July 15, 2013 Podcast

Show open: setting the bar low

The produced intro plays, then the hosts open live from the Pathway Studios in Johnston. A host jokes that the pre-show conversation produced no fruit and warns listeners the show may be lackluster, comparing it to Little League: nobody who doesn't have a kid in Little League goes to Little League.

Tonight's agenda: Pope advice, phones, prayer

• How do you know when something is 'big' enough to pray about -- how much prayer does a decision require?
• Should Christians engage in hot-button cultural conversations (gay marriage, abortion) or avoid them?

A host previews the show: the host addressed on-air as 'Troy' has some 'Pope style advice'; they want to discuss a study on cell phone usage and how it is ruining people; and a host wants to talk about prayer around big life events in your life -- how big something has to be before you pray over it, illustrated with a coffee-versus-soda example. The segment ends with a sponsor mention for Westfield Veterinary Hospital in Johnston and a note that Dear LFTP advice is coming.

Sponsor: Westfield Veterinary Hospital

A host gives an extended sponsor read for Westfield Veterinary Hospital in Johnston, arguing dogs are not supposed to have bad breath and that dental care is the most overlooked area of a dog's health, causing pain and infection. The hosts riff on the bit, noting that kicking the dog does not solve halitosis.

Mike's goats and the four-dollar-a-day rental

Speaker-0, addressed on-air as 'Mike' (seg-00053, seg-00411), tells how his bloodhound is so starved for attention that it now acts like the three goats he recently acquired, eating grass alongside them. He offers to rent the goats out for lawn mowing at $4 a day, jokes the goat's droppings are the best fertilizer, and warns a goat 'eats kids.'

Sponsor: the Bob Eisenlauer real estate team

A host reads a sponsor spot for the Eisenhower team (Bob Eisenhower in the transcript; canonical name Bob Eisenlauer), urging listeners buying or selling a home to hire a realtor instead of trusting internet advice: an overpriced house that never sells is not big money, it is just a house that is not selling.

Study: smartphones in the shower, the bedroom, and church

• Is the cell phone ruining people's lives and relationships, and what should be done about it?

A host reads a Harris Interactive study conducted for the mobile company Jumia: one in ten Americans admit to checking their phones in the shower or during sex (twenty percent among ages 18 to 34), and one in five use their phones in church. The hosts riff on the intimacy finding -- a host jokes he would have to have the article read to him twice -- and on checking phones during boring school functions.

Are we addicted? Idol worship, expectations, and pushback

The phone discussion turns personal. Speaker-0 (Mike) says that about two weeks after getting a smartphone he decided it was the biggest mistake he had ever made, calling his constant checking 'idol worship,' and now deliberately leaves the phone lying around instead of carrying it. Speaker-2 explains he keeps an older flip phone because he knows his own tendencies toward games and notifications. A host notes the modern expectation of a reply within hours and treats an unanswered call as an insult. They cover more study stats (29% peek at others' phones, 72% stay within five feet of theirs), movie-theater rewards for shutting phones off, Nordstrom testing phone monitoring of shoppers, a family's phone-basket-at-dinner rule, and a host's daughter Danielle calling 'everybody, turn off your phone.' The segment closes with the Monday-night live show and Saturday 99.3 KTIA plugs.

Pope-style advice: engaging hot-button issues

• Should Christians engage in hot-button cultural conversations (gay marriage, abortion) or avoid them?

Speaker-2 -- addressed on-air as 'John Bubba' (seg-00247), 'Buba'/'Buva' (seg-00201, seg-00412), and 'Troy' (seg-00013) -- gives his 'Pope-style advice': stop avoiding hot-button conversations about issues like gay marriage and abortion, study the Bible, and pray each morning for God to speak through you, since God's answers show his heart and love rather than intolerance. Speaker-0 (Mike) pushes back: he avoids those talks because people usually just want to fight, and the issues themselves matter little if the person does not know Jesus -- but concedes such conversations are worth having when they can show God's heart. Mike shares a story of a Christian coworker who asked whether he could stand as best man at a gay wedding; Mike said no, explaining it would mean 'celebrating your separation from God,' which is 'as far from loving as you can get.' A host synthesizes: the issue is not the point; the point is whether the conversation reveals God's heart.

