bite sized: be not afraid

Hey guys, what's up? It's Nate and it's time for another bite size. So if you've been watching slash, listening to us for any amount of time, you know that these bite sized segments tend to be well one, a little shorter as a usual. As a general rule, a bite size segment does tend to be a little shorter, but also they tend to be a little more freeform. Not as. And we don't, you know, full disclosure, we don't really script anything. A lot of it's just pretty conversational. We do have sometimes, not all the time. So sometimes we do have like notes and, and sort of an outline to, to work off of. But a lot of times with these bite size it tends to be a lot more stream of consciousness kind of or very loosely organized or I do like 18 million takes before I finally figure out how I, I want to say how I'm going to say what I want to say. Which is again, like I could probably just sit down, write down stuff for a few minutes and yeah, probably save myself a little bit of frustration. But that being said, it's a bite sized. And the working title for this one I'm going to say Be Not Afraid. Which depending on where this ends up going, you may say, Nate, that's not quite the best title you've ever had, but we are in the middle of spooky season. Like we're. By the time this airs it'll be smack dab the middle of, well, pretty much the middle of October. It'll be really close because I think, yeah, 31 days. So yeah, 16th is technically the very middle. But you know, so October 31st is Halloween, reformation Day. A little bit of calm A, a little bit of column B. It's also just like I said, it's spooky season. Like here at the the Breakdown we usually do what we call like spooktober. So we are, we do have like a spooky ish game to that. We're going to be doing an episode on here in the fairly immediate future. But that's not what I want to talk about. What I want to talk about is just sort of. Well, I want to talk about fear and I want to talk about horror and just some thoughts that I have on those two things. There's this devotional that I've been utilizing and I'm fairly certain that Akasha from the Discord was the one who had recommended it a while ago. I can't remember the title of this off. I could probably go to the room next door, get the book, look at it and tell you. But that's. I'm not going to do that because you know what? Just, you know, just will sort of set the hook. And if you want to find out what it's called, check back in next week because I'm probably going to talk about it for the full app. But it's a, It's a devotional. I also, I just, I do think it might be called Don't Look Away. But it's, it's a. It's a devotional that sort of leans into. To. And is utilizing the, the horror. The horrific imagery and actually some of the. The horror narrative found in the Bible. And I think that's, that's pretty. Because frankly, I do think we tend to sterilize a lot of biblical narrative. We've turned things like Daniel and the lion's den into almost a fairy story, like Noah's Ark. We wallpaper kids bedrooms with nurseries with Noah's ark wallpaper and stuff like that. And these are pretty horrific events. Like, these are God pouring out his judgment on humanity and hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people dying in the flood. And we don't know what the population was at that point in time, so. But the vast majority of life on Earth was just annihilated and drowning. I've got to be honest. Like, it's not. It's probably not one of my favorite ways to go, but like, to. To just think about theoretically. So there's that and I think it has been really interesting and I just think so that. That's kind of got me going. But we're also. Dude, it's. It's October, so the leaves are turning red and gold and they're falling off the trees. And it's really pretty, but it's also like, a little sad, a little like, kind of like morose. And we're right before, like the skeletal stage. So it's, it's sort of. There's still like a little bit of like, cozy vibes. But yeah, I just. It. Thematically, I always kind of. I do appreciate how October just does feel like Halloween does feel very appropriate for October just because of, like, the way the world is sort of like happen, like the, the way the seasons are happening, falling, whatever, you know, the way it's worked, the way that it just like, thematically, like, it checks out for me and I like that. And I think it just kind of makes sense now. I also recognize not everybody experiences autumn the way that I do. You know, my particular latitude and longitude and everything else like that. But. But, yeah, but also, like, this is a time of year where I actually sort of indulge in, like, spookier stuff as a general rule, with a little bit more frequency earlier, you know, sort of leading up to this month, I read. Well, listened to, but I had read it years ago anyways. But I listened to Stephen King's the Stand, and it's really hard to recommend that book because even though Stephen King is a really. He's probably. He's a really great writer, and I think the Stand is a really