Soliloquium

Frank Koehn: Well, most of the time when the introductory music fades away and the cameras go live, there's three of us on here, but today there's just me. Sorry about that. But my fellow co hosts, my cronies in crime that are usually on here with me, are away at a business conference and they're pretty tied up. They're busy. so we didn't have an opportunity Monday evening to record a podcast episode like we normally do. So here I am, and I do have a few things I want to say. It it won't be long, but I've been thinking about this podcast. And we started it January one. We we released our first episode January one of this year. And it has been so much fun. And I just want to thank all of you that have been listening. And that have given us encouragement and have called us or messaged us and told us a little bit about yourself and some of the struggles and challenges that you have. And and it's just been great. that's not something that I really anticipated happening. I really didn't have much anticipation when we started this thing. but we started it and we kind of started it as a Bible study, if you remember. We were studying in Colossians. then we kind of transitioned into just talking about life, and that seemed to work a lot better. We we really enjoy that. And then we've had a few guests on here and there, and I'm gonna talk more about that in a minute. But this whole thing has just kind of evolved and it's been great. It's been one of the the coolest experiences that I've had in a long time. And the thing that I really enjoy about it is it gives me an hour every week. where I can get together with a couple of guys that love Jesus and that are facing challenges just like I'm facing and we can talk about things. And then putting it out for the world to to have access to it, that's just kind of a a bonus thing. And I've been shocked how many people have actually listened to it. It's just amazing to me. I I did not anticipate that. And once again, thanks for listening. I'm I'm both shocked and enthused. And the part of of people reaching out and telling us about themselves and their struggles has been very rewarding, a little bit challenging at times because we're all broken humans and some of us have some heavy stuff that we're walking through. But it's been really good to hear from from people that have have been through and are going through things kinda like the three of us did in leaving the religion and learning to know Jesus and all of that. So It's been interesting. like I said, we released the first episode January one and I think we've put an episode out every Friday morning since then. Now there was this one episode back on April nine where we we it was just me. It was another solo episode and I recorded it driving down the road in a U Haul truck because we had this we had this plan. I was driving a U Haul truck from Georgia to Kansas and Kent was flying into Kansas for a a funeral, I think, or something. You know, I don't know. He was flying into Kansas and Alex, he was at home in Georgia, and we were like, this is gonna work fine. I I rented a hotel room in Kansas City, I think it was, and or maybe it was Wichita, can't remember. And Kent flew in, but his plane was late. So he couldn't record anything. He got in too late to do anything. So the next day I was riding down the road and didn't have anything to do anyway, so I turned my camera on and I recorded a a short episode there riding down the road. So I don't know if that counts as an episode or not, but we've been pretty faithful in in putting an episode out every Friday morning. So maybe I'll put this out Friday morning. I don't know. I can't decide if if if I will or not, but we'll see. Maybe I will. And so that's what we've been doing. And The purpose of the podcast, which we've talked about this in some of our other, you know, some of our other episodes, but we want to be an encouragement to other people. And what I said earlier about people reaching out to us has made me realize that maybe this thing we're doing can actually make a difference in a few people's lives. And that makes me really enthused. And that's what we want to do. And So that's what we're going to continue to do going forward. Our purpose is to lift up Jesus. That's really what what we're here for. And that's what we're enthused about. I was listening to a podcast today. I'll just tell you about it. it's it's not a podcast that I would maybe normally listen to, but I know this lady, she's a realtor that I work with quite a bit. I do a lot of work for their for their company. So she and her personal assistant started this podcast that's called That's a Long Story. I think that's the name of it. And anyway, it's two ladies talking, but I was like, you know what? I'll listen to it and see what's up. For sure, because I know the lady, you know, the realtor. And so I did. I listened to two episodes of it. They've put out two episodes so far, and I listened to both of them. And it was kind of interesting, to be honest with you. And The reason I'm telling you about this is because in this episode, the the personal assistant, her name is Candace, she made a comment about not being very enthused about organized religion. And it caught my attention because I feel the same way. And I think there's a lot of people out there who have those same feelings. And I don't know what to think of that because I grew up in organized religion, in a very conservative