How big does a decision have to be to pray about it?

• How do you know when something is 'big' enough to pray about -- how much prayer does a decision require?

Speaker-1, addressed on-air as 'Ben' (seg-00068), returns to his opening question: if God does not seem to care about coffee versus soda, how do you know when something is big enough to require serious prayer -- illustrated by a trip he agreed to without praying much first, which others felt he had rushed. Speaker-2 advises judging case by case: life-course decisions (for example, spending a year and a half in Uganda) deserve prayer, while ordinary choices need no 'cookie cutter.' A host (speaker-3) recommends a standing general prayer for guidance and wisdom, noting how hard it is to distinguish God's prodding from one's own bright ideas. They discuss the Bible as highlights rather than a daily log (the SportsCenter analogy; forty years of desert complaining summarized in a line), Stephen's stoning as part of God's plan, and the 'Here I am, send me' posture, landing on Matthew 28's 'as you go, make disciples.'

Dear LFTP: dating older men in your early twenties

• What are your thoughts on who a person should be dating in her early twenties, and how should she deal with those who believe she is breaking a social code?

Speaker-0 (Mike) reads a listener letter: a woman in her early twenties who feels leagues ahead of men her age is dating a boyfriend fifteen years older, and both of them field comments about breaking a social code. The hosts are unbothered -- if he is the right man, loves Jesus, and takes care of her, do not give it another thought, with 'pray about it' assumed as the first step. They then read the Secular answer: tune out the critics unless they have a valid reason for criticizing the man.

Dear LFTP: husband and son gang up on mom

• A wife's husband and son get along with her individually but gang up on her together -- what should she do?

Speaker-0 (Mike) reads a letter from a wife whose husband and son each get along with her individually but gang up on her when all three are together, until she dreads being around both at once and her husband gets angry when she raises it. The hosts' advice: the husband must 'man up' -- the funnel of decision-making goes Jesus first, then wife, then kids, then job, and loving your wife as Christ loved the church means presenting a united team to the kids, never letting them play one parent against the other. The Secular answer suggests family counseling before the marriage takes further damage.

Dear LFTP: the overweight five-year-old relative

• A relative's five-year-old is twenty to thirty pounds overweight and the parents do not seem to see it as an issue -- what should the extended family do?

Speaker-0 (Mike) reads a letter signed 'Someone in Chicago': a relative's five-year-old son is twenty or thirty pounds overweight and the extended family does not know how to raise it with the parents without offending them. Speaker-2 says bluntly to stay out of it -- 'get your nose out of their business... They know' -- intervening only if the parents are genuinely failing the child; speaker-0 (Mike) agrees, joking most kids fill out by fifteen ('Look at Dan. He's, like, six foot five'). The 99.3 KTIA radio audience is signed off mid-segment, then the Secular answer is read: ask what the boy's pediatrician has said, since the American Medical Association has declared obesity a disease, and include the boy in physical activities.

Kite flying, exercise, and a nosy culture

Extended closing banter. Speaker-2 recalls being 'grounded to outside' as a kid, made to stay out until the street lights came on, and sitting on the porch insisting he was technically outside. A host (speaker-3) describes finishing a 72-mile bike ride too nauseated to eat half a sandwich. They joke the best exercise is being bad at kite flying, since you run the whole time. A host (speaker-3) complains that the culture feels entitled to weigh in on everyone's weight, phone habits, and car color, yet shuts down any talk about Jesus.

Show close

The hosts thank the audience and plug lifefromthepath.org: clips, games including the end-of-the-world game, artist clips from Chandra Knudson and others, and past interviews including John Waller and Now Serving Seven. They sign off until next week.