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You’re tired.
Not just physically; though yeah, that too.
You’re tired in your bones. In your soul.
Trying to be a steady husband, an intentional dad, a man of God… but deep down, you feel like you’re falling short. Like you’re carrying more than you know how to hold.
Dad Tired is a podcast for men who are ready to stop pretending and start healing.
Not with self-help tips or religious platitudes, but by anchoring their lives in something (and Someone) stronger.
Hosted by Jerrad Lopes, a husband, dad of four, and fellow struggler, this show is a weekly invitation to find rest for your soul, clarity for your calling, and the courage to lead your family well.
Through honest stories, biblical truth, and deep conversations you’ll be reminded:
You’re not alone. You’re not too far gone. And the man you want to be is only found in Jesus.
This isn’t about trying harder.
It’s about coming home.
Hey guys. Welcome back to the Dad Tired podcast. I was just traveling this week. I've been traveling all over the country the last several weeks, but, uh, I was just in Washington, DC and I ran into some dads who are homeschooling their family through a program called Classical Conversations. And I, we used classical conversations in our family to homeschool our kids.
It was just cool. There was immediately. Like this comradery among us, that we are kind of in it together. Even though they were strangers, I had never met them before. It felt like we were like-minded in this way. And I know there's a huge growing community of parents who are like, they're considering homeschooling for the first time for all kinds of reasons, but maybe that's you.
Maybe you're like. I've never been open to the conversation before, but now I'm actually interested in learning more about what homeschooling looks like. If that's you, I highly recommend that you check out classical conversations to give your child a well-rounded education. You understand the importance of positive socialization.
You want to give them opportunities to succeed in life. You're thinking through what does this look like in the homeschooling realm? I, I can't recommend highly enough. You consider joining a classical conversations community and homeschooling alongside of other local families. These are led by trained licensed directors where families can learn through classical conversations, proven Christ-centered curriculum together.
In community together, and that's a huge part of it. You're not on your own. You've got a community of other parents and families who are journeying alongside you and your kids to help know God and make him known. They have locations in all 50 states, even 50 different countries around the world. There's bound to be a community near you.
If you wanna learn more about it, go to classical conversations.com/dad tired, we've got a page set up for you. Again, that's classical conversations.com/dad tired.
I remember right outta high school, the high school that I graduated from, asked if I would be interested in coaching their soccer team. And, uh, I had grown up playing soccer and had played all the way through high school and really enjoyed it. And, uh, I knew that the team, the high school, needed a, a coach for the team.
And so I thought, you know, I'll, this can't be that hard. I'll, I've played my whole life. I'll do it. So I volunteer to do it. And it turns out, uh, it was a much bigger commitment than I imagined I was getting myself into. Uh, it was like, practice five days a week and multiple games, and you're contacting parents and you gotta coordinate game schedules and who's gonna bring who, what, and we gotta travel to this place.
It just, I remember thinking like, holy cow, if I knew. That this was what I was getting into, I probably wouldn't have signed up for it. The $200 stipend or whatever it was at the end of the season didn't seem to quite match the amount of time and effort I was having to put into it. It was fun. I enjoy, I still look back at those memories.
Uh, some of the kids that I coached are still kids that I, I really love and cherish to this day. And it was just a really fun season, but it was much bigger than I anticipated. Much bigger commitment than I anticipated that I was gonna get into. And you can probably relate to that on some level. I'm sure you've gotten into something where you thought somebody asked you to do something, you're like, oh, this is gonna be cool.
And it turned out to be way bigger than what you anticipated it was gonna be. And had you known it was gonna be as big of a thing as it turned out to be, you probably, or maybe you wouldn't have signed up for it at the beginning. Uh, I was thinking about this recently. I'm just gonna be really honest with you.
As I, as I start this podcast, I'm really exhausted. When I'm tired, I try to ask myself. Is my soul tired or is my body tired? Or both? And I think that's an important question for us to ask as men. One thing I'm learning about myself is that God has made us holistic, and I've talked about this before, but sometimes we just, we can put God in a box and think everything is just kind of spiritual and we, you know, hypothetical or maybe like.
We like to think about things in theory and all this kind of spiritual stuff is just something that we think about, but it doesn't really impact the rest of our lives. But one thing that's really important for us to remember is God is like he, when you think about love, the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your strength, like God's asking you to love him holistically, and he made us holistically.
