Burned In The Fire

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Has there been a fire that the Lord has taken you through? And you're better on the other side than you were before, at least in some ways. We want your phone calls today at 866-348-7884. 866-34 Truth. I've got a Charles in the house, a Charles Myers, who was literally in a fire or an explosion.

It was August of last year. Is that right, Charles? That's correct. August 20th of 2025. Oh my gosh, and speaking to the mic, but the uh, you know, it I've got the gentleman right here, and I was asking him some questions before the show started.

But I one of the first things that I asked him is: because you're burned pretty much, what percentage of your body has burns on it right now? 47% of the bottom of my body was burned.

So if you think about it, forty seven percent being burned, the other forty seven percent was used for graphene, so that's ninety four percent of my body has been altered in some way. Oh my gosh. And one of the first questions that I asked you is because you were healthy, you were doing things with the church. I mean, you were actually walking with the Lord before this ever happened. And I asked you, I said, were you angry at God?

Were you, did you shake your fist at God? Or did you say, why did this happen to me? I didn't do anything wrong. I mean, what happened? Yeah, so I just laying in the hospital room, having my face completely wrapped up.

My hands wrapped up where I was completely like isolated a little bit from the world, not being able to get on social media. I had lots of times to be quiet and. I like to call it the secret place. Um, and so I was just like in the secret place with the Lord and just talking with him and, you know, I was just like, God, I don't know why this happened, but for the rest of my life, I'm going to use this story for your glory. If that means talking in front of one person or talking on a stage in front of one hundred thousand people, Here I am, Lord.

Just send me wherever you want me to go. Here you and you said before this happened, you were really kind of a behind-the-scenes kind of guy. You weren't a speaker, right? Absolutely not. I was an elementary and middle school teacher prior to going to work full-time at the church.

So I had some experience, obviously, in talking in front of children and middle school kids. But I. wasn't really someone that was gonna stand on a stage and talk. Over the last two, three years, um the Lord has kind of given me a few opportunities to speak. Uh I've spoken on Sunday morning two other times, uh and then I had spoke to our to our youth group a few times.

But I wasn't someone who was really looking for it. And I remember every time I would go to speak, I would have those deep butterflies. I would be sick to my stomach. I'd be up at like 2 a.m., you know, looking at the clock, waiting to get up there to speak, you know, later on.

So, yeah.

So you've been through the fire, literally. And the Bible says as anybody who desires to live a godly life, it says that you will suffer persecution. And so this wasn't like somebody was, you know, putting a gun to your head because you were a Christian or anything like that. But we all go through tough times. And I think sometimes, and I've seen this, not as much as I used to, but I used to see people say, well, if you're having a tough time in your life, it must mean that you were sinning or that you were doing something wrong.

And, you know, you weren't out in the streets. You weren't on drugs. You weren't doing anything like that at all. But I'm reminded of the book of Job. Job has all of these bad things happen to him.

And his wife and his friends and everybody else are saying all these things about, I think one time his wife actually says, curse God and die. And it says, but Job said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? Shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall we not receive evil? And all this did not Job sin with his lips.

And so you've been able to keep, I guess, a positive attitude even through these tough times. And so, I mean, what does that look like for you? Do you just have, do you have a good prayer life? Or, I mean, how do you do this?

So, honestly, I think that just. Knowing that God is good, He's omnipresent, omnipotent. You know, He does not bring on bad things. Could he have stopped this accident from occurring? Absolutely.

I believe in 100% my heart that he could have caused it not to occur. But I also truly believe that he brings all things to good. For those who believe in him. And I believe 100% in God. I have for a long time.

Had just these unwholm overwhelming uh feelings um and emotions. I hear God speak, and I know that might sound weird, but like over the last Probably 20 years of my life. I know when the Lord's speaking to me because there's this feeling inside my body. It's almost overwhelming, almost like I have this shaking almost inside my body that I have to. This has to occur.

And I know that it is from him every time that I have this feeling. It actually happened right after I got out of the hospital and back at the church for a little while. One Sunday. I was standing with my wife in worship and. I felt the Lord tell me that I was supposed to get up and speak.