pretty phenomenal piece of fiction. There's also like, Stephen King does this thing where he likes to. He sort of likes to get a little perverse, a little gross, and there's a lot of stuff in there that I just wouldn't recommend to most audiences. Maybe you're saying, like, well, then why'd you read it, Nate? Well, it's like, well, one, I kind of forgot it was in there. But two, I don't know. I'm stupid. I don't always make great decisions. But, you know, one of the things I did really appreciate was just his portrayal of. You know, and this is. I guess we're going to do some light spoilers, but the primary antagonist, the villain of the book is a guy that goes by the name Randall Flagg. But he's also, you know, the. The man in Black, the Dark Man. He's got a bunch of pseudonyms, and he's actually sort of like. I don't know, like, I don't think this is that big a spoiler, but he's actually like a character shows up in several of King's books and he's sort of like. He's a demon, essentially. In the Stand, there's a character who says he's not Lucifer, but he knows him, and they. They keep company. And I don't know, I think that that was an interesting way to. But he's an ancient evil and just like the. The pettiness and the cruelty and the malice and kind of like at times the stupidity really REM Of Lewis when he's in Perelandra and the unmanned. Just kind of like there's kind of a maliciousness and a cruelty and. Yeah, anyways, I just like. It's a. It's a really interesting study, just. And like I said, Stings are Stephen King. Sting. Sting is a pretty interesting musician. I think he's still alive. I don't think Sting has died yet. I don't know. Anyways. But then. But Stephen King is a really good writer, but again, really hard to recommend him just because he's kind of skeevy, but. Yeah. But anyway, so it's like, it's Spooktober, you know, we're playing Dredge this year and so next week there's going to be an episode for you guys on that. And I think that'll be, that'll be a fun one. I have played it. I really enjoyed it. I have some thoughts and if you want to find out about those, as well as the actual name of that book that I was mentioning earlier, you can just listen next week and then you'll, you'll know those things instead of just sort of like speculating. Anyways, but here's, here's what I wanted to go. One of the other things, like I, and I've made no bones about it is like lately, within the last couple years, I've really gotten into sort of like Cryptids and Nephilim and all of that stuff. And this is actually kind of like one of my favorite times a year to sort of like dig into those. And maybe it's not the wisest thing in the world because, like, you know, as a kid I avoided horror as a general rule because I had a pretty overactive imagination. And I, I would say that it hasn't completely abandoned me. So like, sometimes these things get into my head and they don't leave me alone. But as I've spent time sort of studying these things and thinking about the very real threats that these, these preternatural predator natural adversaries present, you know, it kind of leads me to just some meditations about fear in general and frankly, some of the usefulness of it. So one of the things that I kind of wanted to. And this isn't gonna be super long because it's a bite size and because like, you know, I don't know that I have a ton to say here, but I actually think it's good for us to be afraid. And I think like, and I'm not talking about like the fear mongering that modern, the modern 24 hour news cycle or social media sort of engages in, where it's constantly feeding you things whether they're real or not to be afraid of. I'm talking about like just recognizing that the world is kind of a scary place. It's kind of a dangerous place. There was a Twitter account years ago that I used to follow. I think it was just called the World Our Nature is Scary. And it would just show you these insane, like, sort of natural creatures that were just like, wildly deadly or would sort of spit out, like, these factoids about, like, all the different ways that, you know, weather could kill you or whatever, you know, and it was just pretty wild. And it was a useful reminder because here's the thing. I think we live in a world, and I have a lot of thoughts about this, but I think pre Covid, a lot of us were really, really comfortable and we sort of lived under this illusion that we were way safer than we actually were. And we weren't. And I'm not going to get into the merits of the COVID threats, etc. Like, I'm, you know, but the fact is, like, the human experience is fragile. I actually, actually just this last weekend went to a funeral of a high school friend of mine. He was a couple years younger than me. And it was really sad. Now, granted, there's some mitigating circumstances and I'm not going to get into that, but, like, life is kind of fragile and as you get older, especially, like, you become just sort of disabused of the, like, you have this sort of like, this, this almost like, notion of your immortality when you're younger. And as you get