about that. I'm either going to define myself by that for the rest of my life, and I spent a decent amount of time ministering to people.

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Preston Morrison

And so if you who have that, that's been their path. One leads to a a perpetual dark cloud in a cul de sac that never goes anywhere. When you define yourself by what someone has done to you, that's what life looks like a dark cloud in the cul de sac. But when you walk with God, I believe even through the pain and the trauma, there's it's a straight line.

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Preston Morrison

And I'm not being literal. It's just not a revolving circle.

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Pat McCalla

And that's what you mean by a dark cloud in the cul de sac. This is revolving

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Preston Morrison

circle.

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Preston Morrison

Yeah. The most frustrating thing for me is doing the same thing over and over and over again, going nowhere, because I believe even in the wilderness for 40 years with God, even though they were kind of going in a circle and they could have accomplished it a lot sooner, they were walking with God. And so the journey still mattered.

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Preston Morrison

But for us, if we define ourselves by what has happened to us, dude, we're leaving so much on the table and that's exactly what the enemy would want. Hey, this is who you are. What was done to you? No no, no. Now, yes, that happened to me. But that's not going to define me. So I'm going to take back control of the narrative.

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Pat McCalla

And you're right. That's such a powerful truth. Oppression I, we named our firstborn son Josiah. And it was because I came from a really broken home. And I remember I was in high school, and I ended up marrying my high school sweetheart. So kind of a crazy story there, but in high school, I'm looking at statistically realizing I don't have a chance of having a good family

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Preston Morrison

statistic,

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Preston Morrison

Much of a shot? No.

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Preston Morrison

Tabbed as a kid.

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Preston Morrison

Josiah

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Preston Morrison

you're saying, right?

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Preston Morrison

know

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Pat McCalla

how you were born.

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Pat McCalla

God has given us the power to choose and the power through him to overcome those things.

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Preston Morrison

look at Solomon. Solomon is another great example.

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Preston Morrison

His mother and father came together in an adulterous affair. Yeah, his older brother was lost as part of God's punishment. Solomon could have gone 1 or 2 ways. Well, my parents kind of got together and, you know, it's one of the most infamous stories in all of biblical history.

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Preston Morrison

Or he could go all in as God's man. I just think too many people come up with this narrative that I can't get past what I came out of, where I am, or what was done to me.

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Pat McCalla

What would you guess would be the percent I mean, I know this is a crazy question to ask,

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Preston Morrison

Sure.

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Pat McCalla

what would you say? You know, if you had a hundred

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Preston Morrison

people,

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Preston Morrison

Sure. I mean, obviously, we both know it's hard to, to just throw out without data. But just as a from my experience, it wouldn't surprise me if it was over 40%. Yeah.

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Preston Morrison

I mean and and growing since Covid, I bet you we probably saw a 25 to 35% increase of whatever the number was.

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Pat McCalla

Really. Why

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Preston Morrison

Yeah.

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Preston Morrison

Because I think so many people felt disempowered and it just reinforced the narrative. See, I just I can't go anywhere. I can't do anything. Someone's telling me what to do. And here it is. And and then the dark cloud in the cul de sac. And we saw it. People we never would have thought who have walked with Jesus for decades.

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Preston Morrison

We never thought they didn't, up in that dark cul de sac ended up in the cul de sac and then exiting the game. Yeah. And you go, man, this is it doesn't have to come that way. You can choose to exit the cul de sac anytime you want.

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Pat McCalla

So that's interesting. So you're thinking, you know, probably a percentage nearing half

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Preston Morrison

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Preston Morrison

that'd be my guess. Yeah.

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Pat McCalla

what is it about the victim mentality that the I mean if you're thinking almost half of the people live, what is it about the victim mentality?

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Pat McCalla

That's so enticing.

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Preston Morrison

Yeah. I'm not a psychologist. But what I would say just from the the hours of counseling I've done over the years, I think it's predictable. I think it's, many people, when given the choice between the unpredictable path and the predictable path, they will choose a lesser, predictable path. Then the unpredictable path that will involve fear, uncertainty, hard things, sacrifice.

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Preston Morrison

And so this, bro, this is that cul de sac is predictable. I know what I'm going to be doing tomorrow. Every day I know what tomorrow holds. Another left turn.

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Pat McCalla

This is. See this? Oh, man, I love this conversation because where you just took it.

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Pat McCalla

ey actually philosophers over: 2000

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Pat McCalla

And theologians are very similar to that.

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Pat McCalla

But for what you're talking about, because it's it's the one that moves us out of predictability.

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Preston Morrison

Right.

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Preston Morrison

Right.

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Preston Morrison

go. Right.

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Preston Morrison

We can't walk by faith without courage. So the connection between the philosophy and the theological, we can't walk by faith without courage. What is faith? It's the evidence of things that I'm certain.

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Preston Morrison

But I'm not sure. Like I.

