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The Estherpreneur is a weekly chat about doing business and life God’s way. Join your host, Edna Harding as she offers biblical strategies and practical applications to improve your mind, business, spirit, relationships, and finances. Listen along as she talks with guests on how to thrive in all areas of life. Edna is a Wife, Mother, Growth Strategist, Author, Minister, Certified Maxwell Business Consultant and Executive Coach, an accredited Master Mindset Coach, and Speaker whose message of hope, truth, and wisdom reaches people all around the world. FavorandWealth.com Estherpreneur.com
Edna Harding [00:00:00]:
Welcome to Estrepreneur, a podcast for entrepreneurs and leaders doing business and life God's way. Each week we discuss biblical and practical tips to improve your mind, business, spirit, relationships, and finances. Listen along as I speak with special guests on how to thrive in all aspects of life. Hi, I'm Edna. Like many of you, I wear many hats. I'm a military wife, mother, author, certified John Maxwell business and executive coach, trainer, and founder of Favor and wealth, where we help the good guys win. So tune in as we bring on the light.
Edna Harding [00:00:40]:
Well, hello, everyone. Thank you for tuning in for another episode of the estherpreneur podcast. My name is Edna Harding, and I'm nothing but a messenger of hope, life, and truth in the marketplace. And I'm so excited that you guys are tuning in today. Today, as you could see, we have a special guest, and I'm super excited that he's here because for one, just. Just his life story and his background, but most importantly, the message that he comes to share today, which is all about hope, which, as we all know, if you look around and just discern the signs and at times, the things that we're seeing in headlines, the seeing things we're seeing just in the world in general, with other. Wherever you are, what other part of the world you are, there is no better time to cling to true hope, real hope. Not the false hope, the real hope than now.
Edna Harding [00:01:32]:
And so, without further ado, let me introduce Chet. Chet, tell us a little bit, and I want to. I don't want to butcher your name. Chet Gladkowski. Is that right?
Chet Gladkowski [00:01:43]:
You get. You get a B minus. Okay. It's. It's. It's Glad Kowski. Glad Cow ski. I am a happy cow on skis.
Chet Gladkowski [00:01:56]:
That's the way to figure who I am. But many people have done much worse. So,
Edna Harding [00:02:04]:
Chet Gladkowski. Okay. Just exactly like that. Okay. So, Chad, let me tell you guys a little bit first about, you know, how I. How like this came to be. So I was. A few weeks ago, I think it was a few weeks ago, I was going through a time of consecration with the Lord and just asking a bunch of questions, right? I was asking a bunch of questions, asking the Lord about, you know, just things that were on my heart and just kind of a little bit discouraged from the journey that I've been, just because I have been carrying a lot of burdens from people I love, from clients.
Edna Harding [00:02:43]:
And you just, just. It was. It was just like a heavy weight. And I was like, lord, I don't know if I'm Able to hand. I don't know if I'm equipped to handle this. You know, I. It's been going on for many years, and I won't go in my story, but I got. I went in the mail, and I saw, you know, this.
Edna Harding [00:03:00]:
This package. And in this package was this book. Hope is the Key, if you guys can see it. And I read the letter, and it was a letter from Chet, and it was talking about. I did some newsletter regarding something about the war. You're fighting the wrong war or something. It's been a while. A couple months.
Edna Harding [00:03:18]:
A couple of newsletters ago. And I was reading it, and it's just, like, confirmed to me that I was. That God was with me and that he's equipped me for this very thing that he's called me to do. And. And so I called him. And as I was, you know, speaking to him, I heard the Holy Spirit tell me. He's like, you need to invite him on. So this is not an accident.
Edna Harding [00:03:45]:
This is a divine interruption by the Holy Spirit himself of your day to break up our season. And whenever this get published, it's exactly for you who's listening today. And so, without further ado, I'm going to have Chet introduce himself, tell us a little bit about your background, and then. And tell us, you know, what moment in your life made you realize you were called to do the work you're doing today, which is instilling hope in people.
Chet Gladkowski [00:04:16]:
Well, thank you. First of all, I want to say hello to everybody and to say what a privilege and honor it is to be here with you. We are all travelers in this life, and I'm just a guy, okay? I'm just a guy who has found some bread, and we're all hungry. And my job is. Is to share what I've learned. It isn't about me at all. It's about the bread of life. It's about who can sustain us in these times.
Chet Gladkowski [00:04:45]:
And for me, the idea of hope was solidified. Watching a baseball game as a young boy in Baltimore, which is where I'm from, we were watching. Everybody knows if you're from Baltimore, the Baltimore Orioles are the one and only, the. The greatest baseball team of all time. And everyone else is the enemy. And so I'm sitting on the floor watching the game. My dad is in his favorite chair drinking his favorite beverage. And the Orioles get behind, which is normal.
Chet Gladkowski [00:05:17]:
And so they're behind, and we're all sort of crying and moaning, what was us? But then they get around. They get people on base There's a lot of action. There's activity. And I start jumping up and down, screaming, because if I had been a child today, I would be drugged out of my gourd. Okay? I was just all over the place, bouncing off walls. I'm excited. And the Orioles are catching up. It's now 3, 2, 1, run behind, and the winning runner is on base.
