Is Insurance a Lack of Faith? (Dutch Reformed Debate) - The Briefcase & The Barn - EP 77

January 7, 2026

Kyle: [00:00:00] Let's go. Shoot. Shoot this too. You [00:00:10] want a drink? Drink, drink water. I still tractor Gary Bar real estate. Ready to the sale or what?

Gary: Take no prisoners. Hell yeah. [00:00:20] Still wanna forget

Gary: It's hot.

Gary: Trying [00:00:30] to think of when that last piss.[00:00:40] [00:00:50] [00:01:00] [00:01:10] [00:01:20] [00:01:30] [00:01:40] [00:01:50] [00:02:00] [00:02:10] [00:02:20] [00:02:30] [00:02:40] [00:02:50] [00:03:00] [00:03:10] [00:03:20] [00:03:30] [00:03:40] [00:03:50] [00:04:00] [00:04:10] [00:04:20] [00:04:30] [00:04:40] [00:04:50] [00:05:00] [00:05:10] [00:05:20] [00:05:30]

Kyle: Hey guys, let's go.[00:05:40]

Jason: We're just down there shooting the shit, bud. Yeah, that's where you should record it. We're just [00:05:50] talking about my family though. Like how he knows. So he knew my grandpa really good. Yeah. Didn't he heifers, didn't he list his property?

Kyle: I

Gary: think Did he?

Kyle: I think so. That land [00:06:00] over in agai?

Jason: Yeah. 109 acres or something.

Kyle: Think so. And he wasn't happy with him? Who

Jason: wasn't happy with him?

Kyle: I think your

Jason: grandma wasn't, or maybe your dad wasn't. 'cause my dad, my dad was [00:06:10] the executor. Ah, your dad wasn't happy though. Oh, why?

Kyle: I don't know. I thought you told me that there,

Jason: something's ring a bell, but I don't remember why or what.[00:06:20]

Jason: It's all good.

Jason: Yeah. My dad's pretty easily, uh, [00:06:30] triggered. Or just trigger more stuff for your inventory. He just, he's easily pissed off. Yeah, [00:06:40] it's in my inventory.

Jason: Am I in the inventory though? No. No. My dad. Oh [00:06:50] yeah. That would make sense. It'd be pretty weird if you didn't have your parents in your inventory. Kyle doesn't have his parents in his inventory. 'cause they were basically perfect. So Yeah, we're perfect. [00:07:00] Yeah. My head's too fat. Are we going?

Kyle: Yeah, definitely.

Kyle: Fowler, thank you that, uh, we get a record here today. I ask that as we record you'd be with us. Uh, you'd guide us. [00:07:10] It wouldn't say anything we shouldn't say and that it'd be beneficial for whoever listens down the road. Uh, they'd help us be relaxed and be ourselves and that you would, uh, that would glorify you and that we would stay away from [00:07:20] sin and you already might pray.

Kyle: Amen.

Jason: Amen. So I'm just gonna say, I've never done this. I'm a little bit nervous and.

Kyle: You'll be fine. I need

Jason: to [00:07:30] brief preface anything.

Kyle: Welcome back to another episode of The Reef Case of the Bar, and a series of the free security show where we talk about business, life, Christianity and more. Still know Matt Kean, [00:07:40] but we got some good feedback on him.

Kyle: But we do have, uh, Jason Bremmer joining us. Nobody, Jason.

Kyle: Well,

Gary: people [00:07:50] always wanna do a, a preface before they come on the show. Jason wanted to start explaining to us how he felt, how anxious he was nervous, but I always say the best, the best content for the [00:08:00] podcast is everything you said before the podcast and after the podcast.

Gary: That's right. So just record it all's right?

Kyle: Yeah, I met Jason through, uh, your cousin Josh. My, no, my wife's cousin [00:08:10] Josh.

Jason: Yes.

Kyle: Um. Years ago. And you were my first coaching client. That's right. Before I was a coach.

Jason: Yeah. Or before I was a test run test run. Yeah. Was that any good? [00:08:20] It was good. Yeah. Yeah. I got a really good deal.

Jason: There you go. Yeah. You

Kyle: got exactly what you paid for. Probably. No, I, I, I, I told him he could pay whatever he wants at the end, so. [00:08:30] Okay. Yeah. That's a unique way to do it. Um, this is the, this is the feedback I got just an hour ago, uh, from, uh, sent in anonymously. [00:08:40] Uh, Matt is still on and driving us all crazy.

Kyle: You'll be losing subscribers. You other two are much more honest when he is not there. [00:08:50] You two are afraid. He'll laugh out. Laugh you out when you say what you believe and it's different than him and it's super childish. It's not about the rules of Christmas, [00:09:00] what you can or can't have or set up, but we can, but can we inly, commemorate Christ's birth without all the worldly banter?

Kyle: It's [00:09:10] what Christ followers want us to do to glorify him in his coming on earth and to save sinners. It's not something to, uh, mock about. And believe it or not, a lot of people in the churches, you [00:09:20] guys like to criticize. Definitely do gifts. Gifts. So whatever this guy sounds like, real nice guy, super calm, no anger issues.[00:09:30]

Gary: Is it in all caps? No, it's those Twitter posts where they put it in all caps.

Kyle: Guess what? I don't care.

Gary: I love the feedback.

Kyle: The feedback is good. Yeah. Feedback's good. [00:09:40] I like it Still, especially anonymous.

Gary: I had face-to-face feedback. I was at a conservative, uh, party for Mark Straw, had public skating. Oh, okay.

Gary: Yeah. Act. He is our local mp [00:09:50] and, um, met a faithful listener and, uh, she felt the same way, but said it a lot nicer.

Kyle: Okay. That's why people [00:10:00] could do, say, I

Gary: shouldn't, I shouldn't pigeonhole what she was saying. She. She appreciated the conversa. And it, to be fair, most people appreciate Matt on the show if we did a pull Yeah.

Gary: Viewership. [00:10:10] Viewership has gone up, dealership's way out. But obviously, uh, there's people that don't listen to this because you're on here and there's for sure people that don't listen. 'cause I'm on this podcast. That's right. So that's just the way it is. And there's That's right. It's a big, [00:10:20] uh, big pool out there podcast to listen to.

Gary: So what I was just telling

Kyle: Jason earlier this week when I asked him to come on, I'm like, I don't think about what the audience thinks about. No, it doesn't even matter. That's irrelevant. Just I'm, I I said when I started this thing, [00:10:30] I'm just gonna record on whatever I think is interesting and have on who I think is interesting and talk about those things.

Kyle: And whoever likes that stuff will listen. Whoever doesn't, you don't have to listen. There's no move on. [00:10:40] Give her, yeah. Yeah. Okay. Tell tell me about, uh, Prairie Stone. What do you do in Alberta?

Jason: Uh, so we, we operate a concrete company that supplies concrete to the Southern Alberta [00:10:50] industry. Uh, we got a fleet of concrete trucks that supply and deliver concrete all over Southern Alberta.

Jason: And then we do roller compacted concrete as well, [00:11:00] uh, supplying RCC to the feedlot industry. Which is

Kyle: like, they just,

Gary: uh, explain it in detail. That's pretty interesting. It's a pretty interesting product.

Jason: Yeah. So basically we come in, we clear [00:11:10] out all the old pens, fence lines, manure everything out, redo the dirt, do the whole design to make sure everything drains properly and it's compacted [00:11:20] properly.

Jason: And then we put a perfect layer of R-C-C-R-C-C

Kyle: is just, it's like a powder,

Jason: it's roller compacted concrete. So it's, it's, it's Roxanne Water and cement. Yeah. Regular [00:11:30] concrete, just super dry enough, enough water in there to hydrate the cement and get your strength. You lay it out, pack it down, and just roll it.

Jason: Yep.

Gary: And for [00:11:40] perspective, how long some of these feedlots are huge, right? There's thousands of animals in each feedlot for people that don't know the beef industry.

Jason: Yeah. So we did about 175 acres of [00:11:50] concrete this year. And for those that don't know,

Gary: an acre is about 43,000, 6,560 square feet. So it is an insane amount of square [00:12:00] footage.

Jason: Yeah. Yeah, it was fun.

Gary: And you said you sell the concrete, but do you, um, do you have a concrete plant then, or you buy it and resell it and basically deliver it with your trucks?

Jason: No, [00:12:10] we're buying raw product and we're Oh, you are? You're making the concrete. We're making the concrete. Okay.

Kyle: Yep, yep. But they do it differently.

Kyle: They have trucks instead of like

Jason: cement trucks. We don't have drum trucks. We have [00:12:20] continuous mixing trucks, other ways known as volumetric trucks. And so we carry all the products on the truck. Your rox sand, cement water separately, chemicals separately. And when we get [00:12:30] to the site, we mix the concrete fresh.