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Preston Morrison

But God, I know you're with me. And even if it doesn't turn out that way, I know you're with me and it's going to be okay. And your word says you will direct the steps of the godly. And even if it goes away, I don't. It's okay. But you can't walk by faith and not have courage.

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Pat McCalla

Because faith is, I just talk the whole idea of faith. And you just quoted the

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Preston Morrison

Substance of things hoped for evidence.

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Preston Morrison

Right.

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Preston Morrison

But I know who God is.

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Preston Morrison

Yes,

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Pat McCalla

but I know who God is.

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Pat McCalla

Yeah. And but the predictability of life is just staying in that. And that is the victim mentality is very predictable.

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Preston Morrison

But that's the fun part of life is not knowing what tomorrow holds. But if I listen, if I was your enemy, you know what I would try and do? I would try and scare you into being afraid of what tomorrow holds so that you get stuck perpetually in today. Because then I'm neutralized you as a threat to me.

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Preston Morrison

Just just stay where you are today. That's the safest thing to do.

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Preston Morrison

If I was you audience

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Pat McCalla

to. This that that is

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Preston Morrison

So if I was your enemy, I would try and scare you so much. So in regards to tomorrow that you just choose to stay stuck perpetually in today. Because then I've neutralized you as a threat. I don't have to worry about you messing with me as your enemy tomorrow. If I get you to keep choosing to stay where you are today.

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Preston Morrison

And as God's people, we have the benefit of following the one who knows the end from the beginning.

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Preston Morrison

Yeah.

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Preston Morrison

I don't want to know what tomorrow holds because you know what I've learned? If his ways are higher than my ways and his thoughts are higher than my thoughts, surprise me, surprise me. Some of the some of the most awesome moments of my life I never saw coming.

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Pat McCalla

I agree, this is why I also believe that the goodness of God might be the skeletal system that all our theology hangs on

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Preston Morrison

It's great

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Preston Morrison

Sure.

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Preston Morrison

So

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Preston Morrison

That's great.

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Preston Morrison

Good.

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Preston Morrison

right

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Pat McCalla

creation and,

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Pat McCalla

but then, of course, we fell off the tracks pretty quickly.

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Preston Morrison

I would take some of the things you believe God has said to you about tomorrow.

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Preston Morrison

And I would try and twist them. I would take the diamond of a word from the Lord and turn it just like this, and get you to see how much it was going to cost you, how much opposition you were going to have to experience.

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Preston Morrison

If you said yes to this, I would mount a case against your future to scare the living daylights out of you so that you never step into it. Most people are afraid of sacrifice. They'll just start there once. And Jesus said, hey, if you're going to follow me, you you better just get acquainted with sacrifice. Carrying your cross every day is the epitome of sacrifice, not of success.

:: 20:55:17

Preston Morrison

It's an upside down kingdom. Yeah. So when we start with sacrifice, people are like, oh no, bro, I'm out, I'm out. So I think the enemy is like, do you know how much this is going to cost? He doesn't even argue with the word God said. He might try with some who have, you know, really heavy battles with insecurity to go.

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Preston Morrison

Who are you to pull this off? And I've seen that. But I think oftentimes he doesn't even disagree with the call.

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Preston Morrison

He comes and twists it this way and goes, do you even know what this is going to cost you?

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Pat McCalla

How would you define sacrifice?

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Preston Morrison

well, God goes on record and he says, this is my paraphrase.

:: 21:32:28

Preston Morrison

I think his favorite thing we talk about obedience and sacrifice, sacrifices. Great. God says obedience is better. But I think the one that trumps them both is obedience. Sacrifice. Here's what obedience sacrifices to me. Anything God asks me for, God gets. So I'll give you an example.

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Preston Morrison

I'm 40, about to be 46. My wife is 48. our youngest. We have three. Our youngest, is a year away from graduating high school. when I proposed to my wife while I was down on one knee, I laid out a plan to be empty nesters before we are 50.

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Preston Morrison

Okay, as part of my speech, I'm,

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Preston Morrison

about four years ago, five years ago now.

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Preston Morrison

We got a call. My wife works in a ministry with young moms who get pregnant in an unplanned fashion. And we got a call from one of these young women. CPS had taken her six month old son, and she was sobbing, and she wanted us to take him. So they didn't get stuck in the system until she could get him back.

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Preston Morrison

So we raise from six months old for the next ten months of his life. We raise this little boy, Covid happens. He goes back to his parents two years later, the week of Easter, we get another call from CPS, not from her, this time directly from the state. It's saying he spent the night in our office last night.

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Preston Morrison

And would you be open to taking him? We've had him for two more years and we adopt him in two weeks.

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Preston Morrison

That was never real. That was never my buddy. That was not when I was on one knee. I did not say to my bride, he is five and a half, and we've had him for three of his five and a half years.

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Preston Morrison

Over three

:: 23:24:10

Pat McCalla

going to stall out at 49 for a

:: 23:26:02

Preston Morrison

But I'm going to when he when he walks. Yeah. When he walks I'm going to be 60.