Chet Gladkowski [00:05:47]:
And the opposing manager calls timeout. And we're just screaming. I'm screaming and yelling and going crazy. And my dad is just sitting there stoically drinking his beverage. Didn't say a word. And I turned to my dad and I said, dad, what's wrong? Aren't you excited? Don't you want to cheer them on? Because we all know the truth. We all know this one truth. And that truth is, by yelling at the tv, it's going to affect the outcome of the game.
Chet Gladkowski [00:06:17]:
And so, dad, why aren't you yelling and screaming? And he sat there, took another drink, and looked at me and said the words that set the course of my life. He said, I don't want to be hopeful. I don't want to think good things are going to happen. I don't want to be positive, because I'm only going to be discouraged. And that's the way my dad lived his life. And I thought, well, my dad did it, then that must be the way that men are to live. I didn't know at the time, but my dad had gone through a season where he lost his father, who was an alcoholic, and beat his family and verbally abused them. He lost two brothers in World War II.
Chet Gladkowski [00:07:00]:
He lost another brother as a young teenager due to an infection. And all of this piled on to my dad. And he looked up to heaven and said, God, you obviously don't like me. You obviously don't care. And so I'm going to turn my back from you. I'm going to turn my back to you. And he lived his life that way. And that lifeless, hopeless life permeated so much of our home, and it infected my life.
Chet Gladkowski [00:07:31]:
Now, I don't hold that against my dad because I knew, I now know that he was the perfect dad that I needed. And there was no accident. But out of that hopelessness, I started a journey. And the journey wasn't a pretty journey. You know, rose petals didn't flow down, and there weren't bands and people applauding me, saying, oh, what a nice little guy you are. It was a tough life, and I was the cause of it. And I eventually went down a moral hole and I couldn't get myself out. And I was trying to dig myself out.
Chet Gladkowski [00:08:10]:
I knew there was a God because I had gone to church every Sunday. And I would go down the hole and I would cry out to God and just guilt killing me. I say, God, forgive me. I will never do this again. I promise. And then I did it again. I had no power over my life. I had no power over what I was.
Chet Gladkowski [00:08:31]:
What was pulling me down. And I just went down into the depths. And it took something remarkable. It took a little thing about trying out for a basketball team. Now you might say, well, that's okay. But guess what? I had never played basketball in my life. A friend of mine, Jeff, said, hey, let's go try out for the team. I thought, okay, sure, why not? Jeff says it, so it must be okay.
Chet Gladkowski [00:08:58]:
I went. And you'll never guess what happened. I didn't make the team, but I became the team manager. And through that, I became friends with these other guys. And they weren't perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but they began to share a life of hope. And it was in this very special place. It's very special in my heart. And you'll.
Chet Gladkowski [00:09:22]:
When I tell you where it was, you will identify with it. It was in the parking lot of a bowling alley. In this parking lot, Michael, one of these guys. I was ranting and raving about how life was unfair. And he said, God loved me. And good manners prevent me from repeating what I said. But even though I had been in church all of my life, it was at that first moment that I heard the words. They penetrated my heart.
Chet Gladkowski [00:09:50]:
That God began to work through His Holy Spirit. And these guys showing me. And they. He then invited me to come to a Bible study, you know. And I thought, okay. I came after work. I was late. And as I walked in, they said, we're going to pray.
Chet Gladkowski [00:10:08]:
I thought, I know this. I can pray. I know how to pray. Because I had come to this great spiritual conclusion that If I prayed 10 prayers and I would rattle these prayers off in my head, that God owed me a strike. So every time I would. Before I would bowl, I would say this prayer 10 times. I thought, God's gotta give me a strike. So I knew how to pray.
Chet Gladkowski [00:10:34]:
But they didn't pray like that. They prayed just like we're talking here. And it crushed me. It crushed me. And I cried out in my heart and actually spoke out. I said, God, I don't know you. And it was through that that we went to another very spiritual place, the boiler room. Of the church where I sat with two other guys, Michael and this other guy.
Chet Gladkowski [00:10:58]:
And Howard said, you're a sinner. I said, I got that. I figured that one out. I agree. And Jesus died for you. Okay, I get that. And he wants to forgive your sins. I said, I'm all up for that.
Chet Gladkowski [00:11:11]:
So what do I have to do to do that, to get that? What do I have to do to earn it? And Howard said, you have to receive what Jesus has done. And I leaned in and I said, you've got to be kidding. It's gotta be something I do. And he said, but that's the point. Jesus has done it all, and we receive it. I said, this is for me. And so we got down on our knees in the boiler room of that church. And for the first time in my life, I knew forgiveness.
Chet Gladkowski [00:11:41]:
I felt the weight of all of my sin, past, present, and future leave because of the completed work of Christ on the cross and the resurrection of him. And so that began a journey of rebuilding a life of hope. And so let me just stop here to see. Let that sink in. And do you have any questions about that?
Edna Harding [00:12:03]:
I do. I do. You said a lot of things, and I think it's actually really relevant because being in my space. So I'm a military. One of the things. One of the things I am is I'm. I'm a military wife. So we move a lot to different cities and.
Edna Harding [00:12:17]:
And we go to a lot of different churches because we move so much.
Edna Harding [00:12:20]:
Right.
Edna Harding [00:12:20]:
And main. Mainstream church, I guess that you say mainstream church. Right. A lot of people go to church. They know of God. They know God, love. Mean. You said earlier that you went to church every Sunday.