Jason: Why is that? So our advantage is we can go as far as we want without, uh, batching out, having solid mix time back,

Gary: [00:12:40] or, uh, is there a batch mix time on concrete?

Jason: Yeah. Two hours generally is engineering standard time. So what happens then starts the concrete, just the strength goes way down. [00:12:50] So the strongest concrete will ever be is when you mix the water and the cement together.

Jason: If you're done right then and there, that's the strongest that concrete will be. Oh, wow. So it literally goes down, tumble it, [00:13:00] it'll, it'll keep. Dropping.

Kyle: So you can mix it on site and then you can have all like piles of all your different raw materials on site and just one truck and you just keep feeding the truck.

Kyle: Is that what's

Gary: happening? [00:13:10] Is it always a separate truck then that's mixing there?

Jason: It depends on the jobs. Like some, like smaller ish jobs, like a hundred meters or less, we'll just cycle 'cause we got enough trucks now. [00:13:20] Um, but big jobs, we can do a three, 400 meter pour with one truck. We just haul all of our rocking sand to the site.

Jason: We have a loader there. We have water tankers there, we have cement [00:13:30] vulgar there, and we just continuously load one truck and we can put out 60 meters an hour. Fascinating. So,

Gary: so when they build, like, you know, we watch YouTube videos at our house of [00:13:40] building skyscrapers, would they use, would they use the freshest concrete there then because it's the strongest or is it not that big of a deal?

Gary: Like as far as bringing, or would they mix the ingredient same as you guys do right on the [00:13:50] spot? Do you know?

Jason: I think for big structural

Gary: projects

Jason: generally the, uh, drum trucks have done that. So they'll try to find the closest. Okay. Uh, drum plant. Area to [00:14:00] supply that.

Gary: Are there a lot of other companies that do concrete like you guys?

Jason: Um, in our area there is quite a few of our trucks. I'd say there's more the same or more volumetrics as drums. [00:14:10] It seemed to break through there. And uh, like we, we've done a lot of QC and done a lot of commercial projects where everything is tested and we can [00:14:20] perform just as well or better than anybody else, than a

Gary: drum truck.

Gary: Even though you're,

Jason: you know, there's the old hardcore guys that say drums are the only way to go and it's the only consistent [00:14:30] concrete out there. But, you know, we pour a lot of meters out there and a lot of 'em are tested, are

Gary: just as many feedlots doing. The rrc, what's it called?

Jason: [00:14:40] RCC

Gary: Roller, compacted Concrete.

Gary: RCC Are lots of feed lots still doing it. Is that something that's even increasing or is it plateaued 'cause the money's drying up or,

Jason: um, [00:14:50] I, I would say in the last few years there's more and more doing it. The feed loan industry has been pretty strong. So there's maybe some extra money to put into this.

Jason: It is a costly product, there's no doubt [00:15:00] about it. Um,

Gary: how much is it roughly to do

Jason: a feed lot? Two 50

Gary: to $3

Jason: a square foot ish? [00:15:10] Yeah, somewhere in there.

Gary: Is that 150 grand an acre? Am I doing my math rate

Jason: ish? Yeah. Okay. Crazy.

Kyle: Yeah. An advantage of them is it's easier to clean it all out and stuff like [00:15:20] that.

Jason: Yeah. So the, the, he, the biggest advantage is actually the feed conversions. So I've heard from multiple sources, probably three different farmers that, that farm a lot of cattle, [00:15:30] and they're saying that their cattle on RCC, if they would get, say a thousand head in and they put 500 on RCC 500 in regular pens, [00:15:40] and they feed 'em the same, treat 'em the same, do everything the same.

Jason: Their cattle on RCC are 60 to 70 pounds heavier when they go to, she.

Gary: Okay. So

Jason: they [00:15:50] would argue it's validity paying for itself. Itself. It is paying for itself. You spent itself best. They, we will invest in that all day long is what I've heard.

Kyle: Okay. So lots of people are gonna get a lot of calls after this podcast.

Jason: Yeah. [00:16:00]

Gary: A lot of beef guys. A lot of beef guys listening. Still be a huge capital cost. It is.

Jason: It costs a lot of money to do. And so you'll see some of the guys that [00:16:10] maybe are a little bit bigger in the industry that maybe have some extra cash in. And do you do the

Gary: whole project like you do the grading, cleaning out?

Gary: Yeah. We'll take care of it all. You okay. Design everything, sub it, whatever. [00:16:20] Okay. We can do it all. Okay. But your core business is selling the concrete product

Jason: obviously. So we do the concrete supply and then we got a company that we work with that does all the dirt work and the placing [00:16:30] a couple companies, but one main one and then another guy that we work with.

Jason: Do you have partners in your business? Uh, that's a big question. [00:16:40] I just answered honestly. Um, yeah, this is an honest podcast. I started with a partner. I started with a partner, uh, 10 years ago. And, [00:16:50] uh, we had some differences. Okay. About six years ago, or seven years ago or something, or no, sorry, about three or four years ago.

Jason: Okay. And, uh, [00:17:00] we went our separate ways and, uh, since then I bought it out completely. But since then I've had, uh, two managers buy in. Okay. It's minority, minority shareholders. So [00:17:10]

Kyle: there you go. You know what parish and concrete is? Yeah.

Gary: That's awesome. I love it. It's pretty cool. Sounds like a great business.

Kyle: Talking about Alberta, you put a note in here on Calgary's new mayor.

Gary: [00:17:20] Yeah,

Kyle: the, you said think it's a sign to come. Cons con coincides with liberals admitting banning plastic straws with asinine liberals [00:17:30] admitted that, which liberals live there. They, they pretty

Gary: much did. It's, it's buried pretty deep in some of their, um, in some of their policy, recent policy.

Kyle: And who's Calgary's new mayor? [00:17:40]

Gary: Uh, Jeremy Farkas. Okay. And there's an article in the National Post and he goes [00:17:50] off on what?

Kyle: Calgary's new mayor goes off. Yeah. Is he, is he in a different party than the other guy? Like I don't, he's

Gary: well, he's a long ways from, uh, the guy that was in for a long time [00:18:00] and even their most recent mayor, I swear I'm drawing a blank on, I can picture the guy 'cause I've seen him in person.

Gary: Their old mayor,

Kyle: Michael Ey, who's that?

Gary: Well, that was probably their last one. But their mayor now is as [00:18:10] far as he promises much stricter enforcement against open drug use in the crime that surrounds it. We need to hold accountable the worst mo most egregious offenders. And we [00:18:20] know right now that it's about a hundred individuals who are responsible for the vast majority of repeat violent crime and offenses.

Gary: He said, this may not be politically correct to say, but we need to crack down on these people. They need to be put in jail. [00:18:30]

Kyle: The headline is, Calgary Frees itself from Climate Emergency Mayor JTI Geck. His policies, her policies, her policies were destructive and she was [00:18:40] hostile toward individuals and groups that didn't fit her age ideological wheelhouse.

Kyle: Okay,

Gary: so this here, this is what he talks about. He talks, goes on pretty strongly [00:18:50] against, uh, people that are anti-Semitic. Um, he said this violence, 'cause there's been obviously a lot of violence around Canada, especially in Canada, I would say. I feel like Canada is [00:19:00] under the guise of tolerance. Just allows people to say whatever they want, to some degree.

Gary: You the podcast, I said pardon?

Kyle: Except for on the conservative side. Yeah,

Gary: exactly. This [00:19:10] violence did not come out nowhere far cassette. It has been emboldened by spineless, moral leadership, moral cowardice, and a failure to act dec uh, [00:19:20] reading is hard for say decisively. It's hard for me or stand unequivocally with the Jewish community, calls to globalize the, how do you pronounce that word, Kyle?[00:19:30]

Kyle: Uh, in tota. I don't

Gary: know. Oh man, we should know what that word is that's so bad. We're dismissed. anti-Semitism was excused as anti-Zionism and leaders [00:19:40] did nothing. Silence deflection, excuses. These are the choices. These cho there are choice. These are choices that have consequences. History shows us this pattern.

Gary: Clearly lies, [00:19:50] masquerades, morality. Dehumanization is excused and violence follows to demonstrators. He said, you have the right to pro protest, but you do not have the right to intimidate. [00:20:00] You do not have the right to target people because they're Jewish. If your protest makes Jewish families calculate their safety, if your slogans make them fear attending religious celebrations [00:20:10] like our mineral lighting tonight, I'm butchering all these Jewish words.

