Welcome to Truth Talk Live. All right, let's talk. A daily program powered by the Truth Network. This is kind of a great thing, and I'll tell you why. Where pop culture, current events, and theology all come together.
Speak your mind. And now, here's today's Truth Talk Live host. My name is Charles Rosenberger and I am so thrilled to be with you.
Truth Talk Live 866-34-TRUTH 866-348-7884. I was listening to Stu Epperson's lead in with this about a call to prayer for our leaders. It reminded me of this story back in the 60s. Lyndon Johnson was president. A lot of people don't even remember Lyndon Johnson.
And quite frankly, some of the things that he did are not worth remembering, but that's a different conversation. Anyway, he was the president. He had the chaplain, I believe, I think he was the Senate chaplain at the time. I can't remember exactly, but he was chaplain there.
And they were in the cabinet room. And the chaplain was going to say the invocation for a cabinet meeting. And he was at one end of the room and Lyndon Johnson was sitting where the president sits.
But he would actually, the president normally sits in the middle now, but I think at the time Lyndon was at the far end of the table. President Johnson's there, chaplain's on the other side, and the chaplain leads off with a prayer and gives a really moving prayer. He was a very godly man, if I remember correctly. And after the prayer, President Johnson said, chaplain, I couldn't hear you. And the chaplain wisely said, well, Mr. President, I wasn't praying to you.
I thought that was quite good. And that chaplain had his priorities right. And I love what Stu said coming in to this program. He said, aren't we pray to God? We don't pray to anybody else but God.
And because he is God all by himself. And that's a great reminder, Stu. So thank you for that. I am doing this program from Denver where I'm here with my wife for the next at least another six weeks. So she's going through two different surgeries to fix a long standing problem.
We've known about this for some years, but there was a lead up to this. And so I'm doing this remotely and not in my studio. So if you hear sirens in the back or whatever, I'm just right across the street from the hospital. I'm staying in a hotel across there where a lot of families stay where they have extended medical care. But I'm in Aurora and Aurora's been on the news lately.
Have you noticed this with ICE coming in here? And it's we've got some as our new president would say, we've got some some bad hombres. They're bad hombres. They're not good. They're bad hombres. But we got tough guys.
ICE tough guys are big guys are going to come in there and they're going to take care of things. And there were some arrests that just made the news. Just this last week, it's right here where I am.
In fact, I'm here siren going by there. And I went to a grocery store down the road. I had to go get some detergent support because you do have to wash clothes when you're here for the for a couple of months.
And, you know, it's one of those places where you've got to go in and you have to ask somebody to come with a key to open up to get laundry detergent. You know, I live in a small town in Montana. And before that, we lived in Nashville. But we never had any of this where I lived in Nashville. We certainly don't have it where I live in Montana, the small town. Montana has the most armed citizenry in the country per capita, which means they have the most armed citizenry in the world because of this country. So if you're going to start some trouble in Montana, you better be prepared because the citizenry is armed. And I mean, I'm going to a store and leave my car running in Montana.
But here I was, you know, it was a bit bizarre to see this kind of degradation here in the United States of America. I mean, you would think where I was going to this grocery store, which is just literally less than a mile down from this hotel where I am, and you to think I was going into a third world country. Two armed guards are standing right by the register and I have to ask for a bag. And they charge you extra, by the way, for the bags out here. But I had to ask for a bag, a grocery bag. And I said, well, why don't you keep them right here where we can do?
I'm already doing self-service. I mean, you know, at least you do have a bag. They said, well, people grab them and steal them and leave. And I thought, why are we tolerating this? Why are we tolerating this as a country? We don't tolerate this where I live. Do they tolerate this where you live? I mean, is this normal for your community where you are?
I'd like to know. I'm just kind of stunned. And I've been to developing countries. I've been to places where this kind of thing goes on. But I thought, I'm here in Denver, in Aurora. And this is crazy. And I'm looking around, you go out there and there's just there's homelessness, there's filth.