Edna Harding [00:12:34]:
Is that correct? You went to church every Sunday, but you didn't know God loved you. Even though we hear pastors say God loves you. Right? God loves you. And I know, at least in many churches, we talk about, you know, save, like, getting people saved and, you know, like, meaning, like, okay, we don't want them to go to hell, so you invite them in. But there. There's still. Just because they're saved, meaning they come to know Jesus. There's still a transformation process from being saved to being healed and delivered and set free from the past.
Edna Harding [00:13:08]:
Right?
Edna Harding [00:13:08]:
The things that you've gone through, the burdens, the pain, your old identity. And even after you receive Jesus, you still carry that weight. Because I don't think a lot of churches really focus on that. It's not a. Like a instant thing where we know that. We know that we Know, it's like our spirit is saved, but our mind, our hearts are. We have to go through studying the Bible, understanding who we are, knowing our identity, asking the Holy Spirit to reveal to us, you know, who we are after, you know, we're saved. How would you help people understand whether they are in religion or in relationship with Jesus, the King of Kings? Like, how can people decipher.
Edna Harding [00:13:52]:
Because a lot of Christians think they're Christians just because they love God and they believe God. But I found that Christians is so. It's become kind of like a label, almost like, how do you know? And I'm making it plain. Like, make it plain for those. Like, am I operating in religion? Or do I really have. This is my question making sense. Do I really have. How do you know some.
Edna Harding [00:14:15]:
Like, give us some practical things or what did you. How did you know? You realize, okay, this is different. This is not like before, where I just went to church. This is a difference. Can you elaborate on that a little bit to kind of make it plain to our listeners, to kind of maybe have them ask the right questions? Maybe I am in religion, maybe I'm not in relationship with Jesus. Does that question make sense?
Chet Gladkowski [00:14:36]:
Yes, it does. And I'm going to answer the question by talking about sugar cookies. How's that?
Edna Harding [00:14:41]:
All right.
Chet Gladkowski [00:14:42]:
Because for me, it's all about the food. And so just like the book is about barbecue spare ribs. When I came to Christ, when we come to Christ. This is what separates Christianity from everything. Every other religion you got to, or philosophy or way of life, anything. It's, you got to change. You got to change. You got to change.
Chet Gladkowski [00:15:04]:
You got to change. You got to change. You got to keep offering sacrifices. Sacrifice, sacrifice. Jesus came and paid. Wait for it. The once and for all sacrifice for all sin, past, present and future. He eliminated the need for priests to offer sacrifices because he's the once and for all sacrifice for all sin, past, present and future.
Chet Gladkowski [00:15:29]:
So that separates it. And if we receive that forgiveness from him, that just blows the top off of our life and our response. One of the words you could be talked about is, that's justification. We are made just. We are made righteous once and for all before God, period. But we have this life, and we are to become more and more like Jesus. This is called sanctification, the walk of becoming more and more like Jesus. And this is where the sugar cookies come in.
Chet Gladkowski [00:16:07]:
Because when I want cookies, I want big, thick, gooey, ooey chocolate chip cookies that are about this big. I want it to smear it all over my face. I want it to fall. You know, I want that gooey. But Marianne, my wife, she likes sugar cookies, but she doesn't like the big sugar cookies. She likes small sugar cookies, and she doesn't like them thick. She likes them thin. And she doesn't like them white.
Chet Gladkowski [00:16:36]:
She likes them dark brown. So the question comes to mind, like this past weekend, I thought, I want to make some sugar cookies for Marianne. I want to make some cookies for her. Well, first of all, I'm going to make sugar cookies, because that's the way. Those are the cookies she likes. But I'm going to make them small, I'm going to make them thin, and I'm going to make them brown and crisp. Why? Because I want to please the One who loves me. And that's the drive.
Chet Gladkowski [00:17:07]:
If I really, really believe, if I have given my heart to Christ, then it's not about what I want. It's not what I want to receive. It's how I want to respond. I. I want to do the things that please the one who loves me. I'm going to say that again. I want to please the one who loves me. And so I bake the sugar cookies.
Chet Gladkowski [00:17:32]:
They're thin, they're round, and they're the way she likes them. Now, we can sit here all day and talk about what's the best cookie and the right way to mix it up, but that's the way the one who loves me likes them. So I will defer my wishes and want to please them. So that is the way to live this life is to say, it's not about me. It's not about how many good check marks I can get by doing good things. It's all about pleasing the One who loves us. And that takes the burden of obedience. Obedience isn't a checklist.
Chet Gladkowski [00:18:16]:
Obedience is wanting to please. You see, it's a very, very radical transformation of going to a life that I live. That said, okay, here's the checklist. And I had the checklist. And we're checking it off where we want to please. Willingly, I volunteer to give up my rights. And you say, why do this? Because this is in God's nature. Think about it.
Chet Gladkowski [00:18:44]:
Who is God? Well, he's one, but he's three persons from eternity past. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Living in loving community, deferring to one another, glorifying one another. And when he made people, he made us like him. And there is a community of people, Adam and Eve, it wasn't good to be Alone to be in a loving, caring, sharing, giving relationship with one another. And that is the way to come out of the doldrums of the life that we have and to live for the one who loves us.
Edna Harding [00:19:29]:
Absolutely love that. And I do have to say so I saw here that you had a career in insurance technology arena. So you. Is that correct? Right here. And you know, for someone who's very good with being creative when it comes to stories or making biblical principles or about God plain using like creative stories analogy, and even just, it's like, just like the, the, the book cover itself, it's so colorful. It's so creative. How did you become that way? Because for someone coming from. At least for me, I've worked with a lot of tech folks, you know, analytical folks, engineers.