There's a reason we're not just. These spirits floating around, but we actually have bodies and bodies that were designed by God. And so our bodies are spiritual. Our, our sleep is spiritual. The things we eat, how we take care of ourselves, like all of this is spirits. It's all the way that God designed things.
And so one thing I'm learning is to not just think of kind of my head in the clouds, but like, all right, what is my body? This body that God has given me, my mind, the mind that God has wired and created and invented. How does it shape my spiritual journey? Sometimes when I'm really tired, I try to ask myself like, all right, what?
What's going on? And how is my body trying to indicate what's going on in my mind and my soul? And so when I feel really tired, which I do often as a data four, I ask myself, am I, is my soul tired? Is there something going on in my soul or is it just physical or both? And so right now I'm in a. I spoke for six weeks in a row, uh, with dad tired conferences and other conferences.
And then the last seven days I've been on, I've traveled three trips in the last seven days. So just I feel like I've been living on airplanes and in some ways I, I, I feel kind of numb and like I'm foggy and I'm just like saying things like out of muscle memory, but not. My brain isn't fully functioning well, and so as I'm sitting down to record this podcast, I feel really, really tired and I'm just, I'm like, I'm in the middle of examining God.
Am I? Is my soul tired? Is my soul weary? Or is this just physical? I think it's important for you as a man to really ask yourself, is your soul tired or you just physically exhausted or both? And to really become aware of what happens when you get tired. And really to protect yourself. There's some dude, when we get sleepy, and I mean that like when we get exhausted, when we're chronically tired, we start to, our brain goes to weird places.
This is even from a scientific perspective. And you, and I'm not smart enough to explain everything that's happening in your brain when you're tired, but we all know, like you'll make some weird decisions. You'll start to have some weird. Thoughts when you're tired. And so you gotta protect your sleep. And I know that's hard for us as young dads.
We're working, we got a family. I have a 4-year-old that comes into my bed every night that I keep trying to like walk back to her bed. And I get woken up multiple times. But you just have to be aware that your lack of sleep will have an impact on your spiritual journey. It will have an impact on your decision making.
Your integrity, the way that you think about things and think about people. And so you just gotta be like, don't separate those things. If you feel grumpy, if you feel mad, if you feel like you're far from the Lord. I guess what I'm saying is don't separate the fact that it could be tied to sleeping, eating, things like that.
So anyway, that took a little bit of a tangent and I didn't plan on going on, but I, I, I wanted to at least upfront, let you know I'm really, really tired. And what's interesting about that is I had two friends text me, they don't know each other, they live on opposite side of the country. They text me this week and said, Hey man, I feel like God has put you on my mind this week.
And, uh, just checking in to see how you're doing, which I thought was really interesting 'cause it was like, I do feel tired. I do feel a little bit numb. This is either completely coincidental that these people text me or the Lord like knows man, Jared could be vulnerable right now. Jared could be weak right now.
He could have poor decision making. And so just reminding the body of Christ to check in on the body of Christ, which is really, really cool. And so anyway, I say all that to say as I sat down to record this podcast. I know I'm tired. I know that I have propensity to not think well, and so I just ask God, what do you wanna say to me?
What do you wanna say to the dad? Tired guys this week? Is there something God, that you would want to share with us from your heart and from your word? I? And so, uh, jumped in the shower. I've told you multiple times, sorry for the visualization, but this is usually the place that's quiet and I have a minute to think.
And so I was just thinking and praying, God, what do you want to say to us this week? And here's what came to mind. I was talking to my son recently as we were doing our Bible study, and he said something like, something to the effect of. This is impossible. What God is asking us to do feels impossible. And just thinking through like, man, this is impossible for us.
If we're, if we're just trying to muster up the energy to follow Jesus in our own strength, it's really, really hard. We need God to give us his spirit, to allow us to do things that we're not able to do on our own, and I, I, this. Passage came to mind. You remember when Jesus was calling his disciples and uh, at the very beginning there's, there's a story about Peter where Jesus is teaching a crowd and he doesn't have room.
'cause the crowds are like come, starting to surround him. And so he jumps on one of these boats who happens to be Peter's. Boat in which it probably felt random to Peter, like, oh, he just needs to use my boat. But we know Jesus is super intentional. So he, he gets in Peter's boat, he teaches the crowd, and then when he is done teaching, he tells Peter, Hey, put your nets on the other side of the boat.
And Peter says, I imagine he's trying to be respectful, but he is like, I. Sorry man, but like I've been fishing all night and I didn't catch anything, so it's really nice of you to suggest Mr. Teacher, you tell me how to fish, but I've been fishing all night and I haven't caught anything, so I don't think putting my net on the other side of the boat six feet away or however far it was, is gonna catch anything.