:: 23:30:08

Preston Morrison

I mean literally that was not the plan. But here's what happened. Time and time again I felt the Lord continue to ask me, Will you do this for me? And it took me two years to wrestle. I kept saying, no, no, no, this wasn't the plan. How could a 60 year old be good for this kid when he's 18?

:: 23:48:01

Preston Morrison

I'll be 60. Or that that can't be the best option in hundreds of times. We do this for me. Here's what sacrifices anything God asks for, which you hesitate to give him. And it could be small and it can be huge. But I will say this any time we obediently give him something he's asking for, his response is always immeasurably better than whatever it cost us.

:: 24:16:12

Preston Morrison

And I'm not saying name in that clamor I get. I'm talking about just from him. His pleasure in our obedience is better than life itself.

:: 24:25:25

Pat McCalla

Obedience, sacrifice. I like that, you know. And I know you. You referring to the story, right? With, Saul? You know, obedience is

:: 24:33:19

Pat McCalla

sacrifice. But I like how you've said. But what's

:: 24:36:05

Preston Morrison

Trumps in both.

:: 24:44:18

Preston Morrison

Well, first.

:: 24:45:03

Preston Morrison

It's based on scripture, in my opinion, as a believer. So for instance, Peter says, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, husbands, treat your wives in the way in which you should so that your prayers will not go unanswered. Okay? So he tells me, Paul, multiple times in Scripture, I am told as a husband how I am to live for my wife.

:: 25:04:13

Preston Morrison

I'm to lay my life down for God. So every day my responsibility is to find a new way to die for my wife. Because Jesus did that for his bride, the church, he commissions me to do that for my bride. So I think with my marriage, with my kids, in my job, to me, one of the cheat codes to life is laying down what we most want to hold on to.

:: 25:36:03

Preston Morrison

And the biggest sacrifices my wife and I have made that God's asked for having end up being some of the biggest turning points in our lives. But again, if I were your enemy,

:: 25:46:16

Preston Morrison

every time God asks you for something big to sacrifice, bro, I would sneak my way right into your ear hole and I would start going, yeah, bro, do the math.

:: 25:56:12

Preston Morrison

You know you're not gonna have anything left. If you do that, you're not going to be able to make the next move. And here's one of the things I try to tell people. Every voice you hear there four options. Your own. The voice of others, the voice of God, the voice of God's enemy. Wisdom says as quickly as possible, identify whose voice you're hearing.

:: 26:17:07

Pat McCalla

press.

:: 26:17:15

Pat McCalla

And that's a great that's a that's powerful.

:: 26:19:27

Pat McCalla

So again, I want our audience to just hear that again that that because we're always we're hearing voices

:: 26:24:28

Preston Morrison

all.

:: 26:25:09

Preston Morrison

The time.

:: 26:27:02

Preston Morrison

on right ahead

:: 26:36:29

Preston Morrison

right?

:: 26:38:11

Preston Morrison

right?

:: 26:40:29

Preston Morrison

Right? Yeah.

:: 26:45:11

Preston Morrison

is exactly.

:: 26:46:10

Preston Morrison

You know, how many bad choices are made because we misidentified the voice we're hearing? Oh, well, that has to be God. Does it? Yeah. Does it line up with his word? Does it line up with his character? Sometimes people make choices and it's the enemy's voice they're hearing now. God's.

:: 27:02:06

Pat McCalla

They've convinced

:: 27:02:29

Preston Morrison

Exactly.

:: 27:04:00

Preston Morrison

Yeah.

:: 27:08:06

Preston Morrison

Absolutely.

:: 27:09:22

Preston Morrison

would rather go slowly and walk according to his word than move quickly. Helter skelter and then end up making huge life mistakes because I misidentified the voice.

:: 27:22:05

Pat McCalla

What do you do with the choices now? I'm just having so much fun with this conversation. What do you do with the choices? We're kind of bouncing all over,

:: 27:29:06

Pat McCalla

but okay, there's some choices that we make sometimes. And we you hear this all the time. Like, I've been praying about where I go to school and I just it's God's not answering.

:: 27:35:26

Pat McCalla

And and I love that verse in Isaiah where it says, whether you go to the right or to the

:: 27:39:10

Preston Morrison

Yeah.

:: 27:40:21

Preston Morrison

Right.

:: 27:47:08

Preston Morrison

right. Those

:: 27:47:27

Pat McCalla

four choices right?

:: 27:48:21

Pat McCalla

Me enemy,

:: 27:50:13

Preston Morrison

Others.

:: 27:51:09

Preston Morrison

Yeah. God. Yeah.

:: 27:59:17

Preston Morrison

Yeah. It's great. Here's what I tell people.

:: 28:02:01

Preston Morrison

does God tell you where to eat lunch every day now? No. There are certain choices. He. He has an outcome.

:: 28:09:28

Preston Morrison

And whether I go to this.

