Friday, December 8th | Lightning Round Questions!

Welcome back, everyone. Today is Friday, December the 8th. I'm Ryan Hill.

I'm Jon Galantis. You're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abidhan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can visit us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com, or if you have any questions for Dr. Shah or suggestions for new topics, send us a text at 252-582-5028, or you can email us at contact at ClearviewTodayShow.com. That's right, and you guys can help us keep the conversation going by supporting the show. You can share it online with your friends and your family. Leave us a good review on iTunes or Spotify.

We're going to leave a link in the description so you can do just that. Today's verse of the day comes to us from Romans 15.4. It says, For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we, through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope. Paul, yet again, the master wordsmith, he's talking about the Scriptures beforehand that people, even in his day, would have had to lean on. The Old Testament, the writings that people had, whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, when you read the Word of God, it changes you, or it ought to.

Otherwise, you're not paying attention to it. The Old Testament, especially, is not something that people typically these days get a lot of comfort or patience from. And yet, Paul is saying that's where all of this begins. That's where God is doing all of this heavy lifting to make the way for Jesus for us.

So, we see these stories throughout the Old Testament, and we even talked about one yesterday where God wasn't even mentioned at all. And yet, through that story, we do get that comfort knowing that God is working and moving throughout all of human history for this one moment of bringing Christ to the cross. And so, that does offer us a great degree of comfort and hope.

That's how he ends. He says, The comfort of the Scriptures, we might have hope. You know what else brings us comfort? We're in Christmastime. It's Christmas the 8th, and tidings of comfort and joy. We're talking about comfort. One of the things that brings you comfort, especially if you are hosting Christmas, we're going to give you some advice no one needed.

This is the segment of our show we usually do on Thursdays. That no one asked for. Maybe no one wanted. No one asked for this advice at all. In fact, a lot of people will probably resent the advice that we give.

But, here we go. This is good advice. We're going to unlock Christmas comfort for you.

Go for it. Christmastime, family, friends coming over. Love that. Love that for you.

Love that for me. If you are hosting Christmas at your place, you are the host. People are coming to your house. Delegate. Delegate, delegate, delegate. Do not try to do everything on your own.

Do not try to be superwoman, superman, super whoever you are. And make sure everything is lined up. Make sure everything is cooked. Make sure everything is decorated. You need to delegate this. And if you live by yourself, if you live alone, you need to bring entrusted friends ahead of time that you can delegate that to.

No one can do that on their own. Hey ladies. Hey ladies. I'm going to single out the ladies for a minute. There's probably some men in charge of Christmas too. But ladies, that's some good advice my man just gave you. That's some clean advice he just gave you. There are people who are, I'll say partners, because it's not just women.

A majority of them are women. But there are so many who are so resentful because the people in their house don't do anything. And I shouldn't have to tell you to do things. Okay, so here, I'm glad you said that.

Let me unlock this for you, okay? I agree that you should not have to tell people to do things. It aggravates me when people tell me that I'm helping my wife with the housework. I'm not helping her with the housework. It's my house too. Like I'm just doing housework.

That's fine. However, there's two sides to this coin. Number one, you can't assume that your spouse or your roommate knows everything that is going on in your head. They're not telepathic no matter how much they love you and you guys are on the same page.

They cannot read your mind. Which means that they do not have the same priorities that you do. So if you need something done, clearly communicate it with them. Like, hey, I need you to do the dishes. That will be helpful for me. Or spouses say, what can I do today that will make you feel loved, supported, and seen? The flip side of that is when your spouse jumps in to help, when your roommate jumps in to help, don't be frustrated if they don't do things your way.

What my dad needed and what I needed was a piece of paper or these days it would be a text or a digital checklist. This is the stuff that you will do. You will hang the stockings. You will put the tree up. You will put the lights on it. I'll do all this other stuff.

As a team, we're going to get it done. And then there's this new thing of, well, that's mental load and I don't want to be the one thinking of all that stuff. Then don't volunteer for Christmas. Just communication.