older, you get really, like, pretty quickly, like, sort of like, nah, that ain't the case, friend. But the fact is, you know, I think. I think horror is useful in sort of sometimes reminding us that there are things in the night that go bump or that. I guess the way that people normally say things that things that go bump in the night, there are threats and dangers and there are monsters. Sometimes those monsters are sort of disguised as people. And I'm not talking about skinwalkers or anything like that, of course, like, that's something totally different and also pretty spooky. But I'm talking about just people whose moral compass has just completely like, they're just their, Their. Their consciences. Their consciences. Their consciences. I hate that I say I'm saying that word. Their conscience is completely seared and that it just like, you know, they've been given over to their own appetites. You know, I think one of something, you know, Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker was sort of like. It was absolutely like he crushed it. But it was also, like, kind of terrifying because there was like, he was demonstrating an individual who's just completely untethered and just sort of lives by just malicious whim. But. And those are. That's a threat. That's a reality, I think that we need to be aware of and sort of think about from time to time. But I think it's good to get those reminders that, like, maybe we aren't as safe as we think we are. Now, I'm going to say all that. Right. But what I'm going to sort of follow up with is that, like, ultimately, I think for the believer, we know that Jesus, you know, the God man, the king of the universe, has his head, has his foot firmly on the serpent's head, and that all evil, all wickedness, all maliciousness, you know, will ultimately answer to him. And none of that happens without him allowing it. And so for believers, you know, there's a peace that surpasses understanding. But I think sometimes, yeah, it's just. But that doesn't change the fact that sometimes those threats are there and that maybe we need to think about those things and plan accordingly. Yeah, it's like even some of the diaconal work I've had to sort of engage in lately has actually really challenged me to think about maybe some. Some realities that I'd rather not. And, you know, I'm not going to get into the specifics, but all that. All that I'm saying is that I really think that, yeah, there's. There's a usefulness. And I think, like, you know, I don't think it's. It's useful to be obsessed. Like, I think there are some people who sort of like one. If you're one of those people that sort of like, makes Halloween, like, your whole identity, like, that's, frankly, that's. That's really lame. I think Halloween is a lot of fun. I like spooky season, dude, and I love candy, you know, I'm also not opposed to Reformation Day, to celebrating Martin Luther having, you know, nailed a 95 theses to the door. But I think, like, this time of year, it's a useful prompt for maybe to think about, like, just the reality of that stuff and how these things are dangerous, how they do present threats to our physicality. And ultimately, like, we know that nothing happened. Like, you know, it's like one of those things where we can rest confidently in the fact that, you know, all things work for the good of those who love him, you know, and all things work for the good of God's people and for his glory. And so we can take peace and we can take comfort in that. But I do also think it's. It's useful and it's helpful to sort of maybe think about things and sort of weigh them seriously and just sort of. Yeah, it's okay to Be afraid. Not in a way that paralyzes you, but maybe in a way that provokes you to think and maybe to prepare again. Not to, not to terrify you, but also like ultimately you can take all of those things and you can sort of lay, lay all of the anxieties and all the worries at the feet of mighty King Jesus because he's got it. Like. So yeah, this, it's. It's kind of tempting this time of year to maybe like go down rabbit holes like. And I love it. Like, listen, full disclosure, like I'm getting caugh caught up on like Haunted Cosmos stuff right now. I might go back and listen to some of their scarier stuff just because I kind of like it. Like I, I kind of like being scared, like spooked out. Like I, I like getting a little bit of the heebie jeebies right now. But I think what's more important is that like when I'm done sort of getting like, you know, the willies, right, I can turn around and I can praise, praise God for his. His generosity and his kindness towards me and for his provision. So yeah, anyways, all that being said guys, like this is. This film was gonna be kind of loosey goosey. So. Yeah, anyways, yeah, so be scared but not too scared and actually just be not afraid. Like. And that's so corny and I hate that I said that, but it's true because yeah, most cliches are. But anyways, you know the deal. You guys know the things, do the things and until next time, I'll. Well I'll just, I'll see you next time later.