:: 28:11:18

Preston Morrison

Chick fil A's got to Chipotle. He's got to be up there too. That's it. Let's be real, bro. You've always got to be up there too. And especially when they have that, chicken out pastor.

:: 28:19:00

Preston Morrison

that's that's a heavenly meal. but I would say, you know, if, if we're looking at, what is the best way for me to walk out my life, anyone who says, Lord, I just want to do what you want me to do, well, that's a good thing. That is an admirable desire, and God's going to honor that.

:: 28:39:25

Preston Morrison

So if my heart is as pure as I can keep it, I'm not trying to do things out of an vain ambition. in rebellion to God. But I don't hear him. To me, it means one of two things. It's not yet time to make the decision. And so I need to wait on the Lord. Or if a decision has to be made.

:: 28:58:18

Preston Morrison

And I don't hear the Lord and nothing is off. Okay? I have to throw that out. If nothing is off within me,

:: 29:03:28

Preston Morrison

then I look and I go, well, it appears to me that God is treating this like lunch. He don't care if I go to Chipotle or to Chick-Fil-A.

:: 29:12:05

Pat McCalla

I like

:: 29:12:16

Preston Morrison

that he's going to bless me. That's a left or right.

:: 29:15:05

Pat McCalla

I really like that lunch analogy because I thought the same thing. I thought, you know, that's again goes back to the power and complexity of choice that God has given us a lot of choices, that sometimes you're praying which school to go to. And, and there are times if everything's right,

:: 29:26:15

Preston Morrison

Absolutely.

:: 29:32:15

Preston Morrison

right,

:: 29:35:13

Preston Morrison

Right?

:: 29:36:01

Pat McCalla

So kind of like lunch. It's

:: 29:37:23

Preston Morrison

Yeah.

:: 29:39:23

Preston Morrison

We over complicate things. We really do. And the heart of it I think is, is pure. We just don't want to get it wrong. But I think sometimes because we over complicate things, we kind of get that, analysis paralysis thing going on and then we get gun shy about making decisions and what's what is the desired outcome God has that we would bring glory to him.

:: 30:03:06

Preston Morrison

Yeah.

:: 30:04:08

Preston Morrison

Well, if I go right, I can find a way to bring him glory. If I go left, I can find a way to bring him glory. It's just not that complicated. And to your point, sometimes there is one of the two directions that will bring him more glory. And so I believe he says, Preston, this time we're going left.

:: 30:22:09

Preston Morrison

Okay, great. But at 45, almost 46, man, I don't stress if he's not hammering down at the beginning when I devote myself to prayer, then I go, okay, this is not one of those choices. You're going to get glory either way.

:: 30:36:06

Pat McCalla

And that's why I love that I say a passage right or

:: 30:38:14

Preston Morrison

Right.

:: 30:39:29

Preston Morrison

Right

:: 30:40:23

Pat McCalla

Either way. Well, you brought up another really good point. I don't want our audience to miss that either. Where you were talking about, pausing that sometimes, if he's not telling you, maybe it's time to pause. So someone like me, I'm just wired this way.

:: 30:52:08

Pat McCalla

Ready. Fire!

:: 30:52:26

Preston Morrison

Yeah,

:: 30:54:15

Preston Morrison

sure there's

:: 30:57:01

Preston Morrison

right?

:: 30:58:05

Preston Morrison

Yeah, just mentioned it.

:: 31:14:27

Preston Morrison

right?

:: 31:18:19

Preston Morrison

right?

:: 31:21:09

Preston Morrison

Yeah, well.

:: 31:23:02

Preston Morrison

Go back to Abraham a lot,

:: 31:24:22

Preston Morrison

lot pick. Scripture says what? Look the best to his eyes. Okay, so what's wild? He in the relationship. He was the lesser of the two. And Abraham gives him the ability to choose first. Okay, now that is a gutsy move. And what what does that do? According to what he sees, he picks the best option, the most fertile ground.

:: 31:49:14

Preston Morrison

Okay, one slot walks off. What does God say to Abraham? Do it 360 degree turn, including where a lot is walking. I'm giving you all of it. Abraham. The point was that who gets that? Who gets this? The point is, who am I with him? And buddy, I'm with you. I'm not against slot and I'm going to save him because of you.

:: 32:15:15

Preston Morrison

But I'm with you. And because I'm with you. You don't have to stress about this or this. This is the way God set it up for his people. We are a people who follow the pillar.

:: 32:27:13

Pat McCalla

well, in Preston, that's, That's such hope for people again that get get tied up in that analysis paralysis. They're going like, what if I make if I don't go to the right school, I'm not going to meet the one

:: 32:38:00

Preston Morrison

Right?

:: 32:38:15

Preston Morrison

He

:: 32:45:08

Preston Morrison

right. I didn't

:: 32:46:29

Preston Morrison

Right? And I would stop that person and go, is that how God talks?

:: 32:50:26

Preston Morrison

Has God ever seated on the throne? Has he ever gone? If if she goes here, what's going to happen? This isn't going to happen. Has God.