But he says, master, I'll do what you say. So he takes his net and he literally just puts it on the other side of the boat, which is comical to a fisherman. And the Bible says that he catches so many fish. That he can't pull in the nets. He's calling for help. Other people that come help me pull up this net full of fish, which Ima remember.
Peter's a fisherman. This is like the best workday of his life. All he does is fish. His whole goal is to get fish, and now he gets more than he can even handle. You imagine? It's pretty exciting. Peter senses what's happening and he gets down on his knees and says, God, I'm Jesus. I'm master. I'm not worthy, like I'm sinful.
Clearly. You are up to something. You are somebody that I can't even figure out. You're not human like us. Like this is beyond my capacity to understand. And so he says, I'm, I'm sinful. And then Jesus says, come follow me and I'll make you a fisher of men, which would be scary and exciting, like you just had the best workday.
You pulled up more fish than you've ever imagined pulling up this guy who told you to cast your net on the other side is now responsible for. You pulling up more fish than you've ever pulled up. It's exciting and really, really fun and scary and all the emotions that you would be feeling if Jesus called you right after this miracle.
And I was thinking about when I first started to follow Jesus feeling some of those same feelings. Like, man, this is exciting. I remember the first time like really, really committing to the Lord. I made several decisions in my childhood, but probably when I was late teens, just deciding, all right man, I'm gonna try to go all in on this.
I'm gonna try to. Follow Jesus. I want to give my life to serve him and figure out what it means to follow Jesus. And it was exciting. You're with your friends. I remember we did short term mission trips and we were serving together. We did, we served around our community. You're like hanging out with your friends all the time.
You're, you're studying the scriptures and trying to understand them the best you can and there's some, there's a part of it that's kind of fun and maybe you think back to your own experience like. When was it that you decided you were gonna follow Jesus? And what was it like? Like what were you experiencing?
What kind of emotions? I just met with a group of guys in Washington, DC this week, and one of the guys shared his testimony. He didn't, he had no church experience, zero church experience, goes to some church because a friend invited him to go. Some guest speakers there gives a message of the gospel and he said he's, it was like he couldn't resist it.
Irresistible grace, as we would call it. Jesus calls him and he goes up front. He dedicates his life to following Jesus the best that he knows how, and he says he just remembers like in that season of life, of surrendering his life to Jesus. Right at the beginning he was like constantly crying and overwhelmed with emotion that God loves him and is pursuing him.
It's like this fun, exciting, crazy journey. Maybe you have a similar story and you, there was a time where you. We're on fire for the Lord, and you were excited to follow him, and you were like, you're all in, man. You're like, I'm, I'm going for it. As much as I understand what it means to follow Jesus, I'm in and I want to do it.
And then I, I was thinking about that season and then I was, I was thinking about that story, contrasting it with, uh, Peter, you know, getting in Peter's boat and Jesus calling him to give up everything to come follow him. And he does. And then there's this story in the Bible when, in John six, where Jesus says this, all these disciples are coming.
Sorry, I'm not quoting here yet. All these disciples are following Jesus and they, they're excited about him. Feeding 5,000 and feeding 4,000, and he keeps giving them all these meals. And then Jesus is telling this crowd, listen, you, you guys are coming here to like get more food, but really you don't need bread to sustain you.
You need me. And this is what he calls himself the bread of life. And then he says something really controversial and confusing and even weird. He says, you need to eat my flesh and drink my blood. Remember he had just fed them. Real food, but he's saying, you don't need real food. What you need is me. You need to eat my flesh, drink my blood.
And they hear this, his disciples hear this. Remember, Jesus had lots of disciples, not just 12. He had lots of disciples. His disciples hear this, his followers hear this. They're like, this is weird. I don't, what do you mean eat your flesh? And they leave. And then listen to what, how the story goes. In John chapter six, verse 60.
Therefore, when many of us disciples heard this, they said, this teaching is hard. Who can accept it? Jesus knowing in himself that his disciples were complaining about this, ask them, does this offend you? Then what if you were to observe the son of Man ascending to where he was before I. The spirit is the one who gives life.
The flesh doesn't help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life, but there are some among you who don't believe. For Jesus knew from the beginning, those who would not believe, and the one who would betray him. He said, this is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted to him by the father.
