The Spirit, the Goldfish and the Way

Show open and new-year docket

• Is there a right way to pray - a cracked code that makes God act?

Produced voiceover opens the show, then Ben does the live show start: the first show of 2026, with jokes about only putting out 25 episodes last year and getting old. The docket sets up two hard questions for the room: the power of prayer (Mike will set up the discussion around Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire) and Ben's Isaiah reading, which has him in a second crisis of faith.

Ben's goldfish question

• Is it fair to think of God as being to us as we are to goldfish?
• How do we reconcile God's anger in the prophets with his goodness?

Ben frames the episode's hard question: reading Isaiah has him troubled by God's anger, and he asks whether it is fair to think of God as being to us as we are to goldfish, in terms of wisdom - if a six-month-old misbehaved, would you scream at it and burn its toys? He asks how to think about God's angry, vengeful-sounding language and his character.

Prayer in church life: there is no cracked code

• Is there a right way to pray - a cracked code that makes God act?

The room discusses prayer as a church-service element - prayer as a transition between the other things, and whether it has slid into the gray. Mike says he does not believe there is a cracked code: praying the right prayer does not make God's eyebrow go up. They recount the Brooklyn Tabernacle story (Cymbala on a boat: be faithful to me in the way that you pray and I will show up), the Sermon on the Mount's poor in spirit, Jesus calling the temple a house of prayer, the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and prayers as incense.

Prayer as reliance, not gimmick

Ben frames prayer as the reliance part - 'I can't do the things off my own hand' - and asks Dan for his Zimbabwe prayer stories; Dan responds from his own experience, describing his battle to keep prayer from becoming a gimmick, recalling Tuesday-night prayer meetings, Red Moon Rising, and 24-7 prayer rooms that lasted six days instead of fourteen. Ben offers the financial-planner confidence analogy: hand God every five dollars and trust the man. Dan cites his Lazarus example: Jesus calls Lazarus out and Lazarus comes out.

Does prayer move God's hand?

The hosts push on whether prayer changes outcomes: Dan says they keep praying because they believe it shakes the foundations of the spiritual world, and recalls Brooklyn Tabernacle prayer walks around town and schools. They land on expectation versus hope - trusting God with what they cannot control, with a billion things they are not on the hook for. Mike's takeaway: the conversation looks different in the trench than after God brought the daughter home; there is fog of war in the trench.

Praying with hope and guided prayer

Ben asks whether the hosts pray with enough hope that the thing matters, suggesting they have room to multiply their hopeful praying. He defends guided prayer: praying through a prompted list is richer than praying only the first two things on the calendar, and it is fine, not inorganic. The complaint line gets a plug.

Isaiah 29 and hyperbolic prophetic language

Ben reads Isaiah 29 aloud - woe to Jerusalem, Ariel, siege ramps and towers, nations like a dream of the night - then asks how to read prophetic language: is the poetic, hyperbolic register a fair way to say true things, like the OJ Simpson illustration (saying he murdered four people whose house burned, when he murdered two)? He notes the recent case of the man who swore on the Quran at the New York inauguration. The Ezekiel Tyre prophecy is harder: Babylon attacked Tyre as scripture said, but it was not destroyed forever, raising whether a prophet can overextend what God said.

The goldfish question resolved: they knew better

The room lands the goldfish question. Ben concedes Mike is right and his framing was too childish: humans have agency and moral accountability that goldfish and six-month-olds do not. God's anger in the prophets is aimed at people mistreating women, children, the poor, and the unfortunate for self-aggrandizement and demon worship - what other posture would Yahweh have? Mike offers the five-year-old analogy (spilling milk by accident versus throwing the glass at the wall), then tells the $200 story: a child who steals instead of asking ('I needed $200, so I stole it from a guy down the road'), then the childlike version ('I need dad's help. Hey, dad. I need $200. God's like, I know you need $200. I got $200'), which Dan picks up ('I love you. Out the door. Go'). The complaint line number (515) 517-0085 is given for listener crises of faith.

Dear LFTP: the canned-ham friend

• Should I tell off my condescending friend, and is there a good deadly one-liner?

Mike reads the first Dear LFTP letter (the ASR renders the greeting 'Dear liar from the past'): a woman down 50 pounds whose friend makes condescending comments about her weight causing her sciatica and arthritis - 'I don't know what I feel other than like throwing a canned ham at her.' She asks whether to confront the 'Quotes, friend' or move on, and wants a deadly one-liner. The hosts reject the zinger ('go out to the grocery store and beat up on the fruit produce guy'), advise taking what's good and letting pass what's not, and pan the Secular answer about three strikes and icing her out.

Dear LFTP: the rain cloud and the value of work

• How can I get out from under this rain cloud at work - do I want too much out of life?

Mike reads the second letter: a woman in her early thirties, happy in marriage and new house, but miserable in high-stress tech marketing - 'How can I get out from under this rain cloud? Do I want too much out of life?' The room discusses work as a burden versus a given ('you didn't get to not have joy with cutting firewood. You just went cold'), the industrial revolution separating people from their hands and tools, modern FOMO, and Ben's eight years pastoring a house church for no money. They mock Marie-Kondo-ing relationships and give practical advice: move house, take a job that doesn't kill you, write the novel. Ben recommends the book 1,000 Balloons by Emma and Evelyn Foust (his and Mike's daughters) on Amazon. The Secular answer (part-time tech job, one-year deadline) is discussed.

Outro: faithful in the means

Ben closes the first show of the new year: listeners are invited to call or text with feedback, and the show ends on the sign-off 'be faithful in the means. God will handle the ends.'