And I'm the tech guy. Like, I was thinking about, well, that, A, that's not, that doesn't make sense. And B, There are we have five microphones and three of them are with the singers right now. One of them the pastor is currently wearing and the fifth one is in the back, uh, not being utilized. And Also, I know my pastor doesn't like to give out a live mic because there's been a few times where people have gone away.

And so As a guy, that's not even, this doesn't make sense, doesn't isn't from you. And I just kept having this overwhelming feeling: you've got to speak. And the next thing I know, Our pastor is like, I feel like somebody's got something to say in the room today. And when I say it never happens, it never happens. And he.

get I mean, he literally opened the floor for anyone to speak and I was like God, you're amazing that you open the door for me to speak when that never happens in our room. Yeah, and the Bible says in John 10, 27 through 28, he says that my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. And he says, I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. But the first thing it says there, Charles, is that my sheep hear my voice.

And so, yes, we can hear directly from God.

Now, have you ever heard an audible voice, or is it just the still small voice where? Yeah, I don't know that I've ever heard an audible voice. When I first came to the Lord, I was like 10 years old, and I was outside playing basketball, just shooting basketball, and all of a sudden I felt like I heard this voice, but it wasn't like an audible voice.

So I guess it was more of an internal, but it was different than the other times I felt the Lord talking to me because I didn't have this overwhelming, shaking sensation in some of my body. And did you, you know, so this is what I was curious about.

So when you were going over there that day to do your normal day, was there any kind of a feeling that you got before you got there? Yeah, so I talk about it every time I've got an opportunity to shake or speak.

So When we go through life, when we have a job, it becomes mundane. If you do the same thing over and over again, it becomes a little mundane. And that day, we were very, there was like a level of joy in the air. We had four people going with us when a lot of times we would do events, just like one of us or two of us. But there was four of us on the truck.

I had three of my best employees with me. They were absolutely like top-notch. We were going to serve over a thousand people probably that day.

So we were getting ready to rock and roll. And uh they just Um, we were like happy. We like we were creating creating some reels and stuff behind the scenes because we were going to share later on about like our amazing day of serving all these people. And so, we had you know, done some pre, like before hitting the road. And then, once we got there and set up, and there's some video footage of us like laughing and cutting up, and uh, the two ladies that were on the truck with me, uh, like hugging each other.

I mean, just as I mean, sounds kind of cheesy in the in hindsight, but like it was just this amazing uh joy in the air that we don't always have so. Yeah, and so when we get back, we're going to talk about what he's been doing since then and the doors that God has been opening. If you have a question or a comment for Charles, 866-34TRUTH, 866-348-7884, we'll be right back. All right, guys, we are back. We've got Charles Myers.

And we were talking before, Charles, it was pretty tough. I mean, you know, having to go through this, but you know, did you did you just grow up in a Christian home or what? I mean, yeah, so I mean, from the very beginning of life, I, my parents had me at um church. I went to a a Southern Baptist church growing up until Fourth grade, and then we moved to another Southern Baptist church because we just found, like, felt that it was gonna be a better situation for us. Which, in the long run, like, I can kind of see God's fingerprints there because that's actually where I met maybe my greatest mentor.

Ever was at that Baptist church, and he came like what when I was almost like in my twenties. Or early 20s, and he just Showed me like a different side of Jesus and not the now. What do you mean by that? A different side.

So, like, not the religious side. He, he showed me, like, what a relationship looked like. He showed me that you didn't have to show up in your shirt and tie and your coat and like you didn't have to stand and read hymns. Like, there was like a cooler, I guess, version of Jesus than what I grew up with.

Well, yeah, and I think the, well, not I think, but the Bible says in the Old Testament, it says that man looks at the outward appearance, but God searches the heart. And I know it was, that's kind of how it was for me growing up as well. I'll be 45 soon. And I know you just said you were 40. I couldn't believe it.