And I thought, you know, you remember John Denver singing Rocky Mountain High in Colorado and how beautiful it is. What happened? I mean, what happened to this place? And I'm just stunned. And I thought, well, we got some problems in this country and I hope that we're on the path to fixing these.
And I'd certainly like to know what you think. 866-348-7884, 86634-TRUTH if you want to weigh in on the program. But my wife is doing better. I mean, she's got another surgery coming up on the 13th.
And it's tough. She has a hard life. She has a very hard life. This will be her surgery coming up will be her 88th operation.
That's a lot of surgery, wouldn't you say? And she's, you know, tougher than train smoke, but still it takes a bit of starch out of you and she can't move. She's kind of flat on her back and she can't they don't want to move in that leg. And what they had to do is release a hip flexor on both legs or have to do this because she's been bent over so long that they're having to release and move it down so that she can stand up straight.
We fixed her back over the last several years. We've been working on that and now they have to fix this. And it's a bit of a challenge. Now, you know, I do a radio program for caregivers that's carried on this network and on the Truth Network podcast and I write books for caregivers. I understand the journey and I see a lot of people here because it's a children's hospital as well as a teaching hospital.
It's a destination hospital for such a big area. So you see a lot of families come in that are dealing with tough things. But what an opportunity to just listen to them and share with them and communicate to them the hope of the gospel. It's not an easy thing to do when you're impatient and I see some very, very tough things, but Jesus came into our mess. He came into our distress, our hopelessness and communicated the great hope of the gospel because he is the gospel.
And so it's our pleasure and privilege to be able to do the same for others, comfort one another. And that is Truth Talk Live. This is Peter Rosenberger.
We'll be right back. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com Welcome back to Truth Talk Live. This is Peter Rosenberger and I'm glad to have this opportunity to talk with you today. If you want to be on the program, it's very easy.
It's 866-34-TRUTH, 866-348-7884. Let me ask you a question. How many of you all are artists or woodworkers or craftsmen, craftswomen, craftspeople of any kind, gardeners, any of those things? How many of you do that?
I mean, just a quick show of hands, not if you're driving to keep both hands on the wheels, but just a quick show of hands. How many of you all are doing that? Have ever made a piece of furniture or something with wood or work in your garden or paint something? Do you, for example, if you are a woodworker and do these things, do you leave it in the woodshop? Do you leave it there when it's done? Do you get it all done and beautifully stained everything else and then just keep it hidden in the workshop?
I would imagine you do not. You put it on display. My brother-in-law, my sister's husband, is just amazing with tools and woodworking and he takes things that look like junk and makes something extraordinary out of it. I've never seen anybody quite as gifted as this guy.
It's amazing what he can do. And he had an old piece of a work table that belonged to his father, I believe, and it was all beat up and marred and had flaws and everything else. And he worked on that and restored it, kept some of the flaws and worked around it and made, there was like a big bolt that was just kind of like stuck in there, couldn't get out. So he worked around that and made this incredibly beautiful desk out of it.
That's his office in their home and it's on display. It's absolutely exquisite. The reason I'm bringing this up is because that's what you are to God. That's what I am to God.
Now, how do I know this? Well, Paul said in 2 Corinthians, and this is when I first met Gracie, this is the verse she hammered over and over and over, just when we were first dating because I was talking about her life and her journey. She said, I will boast all the more gladly in my weakness so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. And she's referencing that conversation that Paul had with Jesus saying, take this from me. And Jesus said to Paul, my grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness. And that elicited this eruption of praise from Paul that says, therefore, I will boast all the more gladly. And Gracie has modeled that her entire life with this. Her body was horrifically broken over 40 years ago.