:: 33:00:03

Preston Morrison

Ever.

:: 33:00:23

Preston Morrison

Entered a conversation like that? Never. And he never will because he already knows the end from the beginning, and he can direct the king's heart like a stream of water.

:: 33:12:04

Pat McCalla

And that's coming back to that theologically, those two things that we just have to hold that are both taught so clearly in Scripture that the God is sovereign, he knows the end from the beginning, and he's given us the power and complexity of choice. How do those go together? my finite mind can't completely answer that for sure.

:: 33:28:13

Pat McCalla

Isaiah.

:: 33:29:10

Preston Morrison

His ways are higher than my

:: 33:33:10

Preston Morrison

earth. Yeah,

:: 33:37:14

Preston Morrison

Right.

:: 33:39:06

Preston Morrison

I think the important thing is taking the pressure off of ourselves to get it right. Some of the biggest mistakes I've made in my career ended up being some of the best education I've ever received, and I had to be reminded by the Lord. I am the God Preston who redeems. I will take your trash and turn it into a measure of education.

:: 34:02:12

Preston Morrison

No seminary in the world could have given you off of a mistake. Man. One of my my biggest mistakes in my career ended up being something at the time. It probably cost about $25,000 over my career because it's related to hiring, probably saves our organization millions of dollars. And I've just learned, even my mistakes when I walk with the Lord.

:: 34:28:00

Preston Morrison

I'm not. I'm not saying I'm a proponent of just being stupid, and but even when I stumble, God redeems my misstep,

:: 34:36:18

Preston Morrison

gives me an education that helps me step in an even better manner as I continue forward,

:: 34:42:03

Pat McCalla

isn't it.

:: 34:42:24

Pat McCalla

You know, I just sit here and I listen to you talking and I'm just reminding God again how good God

:: 34:47:16

Preston Morrison

is.

:: 35:04:08

Preston Morrison

I think it is too much pressure. Honestly, I do, because we're his children. And I think

:: 35:09:16

Preston Morrison

when we see it as you're just a little boy. I'm a little boy. Jesus said, you can't come to me unless you're like that little child. We want to please our father. And I think without realizing it, we put a lot of pressure on ourselves.

:: 35:22:29

Preston Morrison

Not to disappoint him.

:: 35:24:06

Preston Morrison

I

:: 35:24:12

Pat McCalla

think the term I was trying to come up with was something to the idea of, like, too much. We put too much power in our future. We

:: 35:30:03

Preston Morrison

That's great.

:: 35:30:23

Preston Morrison

Yeah,

:: 35:31:29

Preston Morrison

Right? But that's like, you can't redeem.

:: 35:34:06

Preston Morrison

That

:: 35:47:15

Preston Morrison

Exactly.

:: 35:51:13

Preston Morrison

Yeah,

:: 35:52:21

Preston Morrison

100%. And I one of the stories I like to kind of remind people of is Noah. God gives Noah the blueprint for the boat. And the one thing missing in this boat is a steering wheel. And I believe.

:: 36:03:27

Preston Morrison

It is.

:: 36:04:13

Preston Morrison

The most under reference.

:: 36:06:04

Preston Morrison

Thing in the Old Testament, bro.

:: 36:08:10

Preston Morrison

Because God's saying, hey, listen, Preston,

:: 36:10:28

Preston Morrison

I've made you a certain way and you're going to put a little too much pressure on yourself. And to your point, you're going to convince yourself you have a little more power than you actually do. Listen, this boat that you're in called your life. I steer, and I will make sure you don't even know how to get where I want it to go.

:: 36:27:18

Preston Morrison

Preston. Wow. How Noah didn't even know where God wanted him to end up. And he got exactly where God wanted. Why? Because God got in there. Yeah, and I think that is the narrative of our lives. Yeah. Some days he may have veered off track. And what would God do? He would cause the divine wind to come and put him back in the direction he was meant to go.

:: 36:49:28

Preston Morrison

And when it was time to arrive in the place God desired because Noah was following God, he got there right on time.

:: 36:57:23

Pat McCalla

man, we just can't lose in this thing, can

:: 36:59:08

Preston Morrison

Muddy. This is what the point.

:: 37:00:25

Preston Morrison

Is, the beauty of it.

:: 37:02:27

Preston Morrison

This is why we should play so much more aggressively than we do. That's why we gotta get out of this victim thing. We got to get on the offensive.

:: 37:09:15

Pat McCalla

Unpack that a little bit more. Why would you say that. Because again some would be like well I can't lose. So I, I'm going to sit back and, and it could lead to complacency. And you're going no no no no it should

:: 37:18:19

Preston Morrison

No it's the opposite. Yeah. Yeah this.

:: 37:20:11

Preston Morrison

Is probably a horrific.

:: 37:21:13

Preston Morrison

Analogy. So you may even want to gut this out. but if we were sitting at a blackjack table okay. And we get, we got on a heater.