I thought you were in your early 20s. But I'm not saying that to be nice. I was like, what? But at the same time, it's like for a time, it was like, okay, you dress up, you look good. And it's like, as long as you look good, it didn't matter what was going on behind closed doors.

You know, you look good. And that's kind of. And that's what mattered. But I guess you can see since you've had this accident, since you've been burned over, you know, 47% of your body is now burned. And another 47% of your body was used to use skin grafts.

Now you've seen, hey, I can't go off of my appearance. No offense. I mean, you know, but I'm not, you know, you don't look the same as you did before. And so now I guess it is really more of a, it has to be more of a heart issue with you. Absolutely.

And I want to give you a quote real quick. Um This man, his name is John O'Leary. And uh John O'Leary was um burned at nine years old. Um over ninety nine percent of his body. And he's an adult man now.

He released a book called On Fire. A movie came out back in the fall with the same title. Uh but he was standing in front of the mirror. He was shaving and his son was like next to him practicing shaving as well. and his son came over and started like rubbing his scars.

And in that moment, he said this came to him. It says, The scars remain, yes, but they were there because the wounds had healed. they were evidence of a miracle. Covering them up denied others. the chance to see them.

And like, I read, I hope, like, when he gave us that book right after our accident, he sent us books, they're signed copies. I was kind of like, you know, how dare him send us this? And I put it away and I was getting ready to speak. at a large gathering. And I pulled that book off the shelf.

Um the week I was getting ready to speak and Like that quote came up in the first 30 pages, and I was just like, man, that's. That'll like rot in my world that. Like, even though these scars I have now, but the scars are because the wounds healed. Like, I mean, I have images of how graphic the situation was. And, like, now that I see them, I mean, are they tight?

Are they itchy sometimes? All that, yes. But. At the end of the day, they're healed and Anyone that wants to see them can see them uh and which i mean kind of goes along with this past week i was working out in the gym And I usually am a really early summer, hitting the gym at 4:30 in the morning. But for some reason, I went at like 2 o'clock in the afternoon this week, and it was all because this gentleman came up to me.

And I don't have this happen regularly, but this guy came up and he was like, he tapped me on the shoulder and he was like, I just want to give you praise that you're in here working out after this accident. Or because you I mean, uh you have these um scars And And I was like, Yeah, I was like, you know, I just don't have a quit in me. From the very beginning, it was already decided that I was getting back to it. And he Then went on to share with me about his two-year-old son fell in a fire. And like his hands would burn tremendously, and like he knows what the process looks like, and so.

You know, at the end of the day, my wounds have healed, but my scars are still present for anyone to see. Yeah, there were actually people who had had, I think, a near-death experience or whatever, and they were able to see Jesus in heaven. They didn't see his face, but they saw the scars that he had on his hands or on his wrists or wherever it was. And it was like, well, you know, he's Jesus. He could have just covered it up or whatever.

But I guess in a sense, it's a reminder to him or a reminder to us of what Jesus Christ went through for us. He showed Thomas, you know, like Thomas doubted that it was him until he saw his scars. Yeah, there was a man in Reidsville that I met years ago. And as I was telling you before, I sell insurance. And I started talking to this man.

And he said, Mike, he said, I had something very, very rare. He said, and it was some disorder or whatever. He said, but my spine felt like it was on fire. And he said that at that moment when I was in the hospital, he said. I asked the Lord, Lord, why is this happening to me?

And he said, immediately he heard the voice of the Lord, and it spoke back to him. And he said, What about the cross? And he said, after that, he said, I never complained again. Right. Wow.

Yeah, and there was another, there was a story that I heard about a, it was about a mother who had had these really ugly hands that her, her, her hands were, were burned. And so, whenever she would go out with her daughter, that she would go out and that her daughter would say, why do you wear these gloves over your hands? And you've got these ugly hands and this and that and the other. And then finally, one day, her daughter actually came up to her and she asked her, she said, Mom, she said, How did you get these scars on your hands? What actually happened?