Gary: I apologize to our three Jewish listeners. If you're caused to man silence from those under threat, then you're [00:20:20] not speaking truth to power. You're part of the problem. And I want to be clear. Criticism of governments is not anti-Semitism, but harassment of Jewish people anywhere and for any reason [00:20:30] it is.

Gary: Um. And he goes on and on. So what,

Kyle: sorry, you, you think it's a sign of what's to come?

Gary: Well, he says further on in the article, this is not limited to the Jewish [00:20:40] community, which is why I'm going to strike a new mayor's interfaith council to work together with other faith leaders, not just in the Jewish community, but in the Sikh, Hindu, Muslim, and Christian community.

Gary: So that [00:20:50] an attack on one is deemed an attack by all of us. So anyways, I just thought it was fascinating. I feel like the pendulum is, [00:21:00] I wouldn't say swinging, but Yeah, I feel like there's,

Kyle: there's some conversation having big, the fact that, that this guy

Gary: can get, now I was just in Calgary recently. I flew in and, and, uh, got [00:21:10] a car on, uh, WhatsApp app called from some guy's house, random dude.

Gary: And, uh, you can, it's basically like a car rental, but short term. Yeah. Anyways, you know what I'm [00:21:20] talking about. So I was fascinated by like very diverse cultures. People obviously, you know, I, I find like a lot of, uh, some people would say a lot of immigrants would lean [00:21:30] towards

Kyle: liberal policies.

Gary: Maybe, but I don't, I think a lot of 'em are pretty family oriented, right?

Gary: Yeah. More, more,

Kyle: more. I think I would say more would be,

Gary: and in a lot of other countries, you know, drug addiction, [00:21:40] drug, the tolerance for drug use is a lot less than in our country.

Kyle: Yeah. You see that actually, I notice that working at the shelter now, uh, it's mostly white [00:21:50] guys that are there. It's not like you don't see a lot of immigrants that are addicted to drugs on the street.

Kyle: Now there's some, but it's the majority is. Why is that? Uh, I think it's just [00:22:00] because of the family. Like it's the, like the immigrants that come in here, um, they're still, still strong, strong families like that. But generally the Canadians that have been here for a lot of generations, it's like there's, [00:22:10] that's, that's gone.

Kyle: Broken townies. Yeah. There's, there's nothing left and there's not none of that, uh, which is the fabric of everything. Yeah. [00:22:20] Um, anything else you wanna say about that?

Gary: No, thanks for asking. I mean No, no, I'll, I'll leave it

Kyle: at

Gary: that.

Kyle: Okay. Well, you put another fun quote in here. [00:22:30] Uh, or a question, would you buy your wife jeans for Christmas or her birthday present?

Kyle: What was that?

Gary: I'm asking you guys, would you buy your wife jeans? Yeah. Why

Kyle: not? Yeah, if she wanted jeans or Christmas,

Gary: would you buy your wife jeans or Christmas? [00:22:40] Totally. Okay.

Jason: I would, I would probably have to braid her closet to make sure I got the right size and blah, blah, blah. But I would,

Gary: okay, so I just went in off the cuff and did not check the [00:22:50] closets the size of the closet.

Jason: Did you want you brave?

Gary: No, she didn't even ask for them, but I figured, hey, she had other clothes on there and uh, then she just said, oh, you should ask people. You see how many guys would [00:23:00] actually dare go buy a pair of uh, pads? No. To be fair,

Kyle: I haven't ever, I don't think done it. Well, you can try it, but I would, but I would.

Kyle: Nice birthday, but I, nice birthday. But Marie, Marie was on size or I bought pieces of

Gary: stuff [00:23:10] with the kids. Yeah. I went out and bought her. I, I bought and it was a complete miracle. Everything kind of fit, but I mean,

Jason: oh wow. You're better than I, I've never done [00:23:20] jeans, but I've done dresses. I was recently in Uganda and I.

Jason: I went to this little, this little shack where they got all the souvenirs and I found two dresses. I don't know if that counts. Did you hold it up or go

Gary: by [00:23:30] size or just be like, I went by

Jason: size and then I kind of held it up and said, yeah, I think she's about that big and it fits, so that's good. Good, good call.

Jason: And she, she said [00:23:40] she liked it.

Kyle: Okay. Anyways, I thought that was a wild comment. I was like, I didn't expect to see that in the notes today, but, okay. Well,

Gary: my wife was flabbergasted that I even dared to do that. Oh, really?

Kyle: Yeah. Why? She thought [00:23:50] you were like, she thought you'd be scared to do that.

Gary: Yeah. Just think, man, that's pretty brave.

Gary: It could, this could go really a mess. Like if you

Kyle: bought like a size too big or something. Or

Gary: either you can't win either way. Like [00:24:00] that's the thing about a woman's pair of pants. You get 'em too big like, like think of the thoughts and go through the head way too small. Can't get in them

Gary: like just awful.

Gary: The real is awkward is, would you

Jason: get them with [00:24:10] holes in them or would you get them with no holes in them? No holes in them. Okay. Holes for sure. Not a big fan of the holes in the pants, but that's personal preference.

Kyle: My dad's

Jason: had, it was sinful. I bugg my wife about that all the time.

Gary: [00:24:20] Oh, finally, your dad wasn't right about something.

Kyle: Well, it's gotta at least be

Gary: holes in the bottom so your feet can go through. We're gonna,

Kyle: we're gonna park that one. Okay. Um, [00:24:30] how do you, how do you deal with an, uh, another comment you put, how do you deal with an introvert spouse? No desire to meet new people, like randomly going out for dinner with people they don't know.

Kyle: Wound up tight like [00:24:40] that. I was like, this is definitely great. Marry, marrying, and Marie and Gary. Uh, comment. 'cause I know that, uh, it's definitely you. That doesn't like going out and Marie loves to hang out with time. Yeah. She always wants,

Gary: yeah. [00:24:50]

Kyle: It's me, Nicole too.

Gary: Who's the introvert?

Kyle: She's way more introverted than I'm, I'm pretty

Gary: introverted,

Kyle: but

Gary: she's even more introverted.

Gary: Yeah. Yeah. How [00:25:00] about your wife, Jason? She's, who's more introverted?

Jason: Oh, my wife is definitely more introverted. Okay. Yeah, for sure.

Kyle: Okay. But you're excited to me talk to anybody anytime. Yeah. You're like on the far end of the [00:25:10] special, she gets

Gary: really upset. Right. We'll go out for dinner like me and her, and I'll end up having dinner with some other couple or some random single person's there.

Gary: And I like invite, invite 'em to [00:25:20] join our date. How I've had people text me pictures of like their family members sitting with me at a restaurant and sign you, my wife, like, oh, I see you invited on my brother-in-law to come join you [00:25:30] for dinner.

Kyle: How

Gary: often do you go on a date with just you and Marie? Y Ooh, that was, you just added the part there at the end.

Gary: Um, just you and Marie. This is a sore spot in our [00:25:40] marriage for sure. Uh, it's shortcoming of mine and we're, I think we're doing better. We, we are. Like, um, how often? Uh, I don't, I can't answer the question, Samantha. Um, [00:25:50] I would say we were going out every week and I would say half or half, quarter to half the time we would go out just with us.

Gary: It's [00:26:00] very rare now lately that we've been going out just to the two of us. That's fair. Mostly because we are going out way less. We used to have a date night every Wednesday night and go out and we've kind of just let that go in the last while. [00:26:10] Just the amount of stuff going on be

Kyle: often you just, you and, uh, the wife,

Jason: just me and Amy.

Kyle: Oh.

Jason: So, uh, we, we did our thing with Dr. Dave Curry years ago. [00:26:20] Yeah. And then we were doing the dating thing and then we would take turns planning and we did it Happy camper dating pretty faithfully every week or every other week. Um, and you guys would do Happy Camper

Kyle: dating too? Like where you [00:26:30] went? We did, yeah.

Kyle: Okay.

Jason: Yeah. And it was whole, totally different every time, the whole deal. Yeah. Yeah. Or we kinda have our things that we like, but I would plan something and, and for people that don't know what [00:26:40] happy

Kyle: camper dating is. Happy camper dating is when one person plans, the other person is the happy camper. So whatever the other person plans, you have to be good with it.

Kyle: You just go along. So I've had to do art at the river before and [00:26:50] Nicole's been my caddy before when we go golfing and just like the other person's happy, you have to be pleasant about it. Yep. Yeah. You have to be, that sounds like marriage in general, but it's really good. Otherwise you go and meet like these super [00:27:00] lame dates where you just go out for dinner and just like kind of like meet in the middle and you both don't really, aren't excited about the activity and this way that at least every other time you get, do something you like.