religion that was I believe putting Putting the religion before Jesus. And so that's not a good thing. And I think that can happen. And I think a lot of people have had that kind of an experience, maybe with their religious upbringing or whatever. And so that's one of the things that with this podcast that we always want to lift up Jesus. Now, I don't I'm not very enthused about organized religion, but this may sound contradictory, but I do love my church. I do go to church. I'm a member of a church, actually, and I'm quite active in my church. But I still maintain that I'm not very enthused about organized religion. And I think the reason that I like my church so much is because there's a lot more Jesus there than there is religion. And I love to hang out with people that love Jesus. I I just signed up for a small group again, same one that I was part of two years ago. And the reason I did it is because I love to go sit with those people and Be together with those that love Jesus. And I'm not talking about the just talk about it. The I these people actually live it. And it affects their everyday life. And it's the nitty-gritty part of being a Christian. And it's great. And so that's those are the kind of things I like. And that's what this church has provided me. So that's one thing you'll find on this podcast is is we don't we're not very enthused about about organized religion, but we are enthused about Jesus. Now, having said that, I was listening to another podcast today. It was the the John Christ podcast and he was interviewing Andy Stanley. And of course Andy Stanley is the pastor of a megachurch. And I really appreciated the interview. I I really enjoyed hearing from from Pastor Stanley of his experience and I realized that there's probably a place for megachurches. so I don't want to to throw them under the bus too much. I'm probably never gonna go to one, but I know that we humans, we all have different experiences. We're at different places in our journey in life, and we have different needs. And there's probably people that a megachurch works well for them. I don't know. about a month ago I was in Jacksonville and It was Saturday night. I spent the night there in Jacksonville and then Sunday morning I went over to Joby Martin's church. can never remember the name of it. It's numbers like nine eleven or eleven nine or six eleven. I don't know. There's numbers. Anyway, I went over there and of course it's a megachurch, great big building, and a couple thousand people and you know, all that jazz. And I went there with a bit of an attitude because, like I said, I don't really like megachurches. But Mr. Martin, Pastor Martin, he preached a great sermon. And There was a lady sitting in front of me and I overheard her talking to to somebody sitting right next to her. They didn't know one another. And and she was really enthused about her church. She was she was telling them that she'd been going there for I don't know how long it was, a number of months. And she was really enthused about her church. And so I don't know. I don't know what to make of religion sometimes. not very enthused about it, but I am enthused about Jesus, and that's what that's what we want to do here on this podcast is is to lift up Jesus and and make Make a lot of him, make much of Jesus. And that's one thing that we've been talking about, the three of us that co-host this thing. Like I said, we we started this with without really much expectation. We didn't know what it was gonna do, what direction it would take. And we well, we started it as a in a Bible study format and then it transitioned more into just talking about life. Now we've had a few guests on. And we've like I said, we've been contacted by a lot of different people that are finding encouragement, which is kind of shocking. Well, first of all, it's it's just shocking to me that anybody even listens to it, but there are people that are listening, and there are people that are finding encouragement and We were just talking today on our private chat that we have about that and about how we've had a little bit of a hesitancy to promote the podcast. And and we've started to feel a little bit bad about that, maybe, because it it's starting to feel like God gave us something here to do. He's g he's given us this opportunity to to talk to one another and to let other people listen in a little bit. And And whenever somebody tells me that they listen to the podcast, I try to redirect the conversation immediately because I don't want to talk about it, because it feels like self-promotion and all of that. But we've been talking the last little while that if God can use what we're doing here to encourage other people that are going through a dark time or struggling with trying to sort out in their own mind, you know, what religion is and who Jesus is and how that's all supposed to work and all of that. And if we can be any kind of an of an encouragement or any kind of a help along the way for even a few people, we want to do that. And so we've been talking about how to try to be a little more diligent in promoting the podcast. And I don't know how to do that. Like we started this thing without really knowing what we were doing at all. And we still don't know what we're doing. And like I said, we record pretty much every Monday night. And then between Monday night and Friday morning, I get the opportunity of editing the podcast, and I mean that as an opportunity