And she said, well, I was never going to tell you. She said, but when you were a very young girl, you had gone over to the stove and you were about to burn yourself. And she said, at the last minute, I had to go over there and I had to move you out of the way and move that pan or whatever it was off the stove. And because of that, I've got these hands that are deformed and these hands that are ugly. And she said that after that, her daughter never complained about her hands again.

And so I realized sometimes. That there are times in life, even the Apostle Paul said, He said, Lord, he said, I've asked you three times, there's this thorn in my side, and I've asked you to take it away from me. He said, But you've never taken it away from me. He said, But you remember what he said? He said, Mike, your grace is sufficient.

Have you thought about that verse since this happened? I actually used to speak. I've spoken about it, like what my thorn in my side was, like several times. But what do you I've always wondered, what do you think Paul's thorn in his side was? There are, well, it's funny you say that.

There are a lot of people who say that it was actually his eyesight. I don't know that that's the case. It doesn't actually say it was a physical ailment.

So the recent thing that I've heard, and this is what I think it may be, is other people, other people who actually came against him. And I guess the person wouldn't leave him alone or whatever. But what do you think?

So my thoughts are: his last stoning was of Steven, right? That's Saul. I feel like that when he uh God met him on the Damascus road. I feel like that that was his thorn in his side, was the fact that he took Stephen's life. And that was the thing that always bothered him.

Even though he had taken all the other lies before. But that last life that he took Is what was his thorn?

So he had shame, in a sense. Did you. And I don't know if this ever happened with you or not. I know it happens with me sometimes.

Sometimes I think back in my life and I go, why did I do that? Why would I do that? And I start to blame myself, but then I start to remind myself who I am in Jesus Christ. Have you ever had times where maybe you second-guessed yourself or you said, hey, I shouldn't have gone in that day or you blamed yourself for anything or no?

So, yes.

So the night before the accident, we were actually at a back-to-school event at Lefford High School and the generator kept on kicking off. And the guy who was running the event, I was like, you know, do this, do this. And We had me and like we have like a CEO of the company. She Or I guess she's like the chief person in charge and she We were almost decided that we weren't going to take that truck. We were going to take our smaller coffee truck.

We'll be right back. All right, guys, we are back. A man was burned in the fire, but the Lord took him through it, and he is there. And you said there was something that was kind of strange about this, Charles. You said that when it was, was it a propane fire?

So that's the only thing it could have been: it was propane because we did have propane on the truck. It was previously a food truck that served people that were unprivileged. Um and then it would turn around and or excuse me, it was it would serve people that were priv privileged and then we would use those net profits to go and feed people that were not. And it was kind of like the Tom's model: buy one, get one. That was kind of how it started.

And so, like, it served as a food truck, like that. It was like we had burgers and chips or nachos and bologna sandwiches and all kinds of good things. I'm getting hungry, man. Yeah. Yeah.

And then, so we, in the meantime, while that was running, we opened a coffee shop inside of our. Church. with the same idea that those net profits were going to go to feeding people. Um so We decided after about three years in at the coffee shop, we were gonna go all in on coffee. Um and so we had all everything removed from the truck, like the fryers and the flat top.

But we left the oven on there in case we ever wanted to bake on there, like our pastries. And so we used it mainly. We would bake in our kitchen at the church and then we would take it with us and we would just keep our pastries warm by having the convection oven on. A very low setting, and so, but we don't know exactly right what happened, we just know that. A very small noise, and then it grew and grew and grew until it hit like a fever pitch and it exploded.

But you said something before the break and you didn't get to finish. You said, were you supposed to take another truck that day? Or what happened? Also the night before the event, we were at Ledford High School and The generator wasn't working correctly on the big truck. And so we were gonna take, we have a smaller, add a smaller truck as well.

And we just knew that like the smaller truck couldn't handle that volume that was gonna be that day. I mean we we could handle like, you know, a few walk ups with that small truck, but not like serving like a thousand people. Um and so Like at the very last minute like we didn't have any more problems with the big truck that night. And so we decided to take it. with us in But the biggest thing or most regrettable decision I made was bringing one of our younger employees with us that day.