Communication. I love, and I know people with small kids, like Ellie doesn't love it, I love taking Christmas and going somewhere else because that is not on me. I'm going to my mom's house and I'm checking out.

My mental load shuts off like that. I don't even watch my own kids. I pretend like them kids ain't mine when I'm at Nana and Papa's house. I love doing Christmas elsewhere because I just show up, get on the couch, eat, and I veg out. I just veg out for Christmas. You're looking at me kind of weird.

That's not my experience. What do you do? You host Christmas at your house. Well, we don't live near our family. We will go and visit them for Christmas. There is an inherent going.

We have to travel five hours to get to our family. It's not my house. It's not my place. But it's like, hey, we thought about doing this. What do you think about this? I'm like, this is not my place.

No, you're doing it wrong. You go to your childhood room and you shut the door. My childhood room doesn't exist anymore. Well, I guess just go to your mom's bedroom and just shut the door. Just be like, peace out. Yeah, just peace out. No, I can't do that. I can't do all that. No, but you lay on the couch and you're just kind of unresponsive. For instance, my mom's going to be like, hey, John, do y'all want to get Gavin in his high chair or get holding his high chair and let's do the Christmas dinner?

I'll just turn the TV up so I can't hear her. This is bad. This went to a bad place.

Save it in the back. David said, bro. David's like, bro. This went to a bad place. All right, let's be done. Oh, man.

I'm joking. Let us know your Christmas take. If you're hosting Christmas, how do you do that?

And is it overwhelming for you? Write in and let us know. Maybe we can help.

252-582-5028 or visit us online at clearviewtodayshow.com. We'll be back after this. What's going on, listeners? My name is John.

And I'm David. And we hope you are enjoying the podcast thus far. You know, we really appreciate how many of you download the podcast every day.

Right. But we also want to remind you that we are first and foremost a radio show. Clearview Today is actually syndicated through the Truth Network. And we just want to let you know right now that in addition to hosting the all-time best Christian talk show of all time. Hashtag Clearview Today.

Hashtag Clearview Today. The Truth Network also, as it turns out, has an extensive library of Christian programming. We really love everything they're doing at the Truth Network because the whole goal is to encourage, challenge, confront, and uplift listeners with the life-changing truth of Jesus Christ through Christian talk radio. And listen, we know we're not the only show wanting to expand its audience. So if you have a vision for your show or for your ministry, why don't you consider syndicating your show through the Truth Network?

Because they rely on decades of experience of self-syndication with a full array of features for your long-form or short-form content. Make sure you visit the Truth Network online today at truthnetwork.com. Or you can give them a call at 336-759-0363.

Again, that's 336-759-0363. Well, John, are you ready? I was born ready, my friend. Let's hop right back in.

All right. Welcome back to Clearview Today with Dr. Abidanshah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can visit us online at clearviewtodayshow.com.

Or if you have any questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text at 252-582-5028. I'm not even going to pretend to be in a good mood. We were back in the studio with Dr. Abidanshah, who of course is a Ph.D. What? I hate that. Why?

I hate the rhythm of that. Oh, my gracious. I'm just joking. I'm actually having a good time.

I just feel like we could have switched. I cannot wear the hat. It does not fit my head.

That's true. You know what you do look like? An inflated head. You look like going back into the 30s and 40s, this pickpocket guy.

Or this handyman who goes around fixing people's stuff and then sealing it in the process. Hold on. Let me take the glasses off now. I will take care of that for you. It's like an Oliver Twist. I'll fix it up for you. I'm going to come around during Christmastime like, let me show you what's going on in there.

Just pick it right out of your pocket. Dr. Shaw, let me ask you this. When it comes Christmastime, who is facilitating all of the day's events? Would that be Nicole? She's facilitating, are you guys come here and then we're going to, y'all go there and we're going to come here. Oh, yeah.

That's Nicole all the way. Does she delegate or does she just kind of take everything on? Like she's like, I'm just going to do all of this. Or is it like and like Nicholas Thomas, the kids, they just kind of show up or is it like, all right, I want you to do this. You do this.