From that moment, listen to this verse 66. From that moment. Many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. Therefore, Jesus said to the 12, so he turns to his closest disciples, the 12, and he says, you don't want to go away too. Do you Listen? Who answers Peter Simon, Peter answered, Lord, who will we go to?
You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the holy one of God. This is crazy, man. Listen, Jesus wasn't. Asking his disciples. He wasn't talking to Peter and saying, Hey, do you, do you believe me? Do you wanna follow him? He, he looks at him and he said, listen, I know things are getting hard.
I'm saying some things that are hard. Listen to how that passage started. This teaching is hard. Who can accept it? Kinda like my son asked the other day, this is hard stuff. Who can do this and that? The disciples said, this teaching is hard. Who can accept it? So things are getting hard and Jesus turns to his disciples and he says, are you still in?
I know things are getting hard. Are you still in? Peter says, where will we go? Who will we go to? If you're really God, where else do we go? Even though this is getting hard? Again, this wasn't Jesus asking, do you believe me or do you wanna be a Christian? This is Jesus talking to his already disciples, his already followers and saying, I know this is hard.
Are you still all in? You think about that context and then you think it makes the story even have a deeper feeling to it, deeper emotions to it. When you think about when Peter denied Jesus three times, and then I've told this story many times. I've written about, it's one of my favorite stories in the, in the scriptures, after Jesus or Peter has the worst day of his life, he sees Jesus again on shore after Jesus had been crucified, he swims to the shore.
Jesus has breakfast ready for him. He's got a fire going. And then after they had eaten breakfast, listen to what this says, John 21. When they had eaten breakfast, Jesus asked Peter Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? He's pointing to the fish. He said, Peter, do you love me more than you love these fish?
Which again, what he's essentially saying is this job, this career that you've picked, your livelihood, everything you're passionate about, do you love me more than that? Peter says, yes, Lord. He said to them, you know that I love you. Feed my lambs. He told them a second time, he asked him, Simon, son of John, do you love me?
Yes Lord. He said to him, you know that I love you, shepherd my sheep. He told him. He asked him a third time. Remember three times Peter denied him three times. Jesus asked, do you love me Simon's son of John, do you love me? Peter was grieved and he asked him that. He asked him a third time, do you love me?
He said, Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you. Feed my sheep. Jesus said, I assure you, when you were young, you would tie your belt and walk wherever you wanted, but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will tie you and carry you where you don't want to go. He said this to signify by what kind of death he would glorify God, and after saying this, he told him, follow me.
I know I've jumped around all over the place today. Excuse my scattered brain as I'm tired and I'm trying to get out these thoughts that I feel like the Lord has for us today. Here's what I, where I want to lay in the plane. So many of us have committed to following Jesus. I imagine that. For the majority of you listening to this podcast, you are listening because you've made some kind of decision that you wanna follow Jesus to the best of your ability.
And what's crazy about God is not just that he walked around getting converts, like why did he even have disciples? Couldn't he have just. Preached a message, told people to pray a prayer, follow me, believe I'm God. Done a couple miracles convinced them, whoa, he really is God. And then once they're convinced, he just moved on.
But the fact that he even had disciples, he spent time with them. And here's what's crazy about Jesus with his disciples. He didn't ask them, do you want to believe in me or do you, do you believe that I'm God or you wanna be a Christian? But he keeps in the middle of their journey saying. Are you sure?
You're all in? In the middle of disciples turning away, he turns to Peter. He turns to the rest of his 12 and says, are you still all in? I know this is hard, but are you still all in? Jesus looks at Peter after his worst day of denying that he even knows him and he says, Peter, do you love me? You still love me, Peter, you love me even more than everything else you're passionate about.
Peter says, yes, I love you. He says, are you sure? Sure. Peter, you love me. Are you sure? Over and over. And I, I say all that because I get this deep sense in my own soul. Sometimes I just feel like, all right, I, I follow Jesus. Of course, I believe in Jesus. And now you just kind of wait till you die and you get to go be with Jesus.
But I think on our discipleship journey, this is what makes God different than every other God in the world, every other religion in the world, every other religion, you're just studying about God, right? You try to get, you get to know this being or this spiritual principle or whatever, a little bit more.
But Jesus, he's alive and he doesn't just seem. All interested in your conversion so that one day you'll get to go to heaven. But the word sanctification, I actually learned this from my daughter who's studying Latin in homeschool. Thank you classical conversations, but she learned the word sanctification comes from the word sanctus, which means holy God is actually after your holiness.