And she's. She's twenty four now. Uh I guess she was twenty three when the accident occurred. Um but Just She hasn't had the experiences that the other three of us had, like where we had all been married, we all had kids. And she's She has a boyfriend, but not had the experiences of getting married and having children like everybody else.

I mean her hair caught on fire and all kinds of this stuff, so Yeah, so but there was nothing you could have done about that. And has, you know, have But you never got angry at God. You never, you never questioned, did you. Did you you said you went through some depression or you had anxiety, I guess, in college, but you haven't had depression since this happened? No, so I never wanted to be on medication.

They did put me back on medication while I was in the hospital. They told me I didn't really have a choice.

So they put me on it, and I told them, you know, hey, I'm going to come off this as soon as possible. And so I did have to, I was medicated for about the first six months after the accident. But I did work my way off of it. And honestly, one of the biggest things that I will tell anybody is having a. Oh workout routine.

where you work out and get those your body moving. And can help greatly with depression. Yeah, Philippians I think it's Philippians 4. It says that 4, 6, it says that bodily exercise does profit some. Uh, the uh, but but, anyways, but it's but spiritual exercise is is much more important.

And you said you're married and you have two kids, two, two young daughters. How old are your daughters? Uh, so I have an eight-year-old and a five-year-old, and um, both of them will be in school next year at Midway Elementary School. Yeah, so you've got an eight-year-old, a five-year-old, Michael's nine, my other son Christian will be eight, and we've got a almost a four-year-old. How have they handled this?

Um, so we actually kept it from them to begin with. Uh, they my wife told the girls that daddy was an accident, he's in the hospital, but he's gonna be okay. And time went on. About two weeks in, finally, we my oldest daughter wanted to come see me. My youngest did not for a little bit longer.

Um, so, but I mean, she took right to me. I mean, I have pictures of her, um, Giving holding me or holding a bottle for me, me drinking out of it, laying in the hospital bed. Anime C really never asked questions or anything like that. It was just like she knew that I was hurt, but She took care of me like she does all the other people in her life. That's just what that's how God made her.

God made her to be a helper, and that's what she does. My younger daughter, it took about a month before she would come up to see me. And she was mostly worried about me getting blood on her uh favorite um bunny.

Well, of course. I mean, that's all of our worries. Yeah, so, but she did eventually. But, I mean,. honestly, neither one of them were ever truly scared of me, even with me having scarring on my face and being wrapped up and whatnot.

Yeah, and you said your wife has been supportive? Oh, my wife's been super supportive. I mean, I I told you, like in between commercials, just like what she was going through.

So, back last summer, we had a water leak at our house, and we had completely moved everything out except for our girls' rooms. And so that was going on. We were actually moved out of the house when the accident occurred. Her brother was diagnosed with. cancer and was going through um inpatient treatment at the time.

She was getting ready to start a school year. And also, not to mention, she has two little girls that depended on her.

So she had a lot going on. But. She would literally take off on Friday afternoon. She would leave. She's a teacher.

She would leave the school. She would come up to the hospital. She would sleep in the room with me during the weekend. And Sunday afternoon she would leave um and go back to being mom and and teacher on Monday. And that's what she did, but then sh after I got out of hospital, she took the next like 70 days off.

Um she used fMLA. And she became my in-home nurse. And I mean, was amazing. She wrapped my body up every and would lotion it up and take care of my wounds. I mean just absolute woman.

Yeah, and you would have done the same for her. I would have tried. It probably wouldn't have been as neat, but I would have tried.

Now, you said the biggest problem was that you were the cook of the house. Is that right? Yeah, so yeah, so my wife has had a few staple dishes that she was really good at, and that's the things that she stuck to. But for the most part, I cooked every night for the first Um 11 years of our marriage. Yeah.

And then so she had to do that. But what is the biggest lesson that you've learned from this spiritually?

So there's two takeaways. One, adversity is coming. And what I mean by that is. Everybody in life Is going to you're gonna face something. It could be very small, it could be very big, and like each one of us could handle it differently, but we all have something that's gonna come against us.