:: 37:31:08

Preston Morrison

I mean, we're just on a roll. You have one of two options. You can continue to play scared, but if it's one of those you're about to win 12 to 14 hands. What does wisdom say?

:: 37:42:08

Preston Morrison

I know some people are going to have the biggest problem with this. I'm just using it as an example.

:: 37:45:29

Preston Morrison

What is a wise double down, bro?

:: 37:48:21

Preston Morrison

and don't get foolish once it's over be done. But man, while I while I've got the momentum, here's what the Bible would call it. Remove it from gambling stewardship. Stewardship.

:: 38:02:00

Preston Morrison

That's exactly right.

:: 38:03:12

Preston Morrison

So get it out there, get it in play, build the kingdom with it. And when you realize the wind of God is at your back, don't stay in the harbor. The most foolish thing we can do is just sit there when God is on the move in our lives.

:: 38:18:17

Pat McCalla

And we sit there again because again this goes back to something. We're circling back around something you said earlier. We sit there, I'm going to use your analogy of sitting in the harbor with a it's safe in the

:: 38:26:25

Preston Morrison

harbor.

:: 38:27:02

Preston Morrison

Exactly.

:: 38:36:11

Preston Morrison

in the cul de sac?

:: 38:37:15

Preston Morrison

Yeah.

:: 38:39:12

Preston Morrison

Right. Just

:: 38:46:02

Preston Morrison

faith. Right.

:: 38:48:17

Preston Morrison

No. And there Paul would never have the testimony he he got if he wouldn't have had the guts to get out of the harbor to be shipwrecked. Yeah. So that the faithfulness and power of God could be revealed through his life time and time again, the men and women God used all throughout Scripture had to take the biggest steps to leave what was comfortable, leave what was certain and predictable.

:: 39:14:09

Preston Morrison

Make the jump and imagine being the one who stands before the Red sea and God goes, lift your hands up. What do you mean lift my hands up? Do you not see the army coming behind me? You hear all these people griping in the line behind me? Lift my arms up. What are you talking about? Where are the boats?

:: 39:34:04

Preston Morrison

Yeah, yeah.

:: 39:35:06

Preston Morrison

Hey, but you don't have enough time for boats. Lift your hands up. Can you imagine the courage it took to stand in front of all those griping people behind him? Wow. The army of Egypt is setting in and go. Yeah, and what happen? We're still talking about what happened next to this day, buddy, I am just a little boy who by the end of my life, I just want one, at least one divine moment where only God could take credit for what went down that my grandchildren are telling to their children.

:: 40:13:01

Pat McCalla

And we don't get that thing in the harbor.

:: 40:14:20

Preston Morrison

buddy.

:: 40:23:06

Preston Morrison

The easy path will never produce divine results.

:: 40:26:20

Pat McCalla

yeah yeah. The the easy path.

:: 40:29:26

Preston Morrison

Will never produce divine results.

:: 40:33:02

Preston Morrison

True.

:: 40:33:22

Pat McCalla

And, you know, honestly, Preston, we can actually just take this out of, like you're saying, divine. Let's just take it out of that, which I know we can't

:: 40:41:08

Preston Morrison

Sure. Yeah, I'm trying, you know.

:: 40:43:01

Preston Morrison

Yeah, right.

:: 40:48:12

Preston Morrison

right.

:: 41:00:23

Preston Morrison

right?

:: 41:04:07

Preston Morrison

Nothing replaces the hard work. Nothing.

:: 41:07:07

Preston Morrison

I just saw the best bodybuilder.

:: 41:08:24

Preston Morrison

In the world right now. Chris Bumstead

:: 41:11:13

Preston Morrison

was talking about nothing. I have the best team on the planet who can tell me how to get every fiber of my body in its best possible spot, but nothing replaces hard work.

:: 41:22:28

Pat McCalla

So let me as we as we wrap up here, let me ask you a question. It's a little unfair because I've already thought through it because I'm the host.

:: 41:29:15

Preston Morrison

so.

:: 41:29:28

Preston Morrison

I love it.

:: 41:30:18

Pat McCalla

I was going to ask you.

:: 41:43:19

Pat McCalla

if you had to put just your journey and I'm stepping out of everything we just talked about.

:: 41:47:24

Pat McCalla

I'm just asking. You're in your journey right now. Some of the things that God's been teaching you in the last weeks, months, maybe days, maybe years. If you had to put that into one word, what would it be for you? And then I'll share mine. But I this is where it's unfair, because I got some

:: 42:01:16

Preston Morrison

No, no, I love it. I love being on this for.

:: 42:05:06

Preston Morrison

I probably can't do it in one word because I'm more of a one liner kind of a guy. But here's how I would say it. God moves excruciatingly slowly until he moves supernaturally, quickly.

:: 42:18:13

Pat McCalla

Oh,

:: 42:19:16

Preston Morrison

he has had me.