Edna Harding [00:20:11]:
They're very like, you know, black and white and all those things. Where did this gift come from? How did you know you were good at presenting? I'm sure this is not just like Bible stuff, but any stuff in creative ways. When did you know that you had that gift? Because I would just. Even looking at the testimonials from the book, it was talking about how you could make, you could make like complex thing into a. And explain it and like, simply like what Jesus said with the parables, using your creative story. So how did you, how did, how did you learn you had that gift? And. Yeah, can us talk about that? Like, talk about Chet a little bit? So you received Jesus, you know, you, you start fresh. Like, when did you start, like, talk to us a little bit about your career? Because I always like to talk about, like, what it got you to where you are now, because now you're, you're, you're, you're sharing hope in a marketplace.
Edna Harding [00:21:05]:
And obviously to get to that place, there has to be some sort of journey. So give us highlights, you know, so maybe a few milestones, things that, that happen that you're like, I'm gonna do this.
Chet Gladkowski [00:21:17]:
Okay, I get it. That. That's a great question. And about a year after I had received Christ, somebody came up to me and said, how would you like to teach Sunday school to fourth, fifth and sixth grade boys? And first of all, I can barely spell Sunday school because I didn't come out of that tradition. And I said, I am willing to do anything. And I believe the gift that God gave me is service. I will do any. I love to wash dishes when churches you want to find me, I'm in the kitchen washing dishes.
Chet Gladkowski [00:21:53]:
I'm out in the back flipping burgers, you know, that's what I love to do. I want to help people. And so when they said, do this with 4th, 5th and 6th grade boys, I knew nothing about them. And I thought, you're going to help me, right? They said yes. And they handed me a book and that was it. And so I was like, I'm reading this stuff. And I thought, I don't get it. So I just started to do.
Chet Gladkowski [00:22:17]:
I would use the Bible verses, but it's like, how can I translate this into stuff that these guys would like? And I would come in dressed in bib overalls and a hard hat. When it was Nehemiah and building the wall with a pickaxe, you know, I was very, I was into entertaining. And so it was like, how can I translate? And when it comes to technology, the parallel is I want to take an idea and make it practical. How do I take the idea of paying a claim to help somebody rebuild their lives and make it practical so that we can take the claim in, process it, get the payment out to them as quickly and easily as possible. So it's a. The whole way. If you cut me, I bleed helping. And so when it comes to these stories, I've had a lot of people who have been very kind with their time and have beat me upside the head with a frying pan on occasion to help me learn how to be a better writer and communicator.
Chet Gladkowski [00:23:30]:
I am nothing without them. If you find anything of value in the way that I speak, it's because God has invested time and his spirit and people to help me. And so it's the translation of to make it consumable, to make it bite size. I call them Chet's Chunkettes. I want them on these bite sized pieces so that, you know, they, you know, to read a book. I love reading books, but people don't read books today. So when I do my videos, I do reels, I do shorts, you know, 60, 90 seconds at tops. And they have a beginning, a middle and an end.
Chet Gladkowski [00:24:14]:
And it's something that they can take and walk away with, like a candy bar or a power bar. So that's the way I try to speak. And I want it to be practical. Most of life lived here on planet Earth is lived by people who are unknown and unnamed. They live in the backwater. Come on. And they serve in the backwater, hidden behind the curtain of life. So it's like, it's like a stack of my mom's pancakes.
Chet Gladkowski [00:24:47]:
Okay, when my mom made pancakes, you know, when you make pancakes, what do you do? Well, you sit there, you don't mix up batter for one pancake. You mix the whole thing up. Right? Put all the stuff in, you beat it to death. You then put the pan on and you start cooking them, you start baking them, you flip them and then you stack them up. But guess what? There's probably only one on top. All the others are below. And that's. That is a picture of life.
Chet Gladkowski [00:25:16]:
Yeah. We have people who are on top and we praise God that God has given them visibility and exposure and these great ministries. We praise God and thank them. We thank him, but most of us are somewhere down on the stack. But we're made of the same stuff. We have the same value, but we live around the edges of life. And it's through those connections around the edge of life that God wants to use everybody, everybody for his glory and the good of the people around us. So that's where I try to live my life.
Chet Gladkowski [00:25:53]:
And, and that's how I sort of got here, out of technology. I think I answered your question.
Edna Harding [00:25:59]:
Yeah, you did. You know, I, I kind of want to talk about because so there are a lot of what I call, like, inner wounds. Inner wounds, deep wounds that even, like a lot of, especially my clients, like people I've worked with, where their childhood kind of just kept going with them through their adulthood. Even though they don't have any resentment, it still affects their decision making, their, you know, even their relationship with God. You know, how. How they view God is how they view their parents. So with your situation when you, you know, finally know you're loved and you know, like, meaning you, like, you know, know that God loves you and that you went like you're going all in for the Lord. How, how did you, how did you renew your mind? How did you get to a place of like, okay, that was my dad's, you know, I, I learned that from my dad.
Edna Harding [00:26:56]:
How did you. Practically, for those who are like, well, I'm always going to be a failure. Oh, I'm always going to be broke. Oh, I'm all, you know, all these things because of, of patterns that they've learned from their parents or maybe like people who, who mentored who growing up wise. Can you talk to us about practically or from and spiritually, like what helped you get to a place of. I'm not going to expect anything because I, I'm going to, going to be disappointed to. Now you're. I saw in the last part of your book, you're saying like your hope this, you want a hope Blanket, you know, stuff like that.