And mine may be really large and may be the biggest that I ever face. But you know, anybody that's listening to my voice, I'm sure that you have faced something. And I'm sure that um You yourself, you may have faced something in your life. It might have been really big or it might have been really small, but you face things.

Well, one of the things that I saw, and I don't know if you saw this as well, but I went through, I was a Christian guy, I went through a divorce and then I went through another divorce again, and I wasn't the one who chose it. And I remember Charles Stanley. Do you know who he is? He said that when he went through this divorce, he said he wouldn't have done it again in a million years for anything. He said, but because of his experience, he was able to show compassion to other people and he was able to understand what they were going through.

Do you feel like you've seen the compassion in yourself now? Yeah, absolutely. And because, I mean, I truly feel like, you know. The adversity that came against me is the same that you know, I can connect with you being divorced, you know, I can connect. the hurt that you felt just like I've been hurt.

And the second thing that I've learned is how important community is. What I mean by that is like having people that are willing to come alongside you and walk the journey with you. There's scripture out of Exodus. It's about Moses, the Israelites are getting ready to fight against the Amalek. Yes, excuse me.

And the story says that Moses goes up to the top of the mountain, and when Moses has his arms up. The Israelites are prevailing, and when his arms fall, the Ameliks start. prevailing And so to prevent them from winning, Aaron and her come along and they hold his arms up.

So that scripture goes to show me how important it is to have community, of having people that are willing to hold your arms up when you can't hold them up yourself. And I've seen that in like my small group. I I li I group Uh excuse me. Um Led a group of men on Monday mornings. We would do a workout in a Bible study.

And like When I say that, like, they were literally a phone call away, they were a phone call away. Um, and Other people, the community came and showed out for me and my co-workers. from fundraising for us to uh bringing meals to Making a basket for my daughters to let them go to the Children's Museum at High Point. You know, all kinds of things just to show love and compassion for me and my family. Yeah, you know, it says in Hebrews 10:25, it says, Do not forsake the gathering of yourselves, as some of them have done, especially as you see the day approaching and.

The more that I spend time with other Bible-believing Christians, the more I spend time with spirit-filled Christians who love God and who have a desire to get closer to God, the closer I get to them.

Now, I've got a friend of mine named Christy, and she said, Mike, she said, You also have to be careful on the other side. You also have to be careful not to spend too much time with people who are lukewarm or people who don't love the Lord at all. And she said, Because it's easier to put out a fire than it is to build a fire. And so, if you're around people who are bringing you down or they're depressed, or they, you know what I mean? All of that.

So, for me now, it's like I wake up in the morning and I spend time listening to some YouTube channel, and it's, I think it's called Above Inspiration or Above Inspirations. And it's like I hear some positive reinforcement, but not just positive as the world goes. It's speaking to me scripture, speaking to me the word of God. And I say, you know what? I am more than a conqueror through Jesus Christ.

I can do all things through Christ, through Jesus Christ our Savior.

So, you know, I do that. And when I start to speak it out loud, it's like something happens, something changes in the atmosphere. The Bible even says that death and life is in the power of the tongue. And it says that those who love it will eat the fruit thereof. Do you have to sometimes encourage yourself?

Yeah, so I and we're going to a break when you when we get back from the break, you're going to tell us how you encourage yourself. And if you have a call or if you have a question, 866-34-Truth. We've got Charles Myers, and he is from Hope City Church over in Wahlberg. We'll be right back. All right guys, we are back with the last segment.

We have a gentleman who was burned in the fire, Charles Myers. But I was curious about one other thing. I know we were talking about something else, but how have your parents handled this? Uh so my mom was Was an absolute rock star. My mom's almost 74 years old, and she spent.

Every hour at the hospital with me. when my wife wasn't there.

So my mom stayed with me Monday through Friday as a retired person. She could do that. Um and but she stayed and she slept on an air mattress in the room with me. Just because she was willing to. And I mean, honestly.

It was much easier, like in the hospital, having someone in the room with me that I could ask for things. than it was to like press a button and call for a nurse. I mean, it was hard for me to use my hands anyways to to call for a nurse, but it was just nice to have someone that cared and loved me that was in the room with me. My dad, on the other hand, um my dad went through a major accident. From twelve years ago.