:: 42:20:24

Preston Morrison

In some accidents

:: 42:22:12

Preston Morrison

are driving listening to the

:: 42:25:23

Preston Morrison

It you read through Scripture time and time again. God takes people to the back side of the mountain. Moses, David. I mean every man and woman. God used. Esther,

:: 42:34:21

Preston Morrison

every man and woman of God. There is a crushing and a waiting period of preparation. And we're all in such a hurry to enter the moment, our time, and what I feel like the Lord's taught me, in this last season, is never underestimate the power of being prepared.

:: 42:54:05

Preston Morrison

And the reason. Preston, I take you out behind the backside of the mountain, where no one knows you even exist, is to prepare you for something I alone want to do through you that you'll never be able to take credit for. And so our responsibility is to respond to the Lord and say, your will be done.

:: 43:10:15

Pat McCalla

Okay. So on that note, let me put you on the spot and ask you a question. My daughter asked me this years ago, so I posted the Seneca quote, that the Greek philosopher who said no wind is favorable if you don't know which port you're going to. And my daughter, she was an adult at the time, and she's still an adult.

:: 43:28:14

Pat McCalla

But, I mean, she had she was past being a child at this time. She she's not living on her own. And she she texted me and she goes, okay, dad, but what happens when there's no wind? She was talking about? She was in one of those places where there she was

:: 43:39:04

Preston Morrison

in the wilderness, if you will.

:: 43:40:29

Preston Morrison

Yeah.

:: 43:44:26

Preston Morrison

Yeah.

:: 43:48:04

Preston Morrison

It's a great question

:: 43:50:22

Preston Morrison

Right.

:: 43:51:15

Preston Morrison

But it's a.

:: 43:52:03

Preston Morrison

Really easy answer.

:: 43:52:29

Preston Morrison

Yeah, it really is.

:: 43:54:17

Preston Morrison

When there's no wind, I believe there's always a reason. And here's the reason. Strength in the boat. the boat is about to go through storms. You don't see it coming. And God is giving you time, natural time to be supernaturally prepared. So strengthen the boat. Don't just sit in the sun and. Oh, man, no clouds, no wind.

:: 44:15:12

Preston Morrison

This is a beautiful harbor. You know. This is on. Now get below deck. Strengthen the bow of the bow because it is going to encounter some choppy seas that if you don't strengthen that boat, it will be sunk.

:: 44:31:27

Pat McCalla

So good, bro. By the way, we answered that that you said way more

:: 44:36:25

Preston Morrison

eloquent.

:: 44:37:02

Preston Morrison

No, I but

:: 44:38:06

Preston Morrison

I can tell.

:: 44:39:05

Preston Morrison

But

:: 44:39:13

Pat McCalla

was I was I was just saying, you know, you know, what a good sailor does at that point. They start mending the sails

:: 44:44:06

Pat McCalla

when the wind's blowing. They don't have. They got the ship does when they mend the sails is when they swab the deck.

:: 44:48:26

Preston Morrison

Yeah. When they

:: 44:51:09

Preston Morrison

boat.

:: 45:01:08

Preston Morrison

Yeah.

:: 45:01:27

Pat McCalla

tell us what does that look like for them okay, great.

:: 45:04:09

Pat McCalla

What does it mean to to to to mend the boat and get it ready.

:: 45:07:23

Preston Morrison

Yeah. For me today.

:: 45:09:06

Preston Morrison

Well I think there's two different paths.

:: 45:10:16

Preston Morrison

One if, if they're a Christ follower, if there's an answer and if they're not a Christ follower, there's another answer. as a Christ follower, to me it always starts with drawing as near to God as possible. The the future of my life will not come down to my strength or my gifts. It will come down to my proximity to God.

:: 45:28:17

Preston Morrison

Okay, but and what I'm about to say for somebody who doesn't believe in Jesus yet still applies to the believer. but here's what I would say. and it goes back to the answer we've given only now more practical, go to the six areas of your life, so spiritual, the emotional, the physical, the financial, the relational and the professional.

:: 45:52:01

Preston Morrison

I think those are the six major areas of life. Do an assessment of all six areas that that is preparing get mending the sails. Maybe emotionally they're in a rough state. Okay. Are some emotional stormy seas coming that will take you out. So work on it now while you have a chance. Get into therapy, get some emotional coaching and go through every area like that.

:: 46:16:12

Pat McCalla

You know, when I, when I was thinking about that I, I participatory is my word

:: 46:20:21

Preston Morrison

You know what it is.

:: 46:54:21

Preston Morrison

you choose.

:: 47:14:09

Preston Morrison

do it through you guys, right?

:: 47:15:14

Preston Morrison

You're going to

:: 47:17:28

Preston Morrison

right.

:: 47:22:08

Preston Morrison

that's incredible. Yeah.

:: 47:23:26

Preston Morrison

That God would partner where would ever want us to partner with him. But then even in our missteps that he would say, I'm going to reveal my goodness through even your badness, Preston. I'm going to reveal my rightness, even through your wrongness. And I'm not going to hold it against you.

