I Still Wrestle With God

MichaelYou got a minute to talk about stuff? About what? Well, I'm here to talk about abortion or Christianity. Or if you wanted a different topic, I'd talk to you about it. life. But you know, I'm really here trying to talk to people about abortion and find out where you're at. Like if you're pro-abortion, we can talk about why. If you think you're against abortion, we can talk about what would be a good strategy to fight it. Where do you stand? No opinion. You don't have any opinion on it?

NoahMy opinion don't matter. We live in a fucking country that's full of illusions. You have self-beliefs, I believe in those, but at this point, like when it comes to voting I'm done. I'm done. How can you run on certain things, get voted on certain things, and not be held accountable to have those things done, to go against them? You know, I fought for this country. I'm done with the whole BS. I mean, you can go back to 9-11, you can do all that stuff. You know, I was all gung-ho. You know, shit, I started college back here in 01. I've been doing this for a long time. Then raised a family, now I've got a chance to come back and do it again. And the more opinions I have, the more I feel like it doesn't do me any justice. I coach for my influence. I've coached for 20