Jason: But one thing I [00:27:10] learned about dating is that they don't really care what you do. They just want your time present. That's what matters. Be present. Like my wife, if like we could go for a walk or for a [00:27:20] bike ride or, and if you were paying

Gary: attention,

Jason: good, you'll a glass of wine or it doesn't matter if my phone is gone and I'm just, it's just me and her and yeah, they're happy.

Jason: Same with our kids. That's all they want. Same

Kyle: with our kids. [00:27:30] Yeah. It's not how, how exciting the thing is, it's just time. Be present. Hey, you uh, texted me on Christmas day from your MacBook. You said you wanted to [00:27:40] put, what happened? You wanted to put your phone in the lockbox for five hours? Well, I had said last

Gary: week That's right, that I gave my word.

Gary: So I was thinking of that on, uh, the date on Christmas Eve. You gave your word to do what again? Well, I was [00:27:50] gonna put my phone in the lockbox. I didn't spec specify any time. Okay. But on Christmas morning I was doing it with my son and I wasn't really paying attention. And it said five hours and four minutes.

Gary: Yeah. I wasn't, [00:28:00] wasn't paying attention. Well, unfortunately I had one day in five hours, so I was without my phone until Boxing Day, uh, in the afternoon. And that was a very, I mean, [00:28:10] Marie said, said she, I did really well. She's pretty impressed. Um, what do you mean

Kyle: did really well in just like handling it or?

Kyle: Yeah,

Gary: just in like she thought I'd be more anxiety. Okay. [00:28:20]

Kyle: Christmas day's a pretty good day to do it 'cause no one's really trying it. It was the best day to do it.

Gary: Yeah. I still had 27 on Ined text messages. When I turned my phone, got my phone outta there, I took it with me on a hike because like, [00:28:30] I took the box with me because it was gonna be during the, during my hike that I get my phone out.

Gary: So on the hike you were character too? Well, I was scared the box. Right. Get that out. Well, okay, good deal with my stuff now. Right. Um, [00:28:40] but it was just interesting. It was, it was, Marie was thought I was gonna smash the box and I did contemplate it, but I just thought, Hey, this is obviously meant to be, I need, and it was, it was healthy.[00:28:50]

Kyle: Did you know what, did you notice not having it on you? Were you, were you way

Gary: less check. It's, you're just not checking it. And you don't, you don't, you don't even have to think about checking it because, you know, for the next 36 hours don't, yeah. There's a mental thing that you [00:29:00] can't, it's meant, yeah, you can't.

Gary: So it's super healthy. Um, did you notice

Kyle: you were more relaxed or spent more time with the kids or. So

Gary: thinking about, yeah, I was way more focused. I [00:29:10] noticed, like I read books to them for a way longer period of time than I would normally read books. Yeah. 'cause like I didn't need to be done reading the books to check my phone.

Kyle: Yeah. It's wild, huh? You

Gary: have to try it. It's not something that you could hear [00:29:20] from us talking about it. Yeah. I think it is something that you actually just have to,

Kyle: because just putting it in the cupboard for a certain amount of time doesn't actually work because No, no, of

Gary: course not. You just go, well, even if you [00:29:30] have five hours,

Kyle: you know that anytime you can go check it.

Kyle: So you're mentally thinking about, Hey, when, when am I, how long I'm gonna do it for? But when you know, that box says, Hey, it's not coming out for 12 hours, you stop thinking about it.

Gary: Well, my brother-in-law said, oh, can't, like, [00:29:40] isn't there like a cheat code or something that you can open the box? I'm like, no, you have to smash the, but it's the point of it.

Gary: That's right. Yeah. There, there have to smash it.

Kyle: You can, I've bought two new bo um, bottoms for it after break [00:29:50] breaking it. Okay. Broke it twice over the last four years or?

Gary: Yeah, I didn't like it that my MacBook had the iMessages on it. Oh yeah. I felt like to some degree [00:30:00] I'd almost be better to have one big enough where all your, your devices are.

Gary: I wish they did. Yeah. Are in there. Because

Kyle: I have the same thing. So I actually have to take my power, all my power cords for my computers and put 'em in there too. So I can't check my messages on my [00:30:10] MacBook.

Jason: Hmm. Okay. So that's kind of a cheat tool. The MacBook. The MacBook

Gary: totally is, yeah. Now you're not getting other text messages.

Gary: You're not getting anybody that's on an Android device. Right. Oh, [00:30:20] okay. So you I am. You still, why is

Kyle: that?

Gary: I

Kyle: don't know how they have it figured out now, but I get text messages from people that aren't on. Im iMessage as well.

Jason: So now you gotta put your

Kyle: MacBook in the lockbox [00:30:30] too. Yeah, that's right. But I mean, still, you're still not walking around with a MacBook, right?

Kyle: Like when you're go, when you're hanging out downstairs, stuff like that used to. I have to go upstairs to my computer. So, yeah, I think it's the greatest thing [00:30:40] and people need to use it more often. I mean, we're. Stealing. It's stealing time from our kids. And there's a book,

Gary: and I was thinking I'd give the book away if we do a live event in February, but [00:30:50] I listened to a podcast probably, sorry,

Kyle: probably be early March.

Gary: Sorry, early March. Um, I was listening to a podcast the other day from Barry Weiss, excuse me, with the guy [00:31:00] who wrote The Anxious Generation, I think it's called. I don't if you guys have read that book. Anyways, Marie bought the book from me, she said months ago, and she said she left it by my bedside table and I never cracked it one time, but, [00:31:10] so that, that's what put me on to locking up.

Gary: Well, no, I was listening to that podcast. Now it's all coming back to me. Okay. I had left very early in the morning with a kid that was crying early in the morning and was waking up the house, so I took him [00:31:20] out Yeah. For a drive through town. And uh, thankfully McDonald's was still open on, uh, Christmas morning.

Kyle: Yeah.

Gary: And, uh, yeah, just went and listened to that [00:31:30] podcast with that author and then thought, Hey, I should implement what we had said. It reminded me about the podcast and locking up my phone, but I just feel like our What about it? Well, just the [00:31:40] fact of how screwed up. The next generation coming is simply because of like us to some degree, but definitely the generation behind us to the point where young people, you'll text them [00:31:50] or email somebody and say, Hey, gimme a call when you have time.

Gary: And they text you. Yeah. It's like you can't follow a base instruction 'cause you just don't call. It's just something you're not really willing to do. You'd rather just not have the relationship. You'd rather not have the [00:32:00] job, you just don't even know how to communicate anymore. Yeah. Like there's some serious skills that are, that cannot be made up for through chat GPT and AI and other things.

Gary: Right.

Kyle: Even other [00:32:10] things. I was, I remember being at McDonald's a couple years ago and there was a couple in their sixties, uh, they looked like a more conservative couple and they were both

Gary: booked by its cover and they both had their phone. They

Kyle: were looking at their phone [00:32:20] just like. 60 years old. Yeah. Or I mean, that's what, I guess they were, they, they

Gary: looked pretty good.

Gary: I would say that generation to some degree is the worst with technology. Like the most addicted. Yeah. And just [00:32:30] don't even understand what they're doing. Like they're just like, you know, posting things on Facebook that just don't understand the ramifications. That's right. A publication and then every video

Kyle: they get it's probably real and truth.

Kyle: [00:32:40] Yeah.

Gary: Yeah. Or you just, you're sharing things and you're resharing things and you don't realize how much it shapes how people view you and your ca character where Yeah. You know, and it's more nuance than that. You know, a [00:32:50] lot of things that we read, we may say, Hey, I kind of agree with this, but what I go as far as to share the article with some of the other ridiculous things that says in it.

Gary: But I, yeah. Yeah.

Jason: I think I, I know [00:33:00] some people that, uh, they would much rather text and they will wait for hours for an answer rather than just pick up the phone and call somebody. And it drives me absolutely bonkers. Like, I'll just [00:33:10] pick up the phone, boom, boom, boom. I, I'll figure this out in 10, 30 seconds, 10 seconds rather than 75 text messages an answer, and they'll wait for hours.

Jason: And I'm like, oh, they didn't text me back yet. I'm still waiting. I'm like, [00:33:20] that's not an answer. That's not how it works. But some people just, I, I'm not sure what it is. I don't have that, but some people just,

Gary: do you voice to

Jason: text or do you just text? I do both. I started

Kyle: doing it [00:33:30] after you mentioned it on the podcast, went a little while ago.

Kyle: I actually do. Way more voice to text now. Made yourself a voice messages.

Jason: You do that too.

Gary: I I don't do that. People that do I get a real kick out of it. I have some people in my [00:33:40] life that do it.