Edna Harding [00:27:30]:
Like get. How did you get there?
Chet Gladkowski [00:27:32]:
One step at a time. So there are a number of things. Thank you for that really good question. It's is there is no plop, plop, fizz, fizz. Oh, what a relief it is to rebuild the life. Yes, we're forgiven once and for all in that moment. But it's a daily. It's not a leap for mankind, we're told it's a walk.
Chet Gladkowski [00:27:53]:
And a walk is a what? A step at a time. And when you walk, you are without intention. You're leaning forward, not a lot, but a little bit. You have shifted your weight and you're just leaning forward just a little bit for that step. And then there's another step. And then there's another step. So the expectation of the 21st century, that says all I have to do is download this app and click a few buttons and you know I'm in nirvana or someplace. That is a lie from the pit.
Edna Harding [00:28:27]:
Come on.
Chet Gladkowski [00:28:28]:
So the way it starts with responding to the love of God. He has loved us. He is love. And how do I respond to get to know him more? And so, you know, I can look at. I look at a car, you know, Henry Ford is the father of the Model T. Elon Musk is the father of Tesla. Now I have a Tesla and I can go out and sit in it and I can read books and I'll learn a little bit about Elon. But it's when I listen to him, when I read what he has written, that's when I get to know him better.
Chet Gladkowski [00:29:07]:
So for us, it's to read God's word, to hear it, to help have people help us understand it and to be washed over with it. And it's like the garden hose of life. I'm a bucket. And God, when he saved me, he filled me with his spirit. It says, I am filled once and for all. And that is true. But guess what? In my bucket of life, I've got some rocks. And so I need to allow God's Holy Spirit that hoes pushing in me and that will bubble up the stuff on the bottom and eventually move it out.
Chet Gladkowski [00:29:45]:
And for each rock that gets moved out, what does that do? It makes more room for more of him. So as those things have come out, it's made more room for him to invade my life more. And it's a daily process. And so that's the way it starts with him to find godly people. I'm in a small group of guys and we of like Mind, we're not the same. We've got very different. But we know that Jesus is the one who has saved us. And we allow ourselves to be transparent to one another.
Chet Gladkowski [00:30:23]:
And the last thing I would say for your question is, I'm going to use an expression, and I'm going to ask you not to turn me off. But the weight, okay? The expression. We. We hear all about our personal branding today. The expression I want to use is that the brand is the brand. The apostle Paul says that he bears the marks of Christ in him. Those are the brands, the scars. I have a.
Chet Gladkowski [00:30:56]:
I'm going to be. Going to have a. I have to check in at the hospital in a couple days and they want a list of my surgeries. I have a list of 25 surgeries, and they don't include the little things like colonoscopies and things like that. I got scars all over the place.
Edna Harding [00:31:13]:
Wow.
Chet Gladkowski [00:31:13]:
Now I can look at the scar and say, that's a scar. Or I can say, that's a scar. That's a sign of healing. It's a mark. Yes, there was a wound. But, doctor, Jesus is in the business of healing and cleaning it out. So I take those brands, those marks, those scars, and say, that's a mark of ownership. What does a rancher do? They brand the cattle to know that they're his.
Chet Gladkowski [00:31:46]:
And so when I look at the scars of my life, I choose to say, that's a mark of ownership. I. I have a 7 1/2 inch scar on the back of my neck. It's a mark of ownership, the mark. And I remember that time to say, God intervened in a marvelous way and to say, yeah, I don't have any bones back here, but guess what? He has protected me. He has been with me. And so when you're hearing this, you're thinking, I know what you're thinking, that I have scars, I have these wounds. But guess what? God wants to use them.
Chet Gladkowski [00:32:26]:
He doesn't want you to forget them. He wants you to remember that they came through the blood of Christ and his enabling hands. The apostle Paul had the thorn in the flesh. And what did. What was his prayer? He said, you prayed like me and you get rid of it.
Edna Harding [00:32:48]:
Get rid of it.
Chet Gladkowski [00:32:49]:
Right. But what was God's answer? My grace is sufficient. That's the dailiness of getting through it. God's grace. He didn't say forget about it. He didn't say, you know, gets plaster over it, pain over it. He said, God's grace. How do you know? Grace is one of those words we can't quite put our hands on.
Chet Gladkowski [00:33:14]:
Grace is God leaning into us. Grace is God reaching out to us. God wants to reach out to us. And the walking. Remember I talked about leaning? When we walk with and towards him, we gotta lean into him.
Edna Harding [00:33:32]:
You know, I just know just, just from conversations and just. Because I get, like, comments on certain podcast episodes. And there's a lot of people right now who are dealing with hope deferred syndrome, those who've been waiting for years, like, many, many years. You know, it's easy to, like, believe for a year, two years, but 20 years, 25 years. What do you, you know, how do you stay hopeful? How do you hope? You know, like there's a scripture. It's like you hope on hope upon hope. Right. So how can you maybe.
Edna Harding [00:34:05]:
Because I. I know you love to share stories, and I myself relate to stories. Can you think of an example of a time in your life where you lost hope and how you got, you know, you got. How you found hope again, just as an encouragement, an insane encouragement to those who maybe can relate to that, like, you have nothing left. Like, in your mind, you have nothing left. Can you think of an example for. For you?