And so ever since then, he hasn't been exactly who he was beforehand. Uh but he did come up to the hospital uh a lot of nights and and saw me. Yeah, was it tough for your mom to see you like this? Oh, absolutely. But it gave her.

A purpose by us having her there. Yeah. And I think it gave her some comfort knowing that. you know, seeing me progress. Along until I was released from the hospital.

Yeah, one of the things that I think of is, and I think it's in the Old Testament, maybe Numbers 21, where the people of God were complaining and they were belly aching and this and that and the other. And then the Lord sent venomous snakes to bite them. And they started to cry out to the Lord and they said, Lord, you know, save us or whatever. And as you all know, Moses put up a bronze snake or a copper snake. And anybody who looked to the snake, anybody who looked to the bronze snake would live.

But at the same time, I realized that complaining and belly aching, I think sometimes we think it's not a big deal to God, but I realize it is a big deal to God. And so if anybody can go through what you've gone through and you're not complaining about it, it's like they really don't have an excuse. Yeah, so I told one of my bosses one time, she was like, you know, how are you handling this so well? And I was like, you know, what good is it? for you or anyone else that I'm talking to.

for me to talk about my problems. I was like, you know, I have a certain like inner circle of people that I'm willing to share. Oh, like this is a hard day. Like, my hands are tired, or my arms are tired, or I'm itching. But like it doesn't do you any good for me to tell you those problems.

I mean, it's good for the people that really care about me and are really in my inner circle so that they know, like. Maybe he's gonna have to go be alone for a little while, or he's gonna miss this dinner date or something like that. But it does no you no good to hear my issues. And I mean, I feel like that's where we are a lot with the Christian world is we see so many people just complaining. when at the end of the day, like God's good and like there's nothing really to complain about I mean, if you are still here and you're still breathing, like, And you have a community, I really don't see the point of people complaining.

Yeah, and not only that, but what I realize when I want to start complaining is that there have been over a hundred thousand Nigerian Christians who have been murdered by Muslims over there and they're taking their lives. There have been many Christians who have been killed over in Iran just by naming the name of Christ. And so, if you go to persecution.com, one of the things that tells me is this: you know, there are people out there, Charles, who have it a lot worse than I do. And so, you know, the opposite of complaining is being grateful. The opposite of complaining is gratitude.

And I know some people who actually will go out and they'll make a gratitude list where they'll sit there and they'll write down and they'll speak out what they're grateful for.

Now, I don't know what you do in the morning, but when I wake up, I say, Thank you, Lord, for another day. Number one, number two, I say this. This is the day that the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. And I listen to praise music, and I not only listen to it, Charles, but I sing praise music because I've seen that it's really, really hard for me, maybe impossible, for me to be praising the Lord and at the same time be depressed.

And I agree with you. And I do some of the very similar things. And I even know someone who is a very famous podcaster, he talks about wrestling. But he does the same thing. He makes, he verbalizes every morning things that he's grateful for.

And at the end of every episode, he actually asks the person that's speaking on that show, what are three things you're grateful for? And I think that's awesome that even the secular world. They there's a le they can have gratitude for something. Even though they don't know where the things, the gratefulness heart comes from, which comes from Jesus.

So, for me, I do have a grateful heart when I wake up. And I recently talked about praise music. There was a. Red Rocks just came out with a new album, and it was before the actual album came out. There was a song on it.

And It just literally rocked me as I was working out one morning. Literally, I'm sitting there at a machine weeping because of how it spoke to me and what I have gone through. Yeah. And so, you know, it's like when we start to, you know, they did a study, and I think I talked about this on the show last week. I heard a pastor talking about this, but one of the things that he was saying was this: he said that there were people who were sitting in a room together, and he said that they were World War II veterans, and they were, what are they, Vietnam, Vietnam veterans.