You do this. We're not quite there yet. I got you. We're not quite there yet. We are. This probably is the second Christmas, but still we're in that process of mom is still mom. Kids are still kids, even though two of them are married. But we're still trying to understand. Hey, so where are y'all going?

Are y'all going to go with his family? Because both are his right now. Right.

Both daughters. So it's a lot of learning right now. I got you. Maybe in a couple of years, it'll become more of a, whether it's a democratic system like y'all decide, everybody decide, or we're going to do this and y'all join in or else. Yeah. I don't know that autocratic system.

I don't know which one is going to be, but it's going to be Nicole either way. I got you. I got you. It's always one of those things where I guess every family handles it differently. Like up until then, you're like, what, 3,000 miles away from your family, like in India. 5,000. 5,000. Wow. That's a lot. Yeah. So it's like, it was always sort of like, you can do this here and we can do our Christmas, but then you're traveling like to Georgia with Nicole's family. Yeah.

I never had anything from my side. Wow. And that was kind of a sacrifice that I made. And coming here, that's what you have to decide. And I made that decision after the first year, first year of going back to India.

I went to India. There's a story there. Yeah. You want to hear that story? Please, let's do it.

Yes, absolutely. So I think I've told that story before, but it's probably off mic, but it's a story of a friend of mine who I grew up with sort of for the middle school years. And then he moved away because of the railways. His dad got a job somewhere else. He moved away. And then, you know, so we kind of lost contact.

We're like living our own lives. And I end up coming to America and I'm here for like four or five months. I decided to go back home, kind of home six. I went back home. And so I took a few things with me. I didn't have much money. I'm just a student, you know, first year student, first year in America.

How much can I make and take with me? Right. And it's only been four or five months.

So I took with me some things, just little trinkets here and there. So he shows up at the house. Oh, I know.

He's not even from our hometown anymore, has been gone for, I would say, a good three years. Yeah. All right. And then he shows up and said, hey, what did you bring me? Yeah, I remember this story. What? You never told us on the on the podcast.

Yeah. So I'm like, what did I bring you? I didn't bring anything. I didn't know you were here. I didn't know we were even friends. And so he got mad at me. See, that's what makes the story funny.

It's like that's that's like a very at least here in America. That's a normal thing to be like, hey, what'd you bring me? Ha ha ha. Ha ha. That's funny. No, this was not funny. No, he was like, what? Oh, yeah. What gift did you bring me?

Anything from America. And you didn't even know that y'all were tight. Yeah, we were not even tight.

I didn't even. Yeah. When we were in middle school, we hung out together.

But other than that, it was just like done. My deepest friend in middle school, best years of my life. Yeah, imagine like imagine like a friend you had in middle school coming to you even now on vacation. Be like, where did you and your husband or you and your wife go on vacation?

I remember the people I went to middle school with. You better have brought me something. And so, you know, he did that. And he went to a Catholic church.

You know, we went to, of course, dad's church. So there was no connection. So I'm like, nothing.

And so I'm like, OK, see you. So he went around town just bad mouthing me, you know, starting problems. He really took that to heart. Oh, yeah.

This is outrageous. If you could go back in time, would you have just brought him a little something? I would have given him some a rock.

Here you go. Picked it out of the yard and said this is from America. This is from a sacred site in America.

This is from Mount Rushmore. Long story short, he got his dad involved in this to come beat me up. Over not bringing him something from America. Right.

But that's not how he framed it. Right. So it went from bad to worse. I'm like, after the first five months, I came to India to my home. Oh, that cured my nostalgia real fast. Like, that's over.

Forget this. I'm going back to America. I'm not coming back. And my dad even told me, he's like, you know, just build your life wherever you are.

Bloom when you're planted. Over there. So when I came back. So that's the story behind it.

Yeah. In 1992, 91 is when I came in the May of 91. And December, I went back to visit family. And all this garbage happened.

So in January of 1992, it was already settled. Like I'm going. This is it.

I don't want to go back. So he did me a favor. Yeah. And I set my life here. This is where I live.