:: 47:43:11

Preston Morrison

You're not going to change it.

:: 47:44:19

Preston Morrison

Exactly. And you just.

:: 47:45:25

Preston Morrison

Go, this seems too good to be true. And that's how you know we're starting to get closer, buddy. It's Grace, all of it. It's just it seems too good to be true.

:: 47:57:08

Pat McCalla

I always told myself when I was younger my my late 20s, when I started to really understand Grace a little better. And I say better because I never I think

:: 48:05:05

Preston Morrison

Right. Absolutely.

:: 48:12:24

Preston Morrison

Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

:: 48:14:10

Preston Morrison

I think what

:: 48:14:23

Pat McCalla

you just brought up is another one. When,

:: 48:16:15

Pat McCalla

we begin to be overwhelmed a little bit with it, like, this is too good to be true. That's when you know that you're on the track of understanding

:: 48:24:21

Preston Morrison

It's great for us. Yeah. When you

:: 48:31:08

Preston Morrison

Right? You're on the right. You're on it, right? I love your word participatory.

:: 48:34:26

Preston Morrison

That that is a savage word. And it makes me think of, you know, when Jesus says to his disciples and it's often overlooked, he says, let's go to the other side of the lake together. I think we as humans get so focused on the what we're doing and where we're going. And Jesus just says, you know, my favorite thing is it isn't about where we end up and isn't about how we get there.

:: 48:56:21

Preston Morrison

It's just doing it together, participatory, doing it together. And you go, you're the God of the universe, and your favorite thing is to do things with me.

:: 49:07:17

Pat McCalla

Yeah,

:: 49:08:04

Preston Morrison

and what?

:: 49:09:04

Preston Morrison

Yeah.

:: 49:36:12

Preston Morrison

Yeah,

:: 49:41:23

Preston Morrison

one.

:: 49:42:02

Preston Morrison

Hundred percent.

:: 49:51:20

Preston Morrison

that I make, right?

:: 49:54:04

Preston Morrison

of my life. Yeah,

:: 49:55:10

Pat McCalla

more than than anything else.

:: 49:57:14

Pat McCalla

yeah. And that's the participatory part again. So.

:: 49:59:15

Preston Morrison

it's beautiful,

:: 50:02:10

Preston Morrison

pledge you

:: 50:05:09

Preston Morrison

is fun.

:: 50:06:14

Pat McCalla

so I appreciate it.

:: 50:07:21

Pat McCalla

one of the fun things we do at the end is the two truths and a lie.

:: 50:10:01

Pat McCalla

And, I don't know. Are

:: 50:11:04

Preston Morrison

Yeah, yeah.

:: 50:16:07

Preston Morrison

That's okay.

:: 50:16:28

Pat McCalla

so three statements.

:: 50:18:08

Preston Morrison

Okay.

:: 50:23:26

Preston Morrison

okay,

:: 50:24:22

Preston Morrison

all state basketball player.

:: 50:27:15

Preston Morrison

All state choir. Played the French horn.

:: 50:32:19

Pat McCalla

basketball player is true.

:: 50:34:06

Preston Morrison

That's true.

:: 50:40:01

Preston Morrison

Well I don't know about that. I was a skinny I was about a buck 45. Yeah. Yeah he was you're you're right

:: 50:45:21

Pat McCalla

led rebounds. That's what I was thinking about when you were talking about that earlier. I'm like

:: 50:48:21

Pat McCalla

last guy in the NBA that should have been leading the that season. That he led with rebounding was A64 guy playing was a bunch of seven footers you know.

:: 50:56:08

Pat McCalla

So okay so now we're down to All-State

:: 50:59:08

Preston Morrison

Choir.

:: 51:00:13

Preston Morrison

And played the French horn.

:: 51:03:23

Pat McCalla

I'm going to say the French horn is the lie that you were All-State choir because you got a great radio voice. So I'm going

:: 51:10:17

Preston Morrison

to go I bet

:: 51:12:26

Preston Morrison

I've played the French horn and I, I would carry I would carry it down the bus aisle every day. it was quite a memory for me.

:: 51:21:19

Pat McCalla

Yeah, yeah. So you were all Saint basketball and

:: 51:24:18

Preston Morrison

Play the French horn. Yeah, it was quite a combo.

:: 51:28:28

Preston Morrison

I don't know, they don't really do that anymore now. Yeah. No.

:: 51:38:14

Preston Morrison

My pleasure.

:: 51:39:15

Pat McCalla

I really hope our audience takes to heart some of the things you talked about.

:: 51:42:16

Preston Morrison

really enjoyed it. Thanks for having me on.

:: 51:44:12

Host

As we conclude this episode with Preston, may this conversation remind us of the connection between our choices, God's unwavering plan for our lives. Also, remember to subscribe to No Gray Areas on YouTube and leave us a comment. Something you took away from this interview? See you next time.