And as she's facing her 88th surgery, she's still saying the same thing. And then Paul goes on in Ephesians, he says, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. If we're his workmanship, do you think that he wants us stuck in the garage, in the workshop, or is he going to display us for others to see? God loves to show off his work. I remember when we first moved to Montana, a friend of mine told me, he says, oh, that's where God was just showing off in Montana because all the beautiful mountains and everything else. And it is. God loves to show off all creation cries out to the glory of God.
Well, guess what? You and I are creation. Are we crying out to the glory of God? Are we boasting all the more gladly in our weakness? Are we illuminating the work that he's done in our life and is doing?
It's a different mindset we have. And so when we go into places like I'm out here now, I'm at a big hospital and they're suffering all around me. And Gracie and I are not exempt from this suffering. It's our life. I had a chaplain come to the room yesterday and was asking, and I said, we're not looking for someone to say, okay, we're going to get you through this and get on with your life. I looked at the chaplain and said, this is our life. And it has been our life since Ronald Reagan was president. Not a bad life. It's a hard life, not a bad life. But it gives us an opportunity to boast all the more gladly in our weakness, knowing that he is working in this.
He is doing something extraordinary in this. And I don't know what it is. And I don't try to speculate. People say, well, look at the testimony you guys have and this and this.
I'm not that noble. Let me just tell you that right now. And Gracie would tell you the same thing. She'd rather have her legs. I promise you, she'd rather be pain free.
Billy Graham had a pretty good run and he had both legs. She had a car wreck and it banged her up pretty bad. But what she is doing is boasting in her weakness, not just her physical weakness, not just in her broken body, but in her spiritual weakness of recognizing that she's not up to what God has asked her to do. That's the hard news.
But the great news is he is up. You know, I hate it when people get things wrong. You've heard that phrase where they say, you know, God will never give you more than you can handle. That is not scriptural. He asked a blind man to see. He asked a deaf man to hear. He asked a man with a withered hand to stretch it out. He asked a dead man.
He told a dead man to come out of the grave. It's not that God doesn't give us more than we can handle. God doesn't give us more than he can handle.
And we trusted him with these things because we are his workmanship. Didn't say it was easy because it's not. It is hard. And Jesus groaning in Gethsemane tells you that. Jesus knew that it was hard.
Paul knew that it was hard. But for the joy set before him, that's the extraordinary point. And that's what gives us the freedom then to do other things. And that's what gives us the drive and the devotion to do this because we recognize we've been saved from something far worse. Something far worse. My wife has lost both legs and has 88 operations. And she would be the first to tell you I've been saved from something far worse.
Far worse than this. You are his workmanship. And I would encourage you to shout it out. Let people know, let people see what God has done in your life. Bear witness to it. That's all we're called to do.
Preach the good news and make disciples and display what God has done. I love Fanny Crosby's hymn. I'm sorry I don't have the caregiver keyboard here. I'd play it for you. But I couldn't bring it down here. Besides, I'm in where I am right now.
I'm afraid somebody would steal it. We've got to work on that, y'all. But I love Fanny Crosby's hymn. To God be the glory, great things he has done. So love thee the world that he gave us his son. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.
Let the earth hear his voice. One time, Gracie and I were out in the back country behind us. We were backed up to the forest in Montana. We took snowmills out there several years ago.
And there was nobody there. We were six miles back into the forest. We were in this big area. There was a lake, huge peaks around us, covered with snow. It was snowing on us.
And we just stopped. And at the top of her voice, she belted out how great thou art. And it was just reverberating around those mountains and in that snow. It was an exceptional experience, a tremendous experience.
She was singing how great thou art with everything in her broken body. Now my question to myself and to others is, can we do the same? Can we do the same?
Absolutely. How do we do the same? Because we recognize that he who began a good work in us is faithful to complete it to the day of Christ Jesus.
And we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them Ephesians 2.10. How about that? That's Truth Talk Live. We'll be right back. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Welcome back to Truth Talk Live. This is Peter Rosenberger.
Glad that you're with us. 866-348-7884. 866-34-TRUTH. If you want to be on the program, I do a Substack page. Every week I have several things that I put out there on my Substack page.