Jason: Why

Gary: do you kick outta that? All women. I, except one, uh, Mexican guy. Okay. Everybody else is women And long, why do I not do it?

Jason: Yeah, [00:33:50] it's super fast. Like just like the audio message, right? You're saying audio file? Yeah. I can, I can tell you it would take me like a minute to text all this out and I can say it in five seconds.

Gary: So I do it by voice. Everything I [00:34:00] do, I never send a text message. That's not voice to text.

Jason: The problem is, is that.

Jason: There's a lot of clerical errors and sometimes you write stuff down. Yeah. And I can't even

Gary: say what one of mine was 'cause it's so [00:34:10] bad. But I did do one recently too. Wonderful lady. It was so awful.

Jason: Yeah. And then you wonder why you don't get a message back and you look back and you read it. You're like, Ooh, that is not what I was trying [00:34:20] to say.

Kyle: Yeah. Okay. Moving on mailbag question. I'm curious then what Jason thinks about this. Why is [00:34:30] insurance frowned upon in some of some church communities? So I didn't grow up with this, but I know this is a thing where, um, there's, I think it's more, it's [00:34:40] less of a thing now I think. Is it? Yeah. Where life, life insurance, but even No, any insurance.

Kyle: Any insurance. Even like car insurance. Yeah. Like home, uh, home insurance is [00:34:50] not, not okay because it's like you're not trusting God or something. Right. Because if he's gonna take care of you, then he'll take care of you. Is that the idea? That would be the idea, yeah. Okay.

Gary: Yeah, it'd be about trusting the sovereignty of [00:35:00] God.

Gary: Okay. Wonderful. It's similar to birth control, right? Be all along the same lines. Okay. Birth control or like, like condoms. Nothing. Yeah.

Jason: Yeah.

Gary: That's why they have 12 kids. Uh, that'd [00:35:10] be one of the reasons. I mean, there'd be many reasons if 12 children would be a real blessing too. So that'd be another reason 12 kids' really have much else to do in the wintertime.

Gary: But What's that? Hey, let's get back to [00:35:20] the insurance.

Jason: Yeah. So the insurance, I don't know, it's, it's exactly what Gary said, but I think in our communities, the most we're gonna see in our Dutch reform communities [00:35:30] is that I've ever heard of is the life insurance debate. Okay. I don't think I, I've never met somebody that's like, you, you have to put insurance on your car to drive it.

Jason: Everybody knows that. Yeah. But you [00:35:40] don't

Gary: have to have collision.

Jason: No, that's true. They would actually,

Gary: so they would say getting collision is sinful. Then I don't know. I've never asked somebody that pointedly, if they would say, I would assume if they're [00:35:50] not doing it, they would think it's wrong. What's the difference then?

Gary: It's, it's all just

Jason: levels, like we're okay with Yeah. This, because we have to, that's how

Gary: everything is if it's not black and white in scripture, right. I [00:36:00] mean, the minute you start pulling, uh, you start pulling, the minute you start creating rules that are not explicitly sad, you're

Kyle: mm-hmm.

Gary: I, I've struck often lately, [00:36:10] even through Christmas time, because we do so many things that are tradition and so many of the traditions are, I find are like, there's nothing wrong with them, but very quickly, everything we doing is just a tradition.

Gary: Mm-hmm. [00:36:20] And it's very easy to do. It's the human nature is kind of like to get in this rut. Yeah. So I think even these types of things, they became, they came from a place of kind of like, Hey, this is, [00:36:30] somebody felt strongly, probably a pastor, you know, was either trying to one up another pastor or just trying to be holier than thou or just, you know, follow the word of, let's put it in a more positive light.

Gary: [00:36:40] Follow the word of the Lord to the. Nth degree. Mm-hmm. And then quickly created things out of nothing, in my opinion. Right. I mean, the thing is with insurance is that, uh, and it would be the same on the, [00:36:50] um, the, going back to the infertility side or the mm-hmm. Birth control side, birth control side, however you wanna look at it.

Gary: Like, you know, would we agree that everybody that can't have [00:37:00] children is meant to have no children in their life? Like, would we, you know, you look in the Bible and there's like guys sleeping with the maid servant to carry on the family, and, you know, God [00:37:10] used those people. Like, it's just you, you really wanna be careful when you start getting into those weeds of mm-hmm.

Gary: Of God's sovereignty and playing. And I think with insurance, I, the reason that it always [00:37:20] struck me as, as, as, and I think it's probably fully, most people in those, in those circles would agree with this. They realize that they just have insurance from the church. Like it would be [00:37:30] like, oh, the church will look after you.

Gary: Well, now there's your insurance policy, so you're not like, unless you literally are just gonna suffer and you're gonna live without a house because you decided that God burned your house down and now you're gonna live without, like, unless you [00:37:40] take it all the way and fall all the way through. Now you're a hypocrite.

Gary: Now you're just in the spot of, Hey, I have people caring for me one way or another. Listen, we have a overarching medical system that has an insurance that we pay [00:37:50] into or a whatever it would be. And I, I think that would be the general consensus. Yeah. But I'm sure they wear seat belts. It's kind of insurance.

Gary: Ah. I think a lot wouldn't, but that's

Kyle: just, that's a whole different issue. That's kinda the [00:38:00] Sunday thing too. Like I remember growing up there'd be like, some families, like you guys are like biking on Sunday. It's like, bike was so okay. Or the trampoline wasn't okay. Or just like you just,

Gary: that was our, that was [00:38:10] our upbringing.

Gary: What, where it was the line was drawn there and it, yeah. Just had to be drawn somewhere. So that's where it was.

Kyle: Mm-hmm.

Gary: I dunno.

Kyle: But yeah, I mean like everyone has a different spot. It interesting. [00:38:20] Everybody has a different spot and I was been reading cautions a whole bunch, like I said last week. So I came across in Colossians two, 16 and 17.

Kyle: Um, so don't let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink or for not [00:38:30] celebrating certain holy days. New moon ceremonies or sabbaths for these rules are only shadows of the reality yet to come. And Christ himself is that reality. I thought it was interesting. [00:38:40] That verse

Gary: is not right

Kyle: enough. I can read it again if you want.

Kyle: Yeah, read it one more time. Okay. So Colossians 2, 16, 17. So don't let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink [00:38:50] or for not celebrating certain holy days like celebrating Christmas or not selling great in Christmas, or New moon ceremonies or sabbaths for these rules or only shadows of the reality yet to come.

Kyle: [00:39:00] And Christ himself is not, is that reality? I think, uh, I'm pretty sure that Paul, when he wrote this, is writing to, um, the church, um, and uh, where the Colossians were and [00:39:10] that a lot of 'em had Jewish backgrounds where they were, the Jewish backgrounds were all about all the different rules and everything had to be done perfectly.

Kyle: And, and so he's like, don't get hung up on those things. That's not what it's [00:39:20] about. And uh, and I respect anybody that wants to keep the Sabbath or whatever. I think it's pretty scary when you start condemning the people that aren't,

Gary: we're free in Christ. Yeah. [00:39:30] The other part I find fascinating. And I don't think it was ever, I don't remember it being, I don't think it's talked about enough in a lot of churches, is that the bulk of the people that Jesus really skewered was [00:39:40] the religious leaders.

Gary: That's right. I mean, we don't want to think that way because we get very uncomfortable and there's not hard rules. And I feel like even in my culture, the way I'm wired, it's like, Hey, it's just so much [00:39:50] easier. Even with my wife, I'm like, just gimme a list, gimme a, I need to check box, check the boxes. Right?

Gary: That's right. But that's just not how life is. Yeah. And I think that even our spiritual walk and as Christians, like, we're supposed [00:40:00] to be wrestling with stuff all the time. Yeah. And it's funny how we have created a culture of where, man, if you just do these certain things now you're okay. And that is very unhealthy.

Gary: Yeah. And Jesus predominantly went [00:40:10] after the religious leaders of his day.

Kyle: Mm-hmm.

Gary: And I wonder if that would be the case today. Right. Yeah. He wanted their hearts. Like he was,

Kyle: he was like, you guys, 10th, you guys tied the 10th of your mint gardens [00:40:20] while your heart is far from you.

Jason: Yeah. I, I think the key there is that we, we do need to wrestle with what we are doing with your Sundays.

Jason: We need to

Kyle: all, all of our days. All of our days. [00:40:30] Because it's like, it's like, what about your, like Tuesday evenings, are you only working or are you actually spending time with your family and shepherding them? Yeah. Or like, 'cause it's really easy to be like, oh, Sunday's really important, but the rest [00:40:40] of the day, that's all my time.

Kyle: No, all of it's cost time.