This was like 40, 50 years ago. And he said that what they did is they had a psychologist or the leader of the group say, I want you to think about the worst experience that you ever had. And they said that they would start to think about it. And they said when they were done, they would check their blood pressure, they would check their stress levels. And surprisingly, just when they thought about it, nothing changed.

They weren't any. Worse off than they were before. But then what they did was they said, We want you to talk about how bad those experiences were in Vietnam or in World War II or whatever it was through people in the Holocaust. And they said that when they started to speak it out, when they started to verbalize it, they said then they checked their stress and their blood pressure and things got really bad for them. And so sometimes I realize it's not just the fact that we have to, yes, we got to listen to God, we have to think good thoughts, but there's times where the enemy's talking in my ear, Charles, and I've got to speak the word of God.

And I say out loud, I say I am more than a conqueror through Jesus Christ. Or I say what you were saying before in Romans 8, 28. It says, for we know that all things work together for good to those who love God and for them who are called according to his purpose. Does that mean even being burned all over your body? Yeah, I think so.

Um and I think that You know, no matter the experience that you go through, you know, as long as you don't lose faith and lose hope that better days are ahead, I truly believe that you're going to be able to walk through the fire and come out unburned. And I know that sounds good. Yeah, no pun intended. But I mean, you know, I can honestly say that, you know, I've walked through it. And I had been burned, but, you know, through the through it, I've actually grown in my faith.

And when I do share about it, like when I'm sharing about it today, like I don't, I don't, there's not this like angst that comes across my body. It actually loses its power over me a little by little. By me speaking truth to people out in the radio world or in front of you live. I will say that as I drove over here, it was one of the first times I've drove by the LJVM Coliseum since the accident. And there was something that kind of came over me like.

Like, I was kind of like looking as high as I could to see, can I see the spot where? My friends like rolled off the truck and when just like all the chaos occurred at And I mean, I just like there was a there was a part of me that was like, you know, you should turn in there and let it lose its power over you as well. And uh I didn't, but on the way home I might do that. You might do that. And sometimes, you know, one of the things that I've heard is that, and this is what Jesus said: He said, If you forgive other people when they sin against you, He says that your heavenly Father will forgive you.

However, He says, If you do not forgive other people when they sin against you, then. Your heavenly father will not forgive you. And so, one of the things that I'm reminded is: there's been people who have had accidents like this, or there have been people who have gone through terrible things and they're angry at God. And I realize being angry at God, that's not going to do you any good at all. No, it's just going to make you more of a miserable person, honestly.

And I mean, you know, you already have enough things that are going on with your body when you go through this.

So, like, being angry at God, like it's only going to make things worse. And probably, honestly, it's going to make your body feel even worse because you have this build-up tension inside of your body. Yeah. And I heard a story this morning about a guy who he said there were two men who were out in the forest and they heard a grizzly bear coming. And they said that one of the men got down and he started to tie his tennis shoes and he was about to go for a run.

And the other guy said to him, He's like, What are you doing? He said, You're not going to outrun that bear. And the guy said, Yeah, I know I'm not gonna outrun that bear. He said, I just have to outrun you.

So the bear is gonna get you and not me. And I think sometimes what we do is we say, you know what? My sin may be bad. But at least I'm not as bad as somebody else. At least I'm not a murderer.

At least I've never killed anybody. I've never shot anybody. I've never done anything really bad. But Jesus put it like this: He said, There were two men who went up to the church one Sunday, and he said, One of the men said, Lord, I thank you. I'm not like that other man.

I'm a pretty good guy. But the second guy, he said, God, have mercy on me, a sinner. And he says that everybody who exalts themselves will be humbled, and everybody who humbles themselves will be exalted. And so, Charles, I want to thank you for coming on today. I know this has certainly humbled you.

My show, If Not for God, with Mike Zwick, will be on tomorrow at 12 o'clock noon on the Truth Network. And I really want you guys to think about what you are grateful for. Things could be a lot worse, and you've got, you've just listened to a guy for an hour who has said, you know what? I don't care what happens to me, I am going to praise the Lord no matter what. Thanks again for coming on.

Of course. Thanks, Mike. Yep.