You can see it at PeterRosenberger.com. And just right there at the top says, go to the Substack page. And I put all kinds of stuff there. And every Monday, I put out an excerpt from my book. It's a minute for caregivers when every day feels like Monday. And we've been having some squirrely weather and I get an alert on my phone and everything else on the weather. And there was a big fog coming in.
And I was thinking about this and I wrote about this. Do you know what the National Weather Service says to do when you run into a fog? I mean, what's the first thing you do? Slow down. Slow down. And the other thing is they ask you to do what with your headlights if you're at nighttime.
What do they ask you to do? You turn them on bright or you turn them on low? High beam or low beam? And it's, of course, low beam. Why?
Well, because it'll glare back at you. Okay, we all know this. We covered this. Every one of you took driver's ed, right? Everybody went through that. All right.
So we know these things. So I wrote about this and I talk about the caregiver fog. The caregiver fog. I think this applies to a lot of people, by the way. Again, sorry for the sirens that you hear in the background, but I live in a place where it's a little bit gnarly right now. I don't live here.
I'm here briefly for a couple of months. But anyway, caregivers often find themselves in a fog. Now, a regular fog that we do talks about that we run into in life is water vapor. But the caregiver fog consists of what? Fear, obligation and guilt. Fear, obligation and guilt. FOG.
F-O-G. Fear, obligation and guilt. Without exception, every caregiver will experience these difficult feelings in their journey. Now, the National Weather Service directive that they say what to do in a fog, it still works for us as caregivers. Slow down. When disoriented by the caregiver fog, slow down and don't try to see too far ahead.
Don't turn on the high beams. See, we're always looking way down the road. What about this? What are we going to do about this?
And we live out in the wreckage of our future. How many of you all feel that way sometimes that you're worried about something that's not even happened yet? We're in pain over something that happened. I was listening to an anesthesiologist. They're part of the pain management group that came in to check on Gracie and she said something and I told her, I said, I'm stealing that.
You just witnessed grand larceny because I'm stealing what you just said. She said, don't let your fear of pain become pain. Wow, that's a pretty profound statement, isn't it?
Don't let your fear of pain become pain. See, I've looked through all of scripture and there is nowhere in scripture where it talks about a husband taking care of his wife through 88 surgeries and both of her legs amputated. It's not there.
So I can't find that exact scenario there. But what I can find are enormous amounts of scripture, just almost every page filled with, don't be afraid, fear not, be still, settle down. The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty. I'm with you.
All of these things. You feel the difference with it. You see it? Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for what? Thou art with me. So we have this as part of, it's wired into us because of the fall that we're going to be afraid of things. I get it.
Been there, done that, got the t-shirt, still struggle with that. Scripture says we don't have to. And we don't have to just try to see so far in advance.
We don't. We just, what does it say? Thy word is what unto my feet? A lamp. Well, it's not a searchlight.
It's a lamp. We only see one step at a time usually. And the fear of the unknown twists us into knots. But then we have obligation. Fear, obligation, guilt. And that obligation can quickly lead to resentment. And then the guilt that tortures us.
And some things are guilt worthy. You know, I was talking to a guy the other day who's going through a pretty messy situation. He was going to get married to this lady and then they ended up living together.
They never got married and now the whole relationship has just fallen apart. And he is a professing Christian. And he said to me, he said, I feel so guilty.
And I looked at him, I said, good. Praise God. It's guilt worthy. I said, can you imagine not feeling guilty over this? That would mean that God has allowed you to have a seared conscious. That would mean that He's not convicting you of sin. What could be worse than not acknowledging your own sin in need of a Savior?