He's not just trying to get your, to make a head conscious decision, like a intellectual decision to follow him, but he's actually interested in your holiness, this journey of becoming more like him. And so I guess I, here's what I'm, the question I'm, I'm gonna ask you as I'm asking myself. As I'm getting closer to Jesus as I'm trying to mature in my faith.
If he stopped and he looked at us and he said, Hey, I know this is hard. Are you still all in? What would your answer be? You know what's crazy about Peter's life? And you kind of get a sense of this. Uh, as he was talking to Jesus on the, on the beach that day after breakfast, Peter would go on to be killed for his faith.
The Bible doesn't talk. Explicitly about how Peter died, but we know from historical documents. The consensus in the Christian faith is that Peter died in Rome under the ruler of Nero and he, he was crucified and some accounts say that he was crucified upside down because Peter said, I don't, I don't even feel like I'm worthy to die in the same way Jesus died.
So crucified me upside down. We know for sure he was crucified. We don't know for sure if he was crucified upside down, but there are stories that would make a lot of historians believe that he was crucified. Upside down, regardless. He died for his faith. And I was thinking about back on that day, on the beach or on the boat, when Jesus said, Hey, put your nets on the other side.
I wonder if that day, Jesus said, you know what, Peter, this is exciting and it's fun, and I know you just got a net full of fish and you're feeling all kinds of cool emotions right now, but this is gonna end in your death. Are you still all in? What would've Peter have said that day? Would he still have said no?
I'm all in. If he knew what the end was gonna be like In my experience, what I found with Jesus is that following Jesus is a slow death that he draws you in. He woos you in with His grace. But it's not just that he woos you in so that you say a prayer and that you're saved, but he woos you in with his grace and with his mercy and his love, but he keeps calling you to die, and it's a slow death where every step, every time it gets harder.
When Peter publicly declares, are you sure you want to follow me? And or when Jesus asks him, you know, do you wanna leave too? And Peter says, yes. Where else would I go? You know, then it just, it keeps getting harder. I. He would go on to deny Jesus. Then he's eating breakfast with Jesus on the beach and Jesus says, are you sure you're still all in?
Peter? You sure you love me? And Peter says, yes. Then he would go on to die. Like he just, it just keeps getting harder. It keeps getting harder. And so for you, when you look at your life, so many of us just look at Jesus as an accessory man. I'll follow him and hopefully I'll have a good family. My marriage will be good and my.
Kids will be good and they'll have some good moral values, and my life should be good. I'll do this for God. God does this for me. But I wonder if Jesus just keeps calling you to die, keeps calling you to die, keeps calling you to die in the middle of your journey, he would keep looking at you. You, he'd have these moments where he is just saying, are you sure?
Are you sure? Are you sure you're all in? Are you sure you want to keep going? And if you do, it's not gonna get easier. Most likely this road to following Jesus is only gonna get harder. Are you sure? You're all in? Would you still follow Jesus if you knew it was gonna lead to your death? Maybe not your physical death, maybe just the death of your old ways, maybe the death of sin that you've had in your life for years, or habits that you've had in your life for years.
Maybe the death of your pride, maybe the death of your comfort. I don't want to forgive that person. I want to be mad at them. They deserve for me to be mad at them. What if Jesus calls you to die to that? What if Jesus says not? I want you to die to that part of you, and I want you to show somebody love that does not deserve your love, because I showed you love when you didn't deserve it.
What if it's a death of a dream? God, I've always imagined that I would do this, X, Y, and Z. I always imagined that this is where my life would go, and Jesus said, no. Jesus said, no, I'm not. I'm gonna be your reward. Like he told Abraham, I will be your great reward, not your dream. Not that number for the bank account, not that thing that you were pursuing, that thing you really wanted or that job you really wanted, or that place you really wanted to live.
No, that won't be your reward. I will be your reward. The death of your dream. Are you still all in? What about the death of relationships or friendships you thought you'd always be with this person? You'd always have those friends. Maybe there's just some people that you really like hanging around, but man, they just, they're bringing you down.
They're pulling you away from the Lord. And Jesus might say, Hey, you actually need to stop being around these people. What if you knew it was gonna lead to your actual death? What if the world turns crazy? And from now on, they say, all right, every real follower of Jesus. We're taking you out. You might be imprisoned.
You might be killed. Would you still be in? It's crazy to think about, you know, church is nice when you're just like, I wanna ask God, Hey, what? Where should I work? Should I take this job? Should I buy this house over here? It's crazy though, when things get weird or hard, right? Lot of disciples left Jesus when he started to say things that were weird and hard.