Jason: It is. We still have to decide as a family where we're at and instead of just doing willy-nilly whatever we should be [00:40:50] wrestling, you know, with, and, and I think there could be discretion in every family. For parents, there's that Christian liberty to figure out what they believe and, but, but then know [00:41:00] why you're doing it.

Jason: And know why you believe what you believe.

Kyle: Yeah. Yeah. Christian Liberty is a, it's a thing that I didn't really wasn't aware of [00:41:10] growing up. It was all black and white. This was wrong or this is right.

Gary: I guess on the flip side of the Christian liberty is how, and Paul talks about it a lot, but how are we caring for those that are the weaker [00:41:20] brother and the weaker person would be maybe the not, not, not to offend.

Gary: But the weaker person would probably be the one that is sensitive and maybe feel stronger about something. And can we be gracious in that? [00:41:30] And similar to the person, Hey, maybe we don't struggle at all with alcohol, but you know, our family member is really struggling with it. We should be able to let put it away, set aside our liberty of [00:41:40] drinking.

Gary: 'cause we have no problem with alcohol and be like, Hey. And I think that that's where we really struggle, right? We, we tend to flip flop on either side. And

Kyle: one, one of my, uh, bio story, uh, books for the kids, [00:41:50] um, has a, has a cool picture in there. I'll see if I can put it on the screen, um, later when we do the edit.

Kyle: Um, but it's, uh, a bunch of kind of disheveled guy looking, guys sitting in like a, I don't know. Crappy looking [00:42:00] area. Mm-hmm. Um, and uh, Jesus is sitting in the middle, um, and they're, it looks like they're talking to him. And then there's a brick wall in the back with a skinny, tall window, one of those like old, old, uh, [00:42:10] um, building looking things.

Kyle: And then outside the window you can see two guys in all black garb, you know, along black, um, flowing, you know, um, robes or whatever. Um, kinda leaning into each [00:42:20] other, whispering and pointing at Jesus. And those guys, um, and they're the, they're the Pharisees and it's about the peace in the Bible where the Pharisees go to Jesus and ask, why are you sitting with those sinners?

Kyle: And Jesus [00:42:30] responds, well, I didn't come for good people. I needed, came for people that know they're sick. Uh, and I love that piece, uh, of the Bible. 'cause I always identified with the people that were [00:42:40] screwed up, uh, even from, from, from a young age. Um, and, uh, the guys growing up, uh, were always the guys in the black suits and you know, like pointing and being like, those guys are bad.

Kyle: These [00:42:50] guys are bad. These guys are bad. I'm like, were they actually doing that? Or was that just your perception? 'cause of the. A lot of 'em were okay. Yeah. Okay. Interesting. It was, it was a lot of condemning about what was wrong. It [00:43:00] wasn't a lot of talking about what was Right. It's a lot easier to talk about what's wrong and what's right or what you should be doing versus what you shouldn't be doing.

Kyle: Um, yeah. Jesus came for, we, I mean that's [00:43:10] like, I think me and Jason were talking about earlier this week about ruins three. Like is your heart an open grave or not? Right? That's everybody's is. Everybody's is. Where do you live, Jason? [00:43:20] What town do you live in?

Jason: Noble Ford. Okay. Or just south of Noble. Yeah. So where do

Gary: you guys go to church?

Jason: Uh, FRC in Monarch Farm.

Gary: Okay. That's a pretty big church.

Jason: Yeah,

Gary: it's probably [00:43:30] there. How long have FC in North America, isn't it?

Jason: I think it is actually.

Gary: Yeah. How long have you been going there? Oh, 20 years. Oh, wow. Yeah. So you would've grown up there to some degree? Yeah, we, or where [00:43:40] did you come from before that?

Jason: Well, we, I think I was baptized here in the NRC. Okay. Uh, in Chillowak, and then my parents moved to Alberta. We attended the NRC there for a while. [00:43:50] Okay. And then we, uh,

Gary: in Noble for, or

Jason: no, I think in Lethbridge. I think it was just Lethbridge back then. Okay. This would be like the mid nineties. Okay. Um, and then at some point, I'm [00:44:00] not sure exactly how old I was.

Jason: My parents moved to the HRC in Fort McLeod, and then I think it was about 10 or 11 years old. When, when, when that church [00:44:10] kinda shut down or we left. Is there

Gary: No HRC in Southern Alberta? No. Okay. No, it,

Jason: yeah,

Gary: two middle of the road.

Jason: I'm not sure what it was. I was too young. I [00:44:20] know there was some things going on and whatever.

Jason: Churches, churches are messy, messy, messy

Gary: places. Yeah. Yeah. They really are. Churches

Jason: are full of sinners, full of broken people. We're sin. Amen. Broken, [00:44:30] broken people do broken things is what it boil down to. Okay. So you're at the Fear

Gary: Farm.

Jason: Nice.

Kyle: Talking about, uh, broken and, uh, being a [00:44:40] servant, loving other people.

Kyle: Elizabeth Elliot, you know who Elizabeth Elliot is? Yeah. Uh, wife of, uh, Jim Elliot, who was a missionary that went to some remote island [00:44:50] and, uh, as soon as you got got killed, got killed. As soon as you got there, got speared by a bunch of guys and she ended up going back and, uh,

Gary: very cool

Kyle: story.

Gary: Yeah.

Kyle: Pretty wild worth,

Gary: worth doing your homework on that story.

Gary: Yeah.

Kyle: Pretty special people. [00:45:00] He has that quote. Uh, he, he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.

Jason: Hmm. I love it. Which

Kyle: is on the wall here.

Jason: I love it.

Kyle: Um, yeah. Anyways, Elizabeth Elliot, so she went back actually [00:45:10] with, uh, some of the other wives of the guys that got killed and, and they went and, uh, reached those tribes with the gospel and a lot of 'em got saved.

Kyle: But gee has a quote, um, which I love. Uh, the best way to [00:45:20] find out whether or not you have a servant's heart is to see what your reaction is when someone treats you like one. You get that. [00:45:30] When someone treat, I fully understand it. Yeah. Does someone treat you like a servant? Hey

Gary: Gary, go, go grab this for me.

Gary: Yeah,

Kyle: exactly. What's your reaction are we like, ma, what do you Yes. Who might grabbed [00:45:40] up for you? Ma'am?

Gary: Yes, Marie.

Kyle: Yeah. Be like, love us. Uh, service Christ. Serve the church. Right. Love your [00:45:50] wife as Christ.

Gary: Yeah. Yeah. She's pretty easy to love. Yeah.

Kyle: Which I think is, that is pretty convicting. Uh, when you read that, you're like, okay, how do, yeah.

Kyle: How do I respond when, uh, when that happens? Because that's what we're called to be like. So [00:46:00] if we're responding with a bunch of arrogance, then we're like, oh, got some, uh, crap to work on. Heart change. [00:46:10]

Jason: Need to do some freedom sessions, maybe. Yeah.

Kyle: Yeah. How's Freedom Session going? Freedom Sessions going Alberta.

Kyle: And we can edit this out if you want me to, but you're doing it. So

Jason: Yeah. I'm, I'm, I'm among the first [00:46:20] group that's doing it. We're on week 11. That's awesome, man. It's been good to breaking me down. Is

Gary: it breaking you down?

Jason: Yeah, I, it showed me a lot of stuff doing the inventories and [00:46:30] especially writing it all down.

Jason: That, uh, some hard stuff, going through some of the stuff that, that the hurt and the pain. And, um, [00:46:40] the cool part is, is that you get to sit there with a group of guys and you all get to talk about it.

Gary: Completely honest. I realize that

Jason: I'm not the only guy struggling with this or [00:46:50] that. Um,

Gary: did you honestly feel like you were, did you, did you, because you had probably had pretty good level of openness with people?

Jason: Yeah, I, I've never really [00:47:00] shared the deepest, darkest, not the deepness. Okay. Like some places I had, so it wasn't the first place I'd opened up. Um, but yeah, it was, uh,

Gary: do you have an honest group? Do you [00:47:10] feel like you got an honest group? I think

Jason: pretty honest. Yeah. I think, uh, I think, I think, I think we've all gained a level of trust and so Cool.

Jason: And some of them maybe [00:47:20] have a little more to share and some don't. And yeah, it's pretty cool. It's, uh, it's pretty cool. Don't, I'm looking forward to that. Like I, I think week 11 and 12 is like at the bottom of the hole, and [00:47:30] hopefully we get to start coming up pretty quick. Yeah. Gary's one, there's a little tar on week 13,

Kyle: isn't there?