That means you're on your own. And I saw him square his shoulders back and he kind of looked up at his face, I never thought of that. And he thanked God that he was able to see the magnitude of his sin as much as he could understand that he felt guilty about it. And what does scripture say about our sin? If we confess our sins to one another, he is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us of all unrighteousness. But it starts with it recognizing that we're sinners. And that's where that guilt that comes in, it's torture, guilt is torture. But the gospel, the grace that comes in, that's how you deal with that guilt is you apply grace to it. But you have to acknowledge it first. There's no such thing as cheap grace.
There's no such thing as that. That's not grace at all. But those feelings, that fog of caregivers, that fear, obligation and guilt can cause us to careen off the road just like a real fog and go right into a ditch or a tree or something else. We've got to go slow. We've got to give ourselves the space and the grace to deal with what's directly in front. If we need to make amends for it, if we need to confess it, if we need to deal with it, let's do it. Get it cleaned up.
Go to God with it and say, look, I've made a mess of this. I'm in a fog. And that's going to help us navigate this road as caregivers, as human beings. And there's a great quote that I've added to this from Douglas Horton. He said, drive slow and enjoy the scenery. Drive fast and join the scenery. And I don't know about you, but I don't want to be a part of the scenery.
So let's slow down a little bit. This is something I have to constantly revisit in my own life. And so I use this opportunity and I tell this to Gracie all the time when she finds herself getting anxious about what's coming and I would tell her and then I need her to repeat it back to me because I need to hear it.
We're not there yet, but he is. And I'll never forget when she gave up her right leg. This was her first amputation. And she later said to me, she said, you know, I didn't know what was on the other side of that operating room door, but I knew who waited for me there. Isn't that great? That's dealing with that fog, that fear and obligation and guilt that's dealing with that which is so disorienting with an understanding of the great gospel of what God is doing that we can trust him with these very, very painful things. And then, as I said in the last block, we become his workmanship because we see this. Oh, we go out and say and we repeat it back and forth to one another to remind ourselves of these truths. You remember that old hymn?
Seeing them over and over again, wonderful words of life, beautiful words, wonderful words, wonderful words of life. You remember that hymn? I love that hymn. I love playing that hymn and I throw in chords on that that are non-sanctioned by a lot of churches.
I throw in some high dollar chords because I love giving that musical girth to it and tension to it. But it's such a great text. We need to be reminded over and over and over again. We live in a messed up place in this world. I mean, as I said in the first block, I can go down the street here just to the grocery store and there are armed guards and I have to ask for a plastic bag at a grocery store because the crime is so bad. And I can go home to our home in Montana. We have a nice little town and people know each other. But there are people that will never get out of that. They will be asking for a grocery bag for the rest of their life. What do you do with that? What do you do with that information? How do you help them?
How do you spend time sharing the gospel in that kind of situation? It's incredibly painful. And people's lives are filled with this kind of pain.
And we're called to go into that and boast all the more gladly of our weakness. Is that something you feel comfortable doing? Is that something that you are doing? Is that something that someone has done for you?
And I go back to, you know, just in our own life. I was talking with Gracie about this in her hospital room. And she's saying these words back to me.
She's praying for me from her hospital bed. That's extraordinary, isn't it? But that's the gospel, is that He equips us to do these things in the midst of all of this mess. And that is Truth Talk Live. And this is Peter Rosenberg, and we will be right back. You're listening to the Truth Network and TruthNetwork.com Welcome back to Truth Talk Live. This is Peter Rosenberg. Glad to have you with us.
866-34-TRUTH, 866-348-7884. I've been kind of banging this particular drum today as we look at the things in front of us that are often very, very painful and horrific. But model our Savior, what He said, for the joy set before Him, He endured the cross. Now, do we understand that? And are we willing to walk down that path? You hear a lot of people talk about, you know, in Christian media and televangelists and so forth, you know, you're going to get your breakthrough. You know, this is a step up to a step, whatever, you know, they got all these little catch phrases.
I got to tell you, Gracie and I, we both tell you with one voice, we've already got our breakthrough. That was done at the cross. We've already got it. We're there. And now He's invited us to be obedient, even through these very, very painful things and trust Him with this brutal reality that we have. And so we do.