What if things get hard? What if Jesus asks you to die to something? You just really, I don't, I don't want to do it. You still all in? I know this conversation's heavy. I know you probably came on here like, dude, I just wanna be a better dad, better husband. But I wonder, I don't know, man. Maybe I'm tired.
Maybe I'm going in direction. I'm not supposed to go, but I just, as I was thinking over the last couple days, God, what would you have? I just kept getting the sense, Jared, you still all in, man? Are you still all in? It's not about your salvation. I believe in Jesus plan on spending eternity with Jesus, and maybe that's where you're at.
You've made the decision to follow Jesus. You know you're in, you're in. But are you still all in right now on that sanctification journey? Do you still believe that following Jesus's best? Are you still willing to give up everything and anything to follow him? You still in, because Jesus had a way with his disciples of keep asking that question.
Wasn't just a one time, do you believe me? Okay. You're a Christian. It was over and over again. You're still in. Are you still in? And so for you brother, as you stumbled upon this podcast today, or you decided to click back on the Dad Tired podcast, I wonder, man, in the same way that God may have, it seems asked or prompted my friends to text me.
I wonder if God is chasing you down in some crazy way, the way God works, that he would put this on my heart and maybe he's just trying to speak to you in the middle of what you're going through. I wonder if Jesus would pause you before you're like, all right, I need to be a better husband. I need to be a better dad.
I gotta get my stuff figured out. I should probably kick these habits. I wonder if before all that Jesus would just say, Hey, first, are you still all in? I know this is gonna get hard. I know this is probably weird for you. I know I'm gonna ask you to do things that's gonna get even harder than this. I just want you, before we take any more steps further, I just want you to be sure.
Are you all in? Are you all in? It's not a salvation issue. Somehow this is actually still for your good. It may even get harder. And Jesus, what's there, he is still in. It's gonna be good, will be hard. Jesus said There will be troubles, but I will be with you. Listen, you stick with me, you get me. I'm gonna be your reward.
Are you still all in? Do you wanna be part of that? And maybe you just stumbled upon this podcast today and uh, God wants to ask us that question for all of us who are listening right now. Hey, I know this is hard. I know things are getting weird. I know things are getting harder, but you still want to be all in.
And maybe today, bro, like for you, you just need to pause. You probably have a list of podcast episodes that you're trying to bust through today. Maybe you got your to-do list that you're trying to get through, but maybe you just gotta pause today and say, God, am I all in? Do I really believe you? Do? I actually believe that following you is best.
That somehow in the midst of even the pain and the heartache and the things that you're gonna call me to die too, that I actually would still feel the most joy in being with you. That you as my reward is enough, and so God, I am all in. Maybe that's your prayer. Would you pray with me? God, you know that I'm tired.
I have a feeling that lots of my brothers and even the, uh, sisters who sneak into this podcast, God, I have a feeling that a lot of people are just feeling so weary and tired. Maybe Lord, you use these moments to like pause us for a moment. To get our mind off of all the other things that we have to get done.
And maybe they we're just, they're just a part of our brain right now that has the capacity to say, to think a little bit deeper and ask bigger questions. And, um, maybe in this kind of. Pausing moment or quiet, you're asking all of us, are we still in, in the same way that you looked at Peter and you said, I know this is getting hard, but are you in, in the same way that you looked at Peter at breakfast and you said, do you love me really?
Do you love me? Are you sure you love me? Maybe you'd be asking us that today. Do we really love you and God? I'm thinking about that verse that says, if we love you, then we'll obey you and Lord I, I just have a feeling that things aren't gonna necessarily get easier, but they'll probably get even harder.
You're gonna call us to things that are even harder. Maybe you're prepping us, Lord for a season that's gonna be even harder than what we've currently experienced. And for some people, God, as we think about that, it's like, can it even get harder than this? This feels I'm at my capacity and maybe, Lord, you're prepping us for a season that's will feel beyond our ability to get through and we'll say, this is too hard.
Elijah, my son said, this is too hard. Like those disciples said, this is too hard. Who can do this? God, I wonder if you're prepping us to say to us what feels impossible for you is not impossible for me, but before we take one more step forward, I just need to know, are you all in? Do you still love me? And so God, we know that if we can answer that question well that everything else will change.
That will actually be better. Husbands, fathers, and disciples. If we know that above all, we love you most, help us to love you more, Lord. It's in your name. Prayer, Emma.