Chet Gladkowski [00:34:31]:
Well, we don't have enough time, but let me, Let me talk about, Let me talk about a professional one first.
Edna Harding [00:34:37]:
Okay, sure.
Chet Gladkowski [00:34:39]:
If you were to get on LinkedIn and look at my career, you would say the same words that my dad said, what's wrong with you? Can't you keep a job? You know, I just have all these jobs. And, you know, there was a lot of turmoil in the economy, but, you know, every time he had to move, you know, it's. It wasn't me. It was my family. It was my wife. Our kids had to move. I'm the only one who ever moved away from town for both sides of the family. And so they knew I was weird.
Chet Gladkowski [00:35:09]:
But now we're moving all over the place, all these different places. And it was in those times where jobs were eliminated. I remember calling my mom up in tears saying, they don't want me anymore. I understand that. And in these desperate financial, economic times, someone's going to get that call or they're going to get that email that says, you're not wanted anymore. And in those times is when we cry out to God. Yeah, I was angry and bitter, but I also knew that I had a role to play in all of that. And I had to fess up.
Chet Gladkowski [00:35:47]:
I had to say, do you know what there were. Yeah, yeah. Sometimes it was economic Sometimes it was my bitterness and my selfishness that caused all these things to happen. But through it all, God continually said, I have never abandoned you. Think about Jesus is in the garden of Gethsemane. He knows what's going to happen. He knows he's going to be betrayed by a close friend. He knows he's going to be arrested.
Chet Gladkowski [00:36:18]:
He knows he's going to go through these fake trials. He knows he's going to be whipped. He knows he's going to carry a cross. He knows he's going to be crucified and lifted up. And what does he do? He doesn't post a blog. He goes to his father. He goes to his father and prays his heart out. I don't want this, but your will be done.
Chet Gladkowski [00:36:42]:
And so, you know, for me, it was coming. And I would suggest this for most people is to say, you know what? I have this idol, the idol of success, the idol of money, the idol of this. It's a crushing idol. There's only one idol, one person that doesn't crush us, and that is the Lord God himself in Jesus Christ. He is not a crusher because he was crushed for us. He was bruised for our sin. And so it's that coming to him in those. And there will be times.
Chet Gladkowski [00:37:21]:
First of all, your response. My response to these painful times. It is not. It is not a sin to say, God, why? But it is a sin to sit there and keep saying, why, why, why, why, why? Okay, some of us are sitting in front of a computer and I'm sitting on a keyboard. There's a keyboard in front of us. And you know what's the most magical key of all? The space bar. I love the space bar because it separates things. And it's the most used key on your keyboard.
Chet Gladkowski [00:37:58]:
And it's one thing to hit it once, but that's the same way with the same why. I can hit it once, but if I sit there with my finger of life on the space bar and just keep pushing it down, I'm just going to be filled with emptiness. God says, yeah, I can say it, but then I move on. But look at the life of Job. Job got crushed by Satan and then he got crushed again. And now he's got a disease and he's got the. He's got the. Got a wife who says, hey, just curse God and die.
Chet Gladkowski [00:38:33]:
Now there's a piece of encouragement. And then he's got these friends who say, yeah, you've screwed up, but at the end, what does Job say at the end? Of it all before he is healed. What does he say? He says, before I only knew of you, but now I see you. It was through that pain, that separation, that the personalness of who God is in meeting us comes to life in Christ.
Edna Harding [00:39:04]:
You know, I love, I love that because there is a, a divide between, like the church saying, okay, suffering is, is like we must suffer for Christ, but there's also, we also need to be blessed by, you know, Christ. So there's like two extremes. Like you could decree a thing or you could, you know, claim God's promises and your pain's gonna go away. You know, stuff like that, provisions. And then you have the other side where, you know, you don't have to suffer. You know, you can live, you know, you'll, you'll live a good. So there's like two extremes in our own church, you know, in our own space. Right.
Edna Harding [00:39:40]:
And I love that. And because a lot of times people want to hear about the blessings, but they don't want to hear about the trials and tribulations and the persecutions when Jesus already told the disciples, hey, guess what? In life there's going to be this and that. It's not a, what I call like a something that people want to hear about. But I'm glad, I'm glad you are addressing that, that this, there are times in life when this is going to happen. Now tell us a little bit about your book. If you could pick one message of all your messages, what message would you want your audience or people who read your book to get from your books or maybe pick one book?
Chet Gladkowski [00:40:19]:
Well, how I started with the books is during the COVID pandemic. We're here in central Florida and our parents live in Baltimore and they were all four of them living and in their 90s. So we would go up to help them. And we were living in the basement of my mother in law. And like all basements, they're dark places and you know, so I just started to blog about hope and that became, that's where all this started. And it was in that place, in that time because there was such a desperate need of hope. That's where it all started. And the idea that hope has to be not just the fog in the morning, it's got to be more substantial.
Chet Gladkowski [00:41:06]:
Come on. He wants us to have a hope that is certain. Not a hope so, but a hope that's more certain than the concrete beneath our feet. It is sure. It is a certain thing because he is certain. He is his ultimate reality. And so we need to depend on him, look to him every day of our lives. So the, the, the.
Chet Gladkowski [00:41:33]:
The one thing I would just want to leave with everyone who's listening is that your hope may be feeling low. And all you have to do for hope to go away is nothing. That's all you have to do. Blow up a balloon, tie it up. And I know everybody here can. Knows how to blow up a balloon. You know how to tie it up. And some people are really good tire uppers.