Why? Because of the cross. And the cross, I've said many times that sin is a bigger problem than we think it is, and the cross is a bigger deal than we could ever imagine. And that's what's freed us up to say, okay, we're going to do something different here.
We're going to live our lives a little bit differently. And if you go out to standingwithhope.com, standingwithhope.com, you'll see a quote from my wife and she's sitting right there. She's on a television set being interviewed and you'll see a quote that she says, I'm going to put prosthetic limbs on my fellow amputees and point them to Christ. How about that? I mean, that's a pretty bold statement, isn't it?
From somebody who's lost her own legs and she understands how valuable prosthetics are. So we've been doing that for 20 years. This is our 20th anniversary this year on our first trip over to West Africa is where we started.
We launched this program in the West African country of Ghana. And I meet a lot of people here at the hospital. There are so many different countries represented here in this area where I am in Denver and I can usually hear a Sub-Saharan West African accent. In fact, I took an Uber ride the other day. We don't have Uber where I live in Montana. We have Goober, but we don't have Uber. But I took an Uber the other day and I could tell by the guy's voice, I said, where are you from?
He said Ghana. And I said, Badassie. You know, which is thank you and welcome. And he couldn't believe I could speak his language and his face just lit up.
And I told him about our work and he was stunned. Gracie decided she was going to do this many, many years ago. And as just an extension of her gratitude for what God has done for her. And you know what we do is we recycle prosthetic limbs.
Did you know you could do that? And we collect used limbs from all over the country and they go to a prison in Arizona. And it's run by an outfit out of Nashville called Core Civic. And inmates volunteer. They have a lot of faith-based programs and faith-based programs have a proven record of a low recidivism. I mean, you just don't have the repeat offenders when you're getting into these faith-based programs to come back into prison.
That's the whole point. Once they've served their time, you don't want them coming back. Well, how are you going to do that? Well, one of the ways that happens is through faith-based programs, particularly Christian faith-based programs, where they're able to understand the gospel and go back and become productive members of society.
And our program, Standing With Hope, is one of those. And inmates can volunteer to do this. And they will assemble all these limbs that we collect. They'll take them apart. Now, the socket is custom fitted to that patient. And that's what the amputated limb fits into.
That can't be recycled. That has to be made on site for each patient. And we provide materials for that. We purchase materials. We've trained them. We ship them over there and some materials can be purchased local.
But we've trained them to do this. So they'll make a socket. But they can recycle the adapters, the tube clamps, the pylons, the feet, the knees, screws. All of those kind of things can be recycled.
Isn't that amazing? And so we take all those parts and then we ship them over. And we're having a pickup right now of those things.
And we're getting ready to ship it, get all the inventory squared away and ship it over to West Africa because they're waiting on it. We can even recycle some of the gel liners and sleeves if they're in good shape. We're always looking for more. So if you know of somebody, maybe a young person who's out growing their limb, we always do pediatric stuff. And if you know somebody who had a loved one who passed away who was an amputee, don't let them throw that away. We'll take it.
We'll take it. And you go out to standingwithhope.com and right at the top there it says prosthetics. And then you click on that little tab, you'll see a little menu comes up that says donate a used prosthetic limb and follow the instructions on there.
It's very easy to do. And you can give the gift that keeps on walking if you want to help sponsor that and support it. We welcome that. We have two programs at Standing With Hope. It's for the wounded and those who care for them. And it's the prosthetic limb ministry and then the caregiver outreach we do. Because just as Gracie saw the need to be able to help her fellow amputees, I saw the need to help my fellow caregivers to strengthen those who take care of somebody who's chronically impaired. How do you help somebody that does that? What does that even look like? Well, that's what I do.
I bring four decades of experience to help caregivers stay healthy and strong as they take care of somebody who is not. That's my life. And it always comes down to the gospel. It always comes down to understanding God in this. Not some construct of God that if you squint your eyes real hard when you pray, he's going to grant you whatever you ask for.