And I won't get to see any more Christmases for a long time. And that's just fine. Wow. That'll cure your homesickness for sure.

Real quick. And it was not because I was scared to go back. It's just, it made me so annoyed and so angry that I went home to visit family and friends of whom he was not a part of. Yeah. He's just like, I'm in that group.

Family and friends of whom you are not a part of. I know that we're close. And I know that you brought me something from America. He even got the police involved. Yeah. Oh yeah. Was he just deranged?

Oh yeah. So I mean, it's like, um, I just really want to know what that complaint was to the police. Like my middle school best friend did not bring me a Christmas present. You need to get on him. Like he wants to beat me up and I'm like, I don't want to beat you up at all. I want you to leave me alone. Yeah.

I want you just out of my face. So it was, it was so annoying, you know, keep in mind I'm only 18. 18? No, I was 17.

No, I'm sorry. 18. And so that, that is a very critical stage in life where it's like, okay, I'm done. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

You start making some, some decisions pretty quickly about how it's going to go. I'm done. I don't want to go back. I am going to stay here. Even if I have to live alone on Christmas on campus and do my thing, I'll do that. But you stuck to it. You stuck to a decision that you made like that at 18 and look at the life that you have, the impact that you're making. That's true. That's pretty crazy.

It's crazy that that was sort of the catalyst for this awesome life that we have. So I can, you want to send him a little bouquet? Thanks so much. I don't know, dude. I'm scared. He'll try to beat me up if it's not enough. Maybe we'll send him a Christmas present. I don't want him to show up at my door like, Hey, what is this? Like, I thought you wanted me to send you stuff. Yeah.

I needed two bags of candy. The Christmas complainer. He's in the, he's in the racket.

He's in the shakedown. No kidding. What was this? The thing is, you know, I can just say, well, I chose to stay, but like why? People ask me questions like that, honestly. And sometimes I'm like, there's a story there, but is it worth telling you the story? But here's the story. Here is the real story.

I love it. It's hilarious, but it's also amazing to see how all of that kind of worked together to get you where you are today. God will use some goofy situations in life where you look back and you're like, I can't believe that happened. Look what happened because of it.

I mean, even, even like this radio show has some crazy stories behind its genesis. We can share them one day. Not today. Not today. Not today. Today will not be that day. That's a story for another day. But on today's episode, we want to answer some questions from you on lightning round questions.

I took it off while we weren't doing lightning round questions. I got a question. Oh, go ahead. I was just going to do the intro.

Yeah, go for it. Doctor questions in the house. Lightning round questions. Cue the sound effect here. Nice.

Lightning, just a visual effect in my hand. It's like all the morning zoo, morning zoo shop jocks that would do all the crazy sound that had nothing at all to do with WQDR. In the morning, Greg R. wrote in, we got to work on ourselves.

In the morning. Greg R. wrote in and wants to know, how do you devote, this is crazy because these are like some actual like heavy leadership questions that we've had a very silly intro. Greg R. wants to know, how do you devote enough time to New Testament textual criticism along with preaching and profess, I think he means professoring, like teaching. Being a professor. Being a professor. How do you, do you have to allocate certain days for certain things?

So like Monday you do all your text critical stuff, Tuesday you do all your professor stuff, Wednesday you write a sermon, or it's not really that way. It sort of is like that, but it's a mindset and I learned that mindset from people in my life. Of course, Nicole's dad, my dad, these were people who were very high achievers who were always doing things, many things, and not just silly things, not, not, not piddly things, but important tasks. They would take it on. They would not say like, I don't know about that.

They will take it on. And so I learned from them. And then I saw people in my own life who are amazing, amazing people like, like my own professor, Dr. Robinson, how he writes some of these text critical articles. How does he do that? How does he dig so deep and it has so much information and then writes an article on that and writes this and writes that and answers my question. So I've learned to be a high achiever by watching these kinds of people. And then there are others that I really admire.