Chet Gladkowski [00:42:02]:
But gu. All you have to do is nothing. And the air will leak out of that balloon. You must purposefully keep reinflating. Come on, your car, your gas gauge. All you have to do is nothing. And it will go from full to empty. And you can say, well, I'm going to ignore it.
Chet Gladkowski [00:42:22]:
I'm not going to do any. It'll just. I'll just work through it. Well, guess what? You're going to wind up on the side of the road. And that's where many of us find ourselves emotionally and spiritually. We must purposefully renew, refill, restore hope, and hope doesn't fall out of the sky. Yes, we have hope in Christ, but we must receive it from him and then purposefully refill it. And the book has seven steps to help you, help everyone, renew our hope.
Chet Gladkowski [00:42:56]:
But if that's all we do, we've missed the game, we've missed the door. Because if it's all about me, then that's just another term for selfishness. My life is to be used to help people restore hope in their lives, to share hope. And so there are 10 steps in there on how to share hope across the divide to other people. So we must have the two sides of that coin of hope. Yes, I need to be receiving hope, but I got to be giving hope and sharing hope. And that's, you know, God is love. But guess what? He didn't sit in eternity past and say, hey, isn't life great? Father, Son, Holy Spirit, here we are.
Chet Gladkowski [00:43:43]:
We're having the greatest life possible. We don't need anyone or anything. But what did God do? He shared himself by making people and then giving Himself for us so that we could respond to him so good.
Edna Harding [00:43:59]:
And I love that you mentioned that, because sometimes too, at least for me, when I went through those challenging times, I volunteered a lot. I would go to places that were worse situations than me, and it made me realize, like, okay, it's not that. Like, in my mind, it's like really bad. But it's, it's. It's when you see, when you put it in a perspective that there's always something to be grateful for. There are people who wish they're in your position. It put just kind of realigns your, your perspective so you're not like inundated with day to day problems. But when you help create hope for other people, you in turn create hope for yourself.
Edna Harding [00:44:36]:
At least that's why I sensed for my, for me what's really helped me got through those dark seasons. Now tell people how can they help find you? Where can they get your book? And I guess what is the best way? What do you provide any type of counseling? Like what services do you offer to people who may need hope or is it due Just books? Like tell us a little bit about like how they can work with you.
Chet Gladkowski [00:45:00]:
Okay, well, thank you. I want to thank you for this time with you and then with all of your audience, the best way to reach me is electronically. There is info@chetglad.org that's my primary website, chetglad.org There is daily devotionals through about half of the New Testament or more. My books are available through that site. I also have two other websites because I don't have enough to do. HopeIsTheKey.org, which is primarily focused around the book and it can be purchased there. You can find it on Amazon. And then there's another website which is about.
Chet Gladkowski [00:45:44]:
My new book is Servelife Today. It's about the idea. I used the illustration of pancakes which comes out of the tabernacle and that we. That's my new book which will be coming. So those are ways to reach me. I'm also available by phone. That's on the websites you can sign up to receive things. I pray, I speak.
Chet Gladkowski [00:46:11]:
So you know, small groups, either through digital or in person. Those are the primary ways. I need more counseling than I can give. So you don't want me to be a counselor. But let me tell you what I am. I'm a friend. I'm a friend because I hope you've seen, sensed. You know, I talked about the brand as the brand and things.
Chet Gladkowski [00:46:35]:
We're all on this journey together. No better, no worse. We're fellow travelers. I think about five guys. I really identify with these five guys. They were lepers, okay? Nobody wants anything to do with them, okay? They're lepers and they're on the outside. And I've always felt like an outsider some way. And they were outside the city of Jerusalem and they thought the enemy's out there and they're going to kill us.
Chet Gladkowski [00:47:04]:
Okay. And I can't go inside. We're going to starve here to death. What's our best option? How's this for project planning? Our best option is to go to the enemy. And option A is they're going to kill us. But option B is maybe they'll give us some food. So these five guys go out and they go to the camp, and guess what? The enemy is gone. God brought a sound, and they thought they were being attacked and they hightailed it out of there.
Chet Gladkowski [00:47:34]:
So here is this big camp, empty of the enemy. They walk through it. They start, oh, there's the pork chops. Oh, there's a hamburger. And they're eating and they find, you know, here's the money and the gold. Let's go bury it. But then it says that they came to their senses and they said to one another, it would be wrong for us to keep this good news to ourselves. So they go back to the city and they share what they have experienced.
Chet Gladkowski [00:48:03]:
That's all I'm doing. And you can do the same thing. You've got a community of people who want to hear the message of God's grace from you. You have a unique message. You are the unique messenger for him in the community you live in.
Edna Harding [00:48:20]:
So good. So good. And I love that in this day and age is all about self, you know, focus on self, Focus and self. But the Lord, in fact, in the scriptures, as the true religion is to care for the widows, the orphans, like those people that a lot of times, like we go get so caught up in hitting the next accolade and so forth that we forget that, hey, God called us to the ones that the church has forgotten. And especially if you're in this business space and you guys know, especially if you've been listening, listening for a while, like there is something about being the hands of feet of Jesus, real hands and feet, not just by talk, not just by encouragement, but real relationship. Truly being there, like as a human being, you know, and. And really serving. Like what? Chad, you're a prime example of what we've been talking about for the past in the previous seasons is because the Lord, the Lord wants his people to truly shine.