because I get the the privilege of hearing the podcast again and it's always encouraging to me and it always it always helps me to to hear the thoughts of my my cronies again and and to edit the podcast. And then so we we had to figure out the whole editing process and I don't have a clue if we're doing it right. But you know, edit the podcast a little bit and put it out Friday morning. And then I was like, well, I guess we're supposed to be putting out a few promotional things, you know, on Facebook and Instagram and and all that stuff. And so, you know, tried to learn how to do that a little bit and get that figured out. So it's been a journey. it's been very interesting getting all getting all that done. So I've mentioned a couple of times here about the We've we've had two guests on the podcast and we've really enjoyed it. And those episodes are very popular. I think our last episode with Pastor Wade, which was great. Man, I enjoyed listening to him talk. But I think that that episode has got well over five hundred views. And I know these aren't big numbers. I I full well realize that. But that's five hundred people that got to to listen to an experienced elderly pastor with lots of wisdom. break some things down and that just enthuses me. And so that's one thing we want to continue to do in the future is is have some more people come on here and talk about their life, talk about their inspirations, talk about the things that have helped them get through the hard times that they've gone through. Those are the things we're enthused about and that we want to talk about. and I don't know who all we're going to have on. There's a few people that we've talked two. There's a few people we've talked about. Pastor Wade said he'd be happy to come back on occasionally, and I think we're enthused about that because like I said, that that man has a lot of wisdom. That's just all there is to it. So we want to keep doing that. And it's something that I've been thinking about for a while because it seems like we humans we connect through stories. Somebody can lay out A bunch of facts, they can give you all the data, they can give you the numbers, they can give you the formulas. That's all fine and good. But we connect with stories. And I'm becoming more and more convinced of that. I remember listening to a lecture where Jordan Peterson talked about that concept. And I've thought about it many times since then and I I've I've become convinced that it's true. Jesus told a lot of stories, and I find myself gravitating towards stories. I work I work by myself most of the time and I listen to all kinds of stuff, mostly to podcasts and YouTube videos where people are telling their stories. it's always interesting to listen to somebody talk about their life and the struggles they went through and how they got through them, the challenges they faced, how they overcame them and all of that. And it it's not even that that I agree with their beliefs, their world view, or you know, think that they're living the right lifestyle, anything like that. But almost everyone has something to teach you. And if you listen, you can learn something. And I just I just so much enjoy that. And so that's one of the things we want to do in the future is like I said, we're gonna have some more people that that come on the podcast and sit with us and and tell us their story. So that's something you can look forward to. another thing we've been talking about, and I don't know how we'll pull this off exactly, but We we come up with topics, things that are interesting to us to talk about, but we have talked a few times on our private chat when we were discussing the podcast about the fact that we would like to hear from people that are listening to the podcast. We'd like to hear from you of what you're interested in. You know, sometimes when you're struggling with something or you're thinking about something. You can start going around and around in your own mind and you never really get anywhere. You just get in a spiral that you can't get out of. And it's not like the three of us have any special wisdom or anything. I'm we're we're quite aware that we're just three Yahoos running our mouths. But sometimes it does help to hear somebody else talk about the thing you're thinking about. Sometimes it even helps to hear yourself talk about the thing you're thinking about. And you can kind of get it sorted out in your mind. So I just want to tell you this: if you've got something on your mind, something that you'd like to hear talked about, email us. The email that you can email it to is offensivegracepodcast at gmail.com. That's pretty easy to remember. Offensivegrace podcast at gmail.com. If you have something you want us to talk about, just shoot an email over there and tell us what it is. We'd be interested in hearing that. So I think that's maybe all I have to say. next week, of course, Alex and Kent are going to be back available and we'll have a we'll have a podcast like we normally do. But until then, I guess this is all you're going to get. But I do want to thank you for listening, not just to this, but to the podcast in general. It means a lot to us. We really do appreciate it, and we appreciate the encouragement of all of those of you that have reached out. And told us you're listening and told us that you're you're finding value in it and that it's an encouragement to you. So anyway, that's all I got. Hope you have a good night.