I don't know how they do what they do. So I have a mindset of, yes, you can, yes, you can do it. If you plan enough, organize enough, yes, you can. Now I'm not going to take in a task like, Hey, can you be an architect of a a hundred story skyscraper?

And of course not. That's beyond my capability. Can you ride the musical score for this new you know, musical that's just coming?

No, I can't do that. So but in my realm, I want to be the Renaissance man. If you know what the Renaissance man is, is the, is the person who, who felt like I can do it. Yes, we can. And so it's a mindset. I think one thing that I've learned from watching you is that there are these big things that we say them at the top of some episodes where it's like New Testament textual critic, professor, full-time pastor, author, and then radio show host, these big five things that you could make a life doing any one of them, let alone five. And so it's kind of goes back to what you were saying a minute ago.

Like, well, I'm not going to ask you to like, like, so let's take us, the three of us. Like, I'm not going to ask either of you guys to design a 1,000 story skyscraper, but we do have a new building coming and we're going to look over the plans, but we're not going to let someone else dictate what we need because we know what we need. We know our goals. So it may involve a little bit of research, learning about codes, what you can, we can just say, Hey, I want a, this, this kind of a structure here you can't unless it passes code. So there are certain limitations, there are certain requirements, so we can't just do whatever.

So we have to learn. You've been on the phone with the architect, how many times, hundreds of times already? At least 150, 200 times. Yeah. That's a lot of work. And you're not an architect. No. This is not your forte. You're not a building contractor, right? But you are a musician. You are, you have been called to be the worship pastor. So you know that I have to do this or else somebody else is going to do it.

And then I'm going to complain about why this is not good enough. Correct. Exactly. So get in there and learn about what's going on. Learn how to read those blueprints. Maybe not as an expert, like you cannot just take those blueprints and go start building tomorrow. Right. But enough to ask questions. Hey, is this a wall here? And how high is that wall? And can we change this structure or will that be a change order?

What can happen here? Right. Like, did you even talk like that about a year ago?

No, I wouldn't even think like that. Like, for example, the two of us were out on the slab, Dr. Shah and myself were out on the slab. I think Ryan was there too, but we were looking around and we noticed all of the markings on the floor. And before I would have been like, I don't know, they're just markings on the slab.

But then it's like, oh, these are where the walls are going to go. And one of those he actually caught. We did. You did. Yeah. Yeah. I was like, there shouldn't be a wall here. It was where Nicholas is actually going to sit in the streaming. It was going to go right straight through his face. Yeah.

He'd be like a Humpty Dumpty. Right. Exactly. And I was like.

That's not going to work. But any normal average person, even a year ago, I would have kept quiet and been like, I guess they know what they're doing. But I was like, I don't think there should be a wall there. And you called and you talked to the guy and they said, you're right, I don't know why there's a wall there. Yeah. We have to take that down. And I was like, thank goodness, because imagine how crazy that would have been when the wall went up.

That would have been terrible. But that's what most people, I feel like in our profession, would do, just keep quiet and be like, well, I didn't say anything. Unless somebody else do it. Yeah.

Right. That's why I pushed you, David. I pushed Ryan, John, Nick, Zach. I mean, I pushed them because I know there is more there.

I'm not going to push you in a completely unrelated field because what's the use? So going back to me, I am driven that way. Again, in my circle of understanding education, I'm very driven.

And I'm always looking for how I can take care of the next task. So I know what I'm preaching this Sunday. And I know based on how my schedule goes, I'll have to set aside the Saturday. So it's already dedicated Saturdays. I'm at home and I sit down and I'll work out my sermon. I could be out there in the yard.

We could be going to the mall on Friday night or we could be playing golf on Saturday. I don't do that. I just, I've come to the realization that Saturdays I'm going to be sitting in the living room, dining room in my office and working my sermon. It is fine.

It is fine. The payout is when I see lives changed Sunday mornings or Saturday nights and I'm happy. So I work on that.

So it's not just on Saturdays. Sometimes like Monday, I'd be like, you know, for that sermon, I need to find this article that I came across years ago. Let me get on the library website and I'll get on there, find that article.