If you have enough faith, I mean, you know, people have actually said that to us many times. They don't say it anymore because I get a little bit. Well, let's just say they don't say it anymore. And, you know, I remember one time when Gracie first had a wreck, she told me that I didn't know her at the time, but she was in traction. And a woman said to her, you're 17 years old, laying in traction. And she can't move. They're trying to save her legs that would ultimately prove futile, which is how we're dealing with all this stuff now, all that time spent saving the legs. And Gracie had been living for the Lord, led to the Lord by Corrie ten Boom.
She's a little girl. And this woman comes in and says, well, what did you do that God would do this to you? I mean, think about that. That's the kind of poor theology we have out there.
Now, I didn't know her at the time, so if I'd been there, I would have intercepted that particular missive and I would have dealt with it. And I do it now and I want to help be a sheepdog for fellow caregivers who are struggling with these kinds of things that people are putting on them, like somehow God's mad at you. Let me tell you something. If God was in the business of amputating legs for sin, there'd be an awful lot of amputees in this country.
You know, Hugh Hefner had both of his legs all the way to the time he died. Think about that. Jim Elliott said it best, he is no fool to give up what he cannot keep in order to gain what he cannot lose. So what are we hoarding on to? That we just let it go to grab a hold of Christ. Paul says letting everything go to grab a hold of Christ. What else is there?
All the riches that are in Christ are ours. And so this is why Gracie gives out of her lack to say, look, you know, she's not going to go quietly, go nurse her wounds and try to live. She's going to put legs on her fellow amputees. She's been over to God with me. She wants to go back. She keeps telling me I'm going back and I keep saying, well, let's finish the surgeries first, if that's okay, darling. You know, my wife is a force of nature.
You try telling her no. And I'll never forget, I shouldn't tell you this, but I'll never forget. We talked to a record company in Nashville one time over there, Music Row.
And this guy that was A&R, I won't tell you the name of the company, I won't tell you the name of the person because you probably know both. And he was looking at Gracie and her producer was right there. And Gracie said, no kidding singer. You can go out and hear it at the website. Just take my word for it.
Well, don't take my word for it. Go listen. She's a no kidding singer. And he looked at Gracie and he said, well, you need me to do such and such. And she stopped him. She said, I need you. Can you make my legs grow back? No?
Well, I guess I really don't need you, do I? And her producer looked over at me and I was like, wow, maybe? She's just that way. And she just kind of cuts her own path with it. And I thought, well, bless her heart.
She's stronger than elevator rope. And she said, I'm just going to do this. I don't know exactly how I'm going to do it, but I'm going to do it because I'm not going to sit in the workshop like we talked about in the last couple of blocks. She said, I'm not going to sit in the workshop.
I'm going to get out and boast all the more gladly my weakness. And she wears her prosthetic legs uncovered, the real robotic looking. Sometimes I tell her, I say, Gracie, you got magic legs. I call her Lieutenant Dan, you got magic legs, Gracie. But she doesn't think it's nearly as funny as I do, but she tolerates me. But we recognize that none of this matters compared to what waits for us.
This is what Paul said. That's how we lift one another up. I've got a whole bunch of people that I will see on the elevator, on the way up to her floor or on her floor who are dealing with hard things. How about you taking a moment to pray for me and for Gracie, because we've got people coming into our room and so forth. Are they going to see a couple that is excited about the gospel, even in the midst of their distress? Or are we going to be just miserable and wringing our heads?
That's the difference. That's what the gospel can do. Even the missus, remember Paul and Silas around midnight, they were seeing hymns in prison. We're not in prison.
We haven't been beaten. We have some tough things, but we can see hymns in the hospital room. How about you? Let's be on display to the glory of God. That is Truth Talk Live. This is Peter Rosenberg at PeterRosenberger.com. I'd love to hear from you. We'll see you next time.