Edna Harding [00:49:16]:
And the world is searching for the authentic church, the real church, not the fake church, not the church, like on brand, like you said, the brand, but the real church, which is Jesus Christ, his hands and his feet. That's like penetrating into the four corners of the world. And I love how you said Chet, using your voice, sharing, like using your own circle and I love. And thank you, Holy Spirit. Thank you for pointing that out, because I know there's a lot of people, especially in social media, who wants to be, you know, the head and not the tail. You know, like, always wants to be the face and the front and, and they compare their story, they compare their lives, they compare their journeys with all these other folks who maybe have bigger ministries, bigger businesses, bigger followings, and understanding that each part of the body plays a. Plays a different role in the body of Christ. And, and you're.
Edna Harding [00:50:08]:
I, I just love how. How, like, you're. You're bring. I call it. You're speaking truth in love, if that makes sense. Like, it's. You're rubbing, it's salted. You're.
Edna Harding [00:50:21]:
You're speaking truth with grace. Because that is. Not everybody is going to have that place, if that makes sense. Like, there are certain groups, and sometimes even those people put themselves there. God didn't even put them there. Right. So let's just get. Let's not get that twisted, but can you speak to those who are hidden right now in that hidden season where the Lord is molding them and they're making you pray for them? Because the hidden season where it feels like you're not doing enough, you feel like maybe you're not seen, maybe it feels like.
Edna Harding [00:50:53]:
Like the world has moved on and you're still stuck. Right. Can you pray for those individuals in the waiting season? Maybe they're either waiting on the Lord to, like, give them some clarity as far as what their next is, or maybe they're waiting on themselves to catch on with what the Lord is doing. I know the Holy Spirit is going to speak to you, but speak to it, because I just sense that there is. There's people in the cave season. I'm thinking of, like, David in the cave season or even Joseph in the prison season, or, you know, like, Paul, even in prison, like, those who are, like, feels like, oh, my goodness, like, I'm here, I'm. I'm still hopeful. But pray for those who are, like, not where they feel like God's called them to be, but also they're not where they were.
Edna Harding [00:51:33]:
They're like, in between that, that stage and how. How do I embrace that process? If we just pray for those individuals.
Chet Gladkowski [00:51:40]:
I will, Bob. And the way we want to be active. And I get that. And one of the. You talked about the hands and feet of Jesus, and that is all true. But if you're wondering what I can do, you say, well, you know, I'm not skilled. I'LL tell you, you can. You can be someone who changes the world by listening, by just listening.
Edna Harding [00:52:03]:
Come on.
Chet Gladkowski [00:52:04]:
Second Corinthians 1. It says, God is going to use you to help other people. When I was laying in a. In a bed with tubes in me in intensive care, that is the prayer our pastor came in. He shared that with me. He said, this is not an accident. God is involved in it, and you are to use this for his glory. And so wherever you are, whatever you're experiencing, you're never alone.
Chet Gladkowski [00:52:37]:
God is with you. You have other people. And one of the ways you can actively be serving Christ is by listening. To be someone who leans in and listens, who share, is more concerned about receiving what they're saying rather than saying, oh, I got these three Bible verses, let me get them out to. No, listen. What is the Holy Spirit? Half of the Holy Spirit's job is what? Listening. He's listening to us, but he's also speaking to us. So let us model that.
Chet Gladkowski [00:53:10]:
And you asked me to pray, so I'm going to pray right now, if I may. And I'm going to say, dear Jesus, I thank you that your once and for all sacrifice is enough for all of my sin, all of our sin, past, present and future. And it was laid on the cross where you paid the awful price. And you didn't leave early. You stayed on the cross, though people said, come down. You stayed until it was fully paid. And you said, it is finished. And then you gave up your life.
Chet Gladkowski [00:53:41]:
It wasn't taken for you. You gave up your life for us. And so it's in your power and in your name and the power of the resurrected Christ that we come to you broken, bruised, that you alone are our wounded healer. And we pray that you would give guidance. But more than guidance, you would be the one who comes alongside and fills us with your Holy Spirit in a way that encourages us, that says, it's time to get up, it's time to move forward. And even if there's not an audience here on earth, there is a crowd of witnesses up in heaven. And we look forward to being with you, where we come to you, maybe with our one talent that has become two. And to hear the words we all long to hear.
Chet Gladkowski [00:54:32]:
Well done. Well done. In Jesus name, Amen.
Edna Harding [00:54:36]:
Amen. Well, thank you, Chet, for joining us today. And I know y' all were blessed by that. I'm going to put all of the links and all of the ways to connect with him in descriptions. If you're listening in audio, click on the description and you'll be able to see all of that. Well, until next time, my friends, Keep shining. Remember that you are loved with an everlasting love, and know that greater is he that is in you, that he that is in the world. Blessings, my friends, and we'll talk to you guys soon.
Edna Harding [00:55:05]:
Take care. Join us next time.
Edna Harding [00:55:10]:
Thanks for joining us this week on Estrepreneur. Make sure to visit our website, favorandwealth.com for more information on our services. While you're at it, if you found value in this show, we'd appreciate a rating on itunes. Or if you simply tell a friend about the show, that would help me out, too.
Edna Harding [00:55:27]:
Also, check out my book, the Ugly
Edna Harding [00:55:29]:
side of Sales, available on Amazon, where I share seven of my secrets on how to win and grow business the right way. Until next time, keep shining.