Kyle: That, uh, it's a

Gary: ways out. Yeah, no, it's good. Okay. It's good. Yeah, you're right there. You're [00:47:40] right there. But doing, yeah. So basically the minute you start doing step five, like if people actually do, if they do all their inventories honestly, and then do step five properly, uh, then you start to have some real freedom.

Gary: Right? Okay. [00:47:50] Step five, sharing with someone else. Right. Okay.

Jason: So is the, uh, shield inventory, which step is that then? That's four's. Those are all the inventories are step four, four, and then four is

Gary: a grind. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. [00:48:00] And it's, a lot of people quit. Yeah. People quit the whole journey. That's true. Yeah.

Gary: And it's interesting because people like you, you said, and I, I mean people. Again, you don't have to share everything with your group, right? [00:48:10] Mm-hmm. I think that's, that's actually one of the big reasons people won't do Freedom Session is because I, oh, I'm in a small group and I, you don't, you don't have to share everything at all.

Gary: You can be whatever level of honest you want. Mm-hmm. Um, what I find cool is how [00:48:20] honest people are in that group. Mm-hmm. Because o often people share everything in the group in their small group. Like, that's me, man. Do you? Yeah. But you know how much you're trusting these guys then. Yeah. And that's what's so cool, [00:48:30] right?

Gary: It is where you have, 'cause I don't know how your experience is, but for us in our, in the world we live in here, like how, how often are you doing life on day to day and being [00:48:40] really honest about the real stuff that's going on in your life. You just don't,

Jason: I'm, I'm learning to like, open up a little bit more.

Jason: Even with other people, those concrete truck drivers, you're just, you're just unloading 'em. They heard way too much on our [00:48:50] Christmas party. Might have had some encouragement there. A couple drinks and a few wobbly pop. Just let loose at the front with the micro microphone in your head too. Yeah. [00:49:00] So, yeah.

Jason: But

Gary: it's good. People need that, man. People do. People need that. People need somebody to lead by example and be vulnerable. And everybody wants that. People want deep [00:49:10] connection. People wanna know that no matter how screwed up they are, they're cared for and they're special and they matter. Right? It's mm-hmm.

Gary: Fascinating that we don't have that, especially in our Christian culture. We literally should be fostering that. [00:49:20]

Kyle: That's where a lot of places should be.

Gary: Well,

Jason: James, uh, five, I was talking about it this morning with Kyle, uh, confess your sins one to another and pray for each other that you may be [00:49:30] forgiven or healed.

Jason: I think healed. Healed. Um, that's pretty huge. You know, I look at the Southern Alberta [00:49:40] and like my own struggles with alcohol. I, you know, when growing up in the early teenage years, you looked at the older guys and they were always drinking and it was a fun [00:49:50] thing and it looked great and it was cool. And then I was 16 and I was drinking, and then I was 18 and drinking a lot more.

Jason: And every weekend and every night, and. All that and then [00:50:00] started a business and still drinking and then you have stress and then you're drinking because of the stress and you're drinking on the good days and the bad days and drinking to celebrate drinking the [00:50:10] horn. Oh, yeah. Oh yeah. It's, and and in an environment where, where there was a lot of drinking and, and yeah.

Jason: Still,

Gary: would you consider it an acceptable [00:50:20] drug of choice then? Absolutely. I would assume, especially in the culture area out there.

Jason: Yeah. The Dutch community, it's, it's actually wild. Like as soon as you step out of our Dutch community, it's like, [00:50:30] oh, you drink, or like, you have more, you drink that much all the time.

Jason: Yeah. You drink five and you drink and you smoke like that. Like come on. How do you do that to your body? Your buddy's a temple. [00:50:40] Yeah. Just don't have a tattoo.

Jason: Yeah,

Jason: yeah, yeah.

Jason: Interesting.

Jason: So it's kind of, I, I really know that, I mean, that's not totally

Gary: fair 'cause there are just a lot of cultures [00:50:50] that, but I, I, I do know what you're saying.

Gary: If you step into Christian community, that's not Dutch. They really scratched their weary head. That's right. Our friend Matt included, he's just like, man, you guys, how does this happen? You guys pound back [00:51:00] this. How, how is this lining up where you are so legalistic about other things, but you excuse the, the drinking drunken drunkenness.

Gary: Oh, absolutely. Because even we would all agree that there's nothing wrong with drinking. Yeah. At least [00:51:10] here it's

Jason: the drunkenness. It's the, it's the like, and, and it's there and it's like the community kind of just looks at it and says, well, you know, boys will be boys. [00:51:20] Let 'em get it out before they get married.

Jason: Stuff like that. Yeah. Their wife will straighten 'em out. Could you imagine? It's like,

Kyle: almost, almost. Don't want They do that too. Don't they? Like allow the rum springer, I think it's called. Oh, when they're, when they're young [00:51:30] kids, they're allowed to go out and get it all out of their system and then they come back and, oh, I

Gary: feel, I'm so scared when we talk like this about other faith groups and stuff.

Gary: No, they have this rum spring is a thing like,

Kyle: look it up. It's like a, it's a thing. [00:51:40] There's, there's like, last

Gary: week we butchered the Mormons. This week we're but butchering the Amish. This is butcher ourselves only. I, I'm just always a little scared to. Yeah, I would agree. You're [00:51:50] probably right. I just, I would agree.

Gary: Seems weird. I

Kyle: Yeah, did. It is.

Gary: It is just like what he's saying. It's weird, right? Like, yeah. Well, I think because there again, [00:52:00] when something's okay, and like, especially with drinking, it's like, where is the wine, right? Mm-hmm. Like it's such a personal, like it's.

Jason: Well, I'm especially '

Gary: cause some people, it's not about number of drinks you [00:52:10] have like, literally some people would have two drinks and be pretty intoxicated and the next guy's drinking a two, six or in a night and he's still walking.

Gary: Right. I actually actually did

Kyle: it the other night. So we had my, my family gift exchange. Oh [00:52:20] yeah. At, at my house. And uh, I was like, I got it. Like, make sure everyone's kind relaxed. So I said to Nicole, we're gonna do jello shooters. And so we made jello shooters, uh, with vodka. When everyone came, anybody came in, [00:52:30] everyone got a jello shooter and just got everyone into their work.

Kyle: Best family

Gary: function you ever had?

Kyle: Uh, I got some compliments. I mean, I didn't see anybody, uh, inebriated but acting outta hand. Yeah. You wouldn't wanna be wearing that. [00:52:40] Yeah. Saw a few people smile. That never smiled. No, I'm just kidding.

Gary: Were you looking in the mirror? Yeah,

Kyle: I had one of the guys tell me, uh, at the, at the shelter [00:52:50] recently, he's like, man, you never smile.

Kyle: I'm like, oh crap. Pretty strong resting bitch face resting.

Kyle: Yeah.

Jason: Anyways, but, but, but what I was getting at is that I think there's a lot of guys out there [00:53:00] that struggle with that alcohol or. You know, they get to my age or 30 or 40 and they're like, this is kind of a problem because I, I don't feel like stopping.

Jason: I don't wanna stop. [00:53:10]

Gary: Yeah. But

Gary: do people go to aa?

Gary: Like, would you by us recommend someone go to AA or not? I've been to AA in Lethbridge, so

Jason: Yeah, I haven't gone to aa, no. Um, I've, I've [00:53:20] considered it. I've got a friend, really good friend of mine that went and did it. Um, and I think he's like a hundred times better for it.

Jason: Okay. I love talking to him about it. Okay. He's [00:53:30] gained a lot of knowledge and, and introspection around it. Um, I think myself, my pride would hold me back. I can figure this out [00:53:40] on my, you heard with pride a little bit. A little bit.

Gary: I don't wanna be that guy. I love it. I love The Odyssey. That's awesome.

Gary: That's why most people wouldn't go, just so you know. Yeah. It'd literally [00:53:50] be the pride or the uncomfortableness. Yeah.

Kyle: We were talking about yesterday too, just about even like a church leadership, uh, about how like they never have any problems [00:54:00] and so you're not gonna go to them. If you have a problem, um, and how important it's to like, be wide open about that.

Kyle: And also also before they go in, like ask 'em [00:54:10] all the questions. Like, you know, be real. What are you struggling with? Because when we, me, me and Jason were talking about it yesterday when we saw 'em growing up and everyone had their crap together, well then [00:54:20] you start holding your stuff in. 'cause you know, you don't wanna be the odd mine out.

Kyle: And then mm-hmm. You end up being in a spot one day where you're in that position. Well, you're definitely not gonna be open then. No. And now you're all like in your forties to sixties [00:54:30] and everyone's like, has secrets that you're not telling, talking to anybody about. And so they're just Yeah. Just disaster.