Yes. I'll be like, okay, David, can you check out this book? Can you make a copy of that article for me?

And David, thankfully we'll go take care of that Wednesday, Thursday. I'll be reading that article whenever I get a chance working through that. So it's a constant thing and I don't think everybody's built that way. I am. Wow. That's awesome. Yeah.

It's been inspiring to us to work alongside you and like you said, for you to push us and push us to be better in our respective avenues as well. Yeah. Thank you. Absolutely. We have a question from Sarah T. Sarah says, Hey guys, big fan of the show listening from South Carolina. Ooh, okay. South Carolina originally. I checked out your website and saw that a majority of your staff is very young.

Was that an intentional choice? If so, how do you lead such a young team? Not everybody is. There are some my age as well. But yes, we do have a young staff and we've got to keep hiring younger staff. Again, no prejudice against people of other ages because we do hire them as well. But we definitely want to emphasize younger staff because they keep us fresh, innovative and help us to have the pulse on the community and what's happening in our world. So yes, we do have a lot of younger staff for that reason. And it's really cool to see the younger ones on staff have come through our student ministry and have graduated out of that and then sort of like rolled onto the workforce coming on the team with us out of that. So having them kind of go from those teenage years up through our student ministry into the workforce, that's just, that's encouraging.

That's really cool. More than just the age. What I'm looking for is teachability. I'm looking for adaptability. I'm looking for willingness. Teachability seems like willingness, but there's a little difference. Teachability means willing to learn. This is willing to take on the challenge. I don't know yet, but I'm going to take on the challenge. And I love seeing people like that.

When I see people who are like, I can't do it. It's not going to be done. I'm not. You made up your mind.

It's a rock solid Alcatraz. You're stuck in that prison. You're not changing. John B, how do you foster a culture of innovation in a church setting? Most churches I've ever been a part of are full of people who don't want to change. What do we just say?

Yeah, it kind of ties in. But also we know what matters and what does not change. Gospel does not change. The word of God, the inspired word of God does not change. Salvation by grace through faith does not change. Salvation is eternal life. Eternal by eternal means eternal.

It doesn't change. And so we know what the non-negotiables are. Once you know that, it gives you a sense of confidence to manipulate and to adjust and adapt and edit whatever you want, because you know what's not up for debate.

That's right. I think that's some of the best leadership advice that you've ever given me is find out what your non-negotiables are. And that's your framework. And so now, like setting boundaries actually gives you freedom, whereas most people think it gives you restriction. No.

I love it. Frederick T. writes in, what are some essential qualities of an effective leader? Am I out of the running, so to speak, if I don't have the right temperament? What is the essential quality of an effective leader? Yeah, like if I'm shy, if I'm kind of bashful, if I'm not confident in myself, am I doomed to be a poor leader? Well, one of my favorite leadership gurus, you can say, is John Maxwell.

And what I like about John Maxwell is he's proved himself. In these 40, 50 years of his ministry, as well as his influence, he has really transformed the shape of leadership. And his definition of leadership is that leadership is influence. If you can influence people, then you're a leader. If you want to influence people, you're a leader.

And the real question then comes is, what do you want to influence them to be? That's true. And hopefully, we're influencing them not just to be great, but influencing them to help others.

Amen. That's right. That's really the heart of leadership.

So leadership is influence. That's right. Thank you, John Maxwell.

That's right. Amen. Thank you. Love it.

Shout out to John Maxwell. If you're watching the show, write in and let us know. That'd be pretty cool. Thank you guys so much for submitting your questions for this round of lightning round questions. Let me just tell you, if you have questions that come up during the show, maybe you're listening to an episode about Esther or one about textual criticism or leadership or church ministry or just life in general. If you have questions about that, write in and let us know, 252-582-5028. Of course, you can visit us online at cleareveetodayshow.com. Make sure you partner with us financially on that same website. Be a part of our Clear View Today show, family, as we impact nations with the gospel of Christ. Hope you guys have a wonderful weekend. We're worshiping with your church, family, and we'll see you Monday on Clear View Today.