Kyle: Any,

Gary: any organization, including a church, any organization, any business, [00:54:40] everything will stem from leadership. If the leadership is vulnerable, people will be vulnerable. Amen. And they, if a boss is a gentle person and caring [00:54:50] employees will be caring. If the guy, a slave driver, you're gonna create like leadership matters.

Gary: And that, that's why the, when you read scripture, that's why leaders. Are supposed to be [00:55:00] beyond or have a very tall order. I would, I mean, beyond reproach is scary. Most, most bo one is a

Kyle: dad. Yeah. Want gentle kids? You gotta be gentle. You want patient kids, you gotta be patient. It's, it all [00:55:10] stems from what we're doing, not what we're telling them to do, what we're doing, how we're acting with it, how we're acting, how we're, like, our words mean.

Kyle: You're acting. Yeah. My kids call me out [00:55:20] o often. Yeah.

Jason: One cool example of that is, uh, I recently heard of a, a church community that their, you know, their recent pastor was, uh, [00:55:30] you know, talked a lot about pornography and the evils of it and how it needs to be dragged into the light and all that stuff.

Jason: Talked about it quite a bit and but never really went [00:55:40] anywhere. And then the next pastor talked about his own struggle with pornography. And then all of a sudden, all these young men and these men start showing up and say, I need help. I need help. I need [00:55:50] help. And it was his vulnerability, his ability to say, I struggle with this.

Jason: And that's why people trusted to, to show up and say, Hey, I love that. I need help. Love that. So I think that's what we need to be as, [00:56:00] as men and leaders in our community to, uh, to say, Hey, I, I suck at this and I've done this. I've gone through this and I'm willing to talk to you about it.

Kyle: Yeah. Be [00:56:10] real. But our are kids too.

Kyle: I mean, we expect perfection from our kids and when they're in their twenties, they're not gonna come talk to us. Yeah. If we allow them to be, not be perfect [00:56:20] now, you know, like we want 'em to be excellent. Our kids,

Gary: man, they, they, uh, they just shoot. Right. Dad, you can, I, you

Gary: know, I can't be perfect. I'm a human.

Gary: I'm a sinner. That's what my kid, I got a [00:56:30] 6-year-old that ultimately talk about that

Gary: that way. Right. It's not to a agree. You do better. I say Right. Do better. Yeah. You say a lot of that. You say a lot of that too. I do a lot of that too. Right. Bit of gospel. Lot of empty, mostly [00:56:40] try harder. Yeah. A lot of empty.

Gary: I'm the king of empty threats. It's a disaster. Horrible parent. Failed threats. Fake threats. Anyways, anything you guys else you guys talk about? [00:56:50] Jason, you've probably listened to this once in a while. What is something that should be talked about more on the podcast? This is your chance to bring to light what you think.

Gary: Man, these guys well, yesterday doesn't listen that often. I [00:57:00] watched down corrected Listen a lot, but, but you have, and you're like, you quit listening for a reason. 'cause it was boring probably.

Jason: Oh, that's, uh, that's, people just wanna be entertained. Right? [00:57:10] I, I think just be authentic. Be real. Okay. You and, and I appreciate you guys both for that.

Jason: Yeah. 'cause you guys have been,

Gary: so if people are struggling with drinking in Southern Alberta, they're gonna come talk to Jason. [00:57:20] Come

Jason: talk to Jason. I've, I know he's right. He will drink with them. Yeah.

Gary: Or are you not drinking now?

Jason: Uh, I still am. Okay.

Gary: Are you gonna quit or not until you go to eight? I'm

Jason: figuring it out.

Jason: Okay, [00:57:30] fair enough. I'm working on it. Waiting until it gets back from Mexico. Yeah. I gotta go. We're doing a company trip to Mexico, so this is awesome. Maybe after that

Gary: you strike me as somebody that could be stone cold sober in [00:57:40] Mexico and be totally fine and have a fun time.

Jason: I would struggle. Yeah, I would struggle.

Jason: I feel like I'm not in the group. [00:57:50] Sit sitting outside, watching everybody else have fun. Uh, okay. That's lot of sense. That's why I love it. I gotta get in the group.

Gary: That's cool, man.

Kyle: Anyways, before we hop off, I just wanna give a shout out to [00:58:00] Mark VOR and VOR Contracting. Uh, he's helped me a bunch in the past and he's still on the notes here and I told him a few times I'd shout him out if people want to, uh, need a ultimate handyman and chillowak.

Kyle: Um, he's helped me a ton. He is [00:58:10] fixed my hot tub, built me bunk beds, built the studio, does full renovations, um, anything random and hard, he can probably do it. So he's a great guy. Reach out to just Google Network. We're [00:58:20] contracting his Instagram or, um, see if I can find his number here while we're still on it.

Kyle: He's got a good skillset. Yeah, he's just, everything's

Gary: a nail. And he's a hammer.

Kyle: Pretty much. Yeah. Yeah. [00:58:30] Uh, he's a here, uh, 7 9 1 6 0 4 7 9 1 78 98. So if anybody wants to use Mark, great guy. It's helped me out a lot. So, and,

Jason: [00:58:40] and if you're in BC and you wanna move to Alberta, where, you know, this guy's always blue and.

Jason: Mortgage rates are cheap and

Gary: oil and gas is, is literally pouring out of the ground and they're [00:58:50] just, oh

Jason: yeah. It's just the land of milk and honey oil prices. We're looking for more concrete truck drivers, so yeah.

Kyle: So reach out to me so I can, uh, connect you with Jason. Yeah. Get my cut. Yeah, I, yeah. Make

Jason: sure [00:59:00] Kyle gets his cut.

Jason: Yeah,

Kyle: couldn't help myself there. If you have any questions, send 'em in. You can do it anonymously on the website. Furious the curious.co. It's super complicated. [00:59:10] Gary hates it, but if you scroll to the bottom and you hit podcast question, you can send them in an anonymous, this, this person's

Gary: got the IQ of a small farm animal and they sent us a long anonymous rant, so it can't be that hard.

Kyle: Okay, let's start [00:59:20] there. Let's there. Thanks for listening. See you next week. Peace.

Kyle: Eh, there we go.

Gary: So it

Kyle: wasn't

Gary: that bad. No. Good. You did great. [00:59:30] It was, you did great. Did you know I crushed two drinks before this? Makes sense. Makes sense. You're, you're

Gary: rather got water there. No. Yeah,

Gary: well it [00:59:40] was, I drove ice cube

Gary: bat two whiskeys back.

Kyle: I, I said That's how you relax. He was nervous about it.

Kyle: I'm like, have a couple drinks.[00:59:50]

Gary: Yeah. First time Jeters. You're fine. You do not need to drink. Jason. You got a great, well, I guess you do 'cause you're drinking now. But [01:00:00]

Gary: yeah. I was like, oh, you're doing pretty good on the podcast here. Get

Gary: your shotgun.

Kyle: Should have pulled it out. You talk about it.

Gary: Very weird. Was it behind [01:00:10] me the whole time, I guess?

Gary: Mm-hmm. Yes. It's weird.

Kyle: It'll be fine. I was hoping I was gonna be able to use my old one that I sold you, but just happened to give him this one. Could have brought you there. [01:00:20] I was fine this morning. He is a great guy. You coffee them? Yeah. Good catch up. First time you used catch up. Caught up in a long time.

Kyle: I mean, we, we talk, I have to [01:00:30] call

Gary: him. All right. I

Kyle: check in on him.

Gary: I, I I, Dave takes a bit to get out his, uh, like where were you drawing there? [01:00:40]

Kyle: Just bunch of scribbles,

Gary: squares, mock follow, Merry Christmas, fleet Freedom Sabbath, Sunday.

Kyle: That's like my notes.[01:00:50]

Jason: So Gary, you run a whole whack of different businesses. I here. Yeah.

Gary: None of 'em really. Well, I I'd love to redo

Jason: that

Gary: same way you run yours just with [01:01:00] less capacity. 'cause there's too many, I mean, if you have key people that are in now, then you ideally would just buy yourself out of a job here pretty [01:01:10] quick, right?

Gary: Ideally you have to

Gary: want to.

Gary: Yeah, you have to want to. And maybe you don't need to. I, I'm just saying you can, if you have people that are invested and their [01:01:20] owners. And they're aligned and they're motivated. It's like, mm-hmm. So like one of my businesses, I had a meeting this morning for two hours with the guy right before I came here.

Gary: And, um, [01:01:30] he's runs one, runs one of my businesses, basically, like, he has a lot of control and he's, it's, I bought it a year ago and

Kyle: [01:01:40] I.

‍

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Is Insurance a Lack of Faith? (Dutch Reformed Debate) - The Briefcase & The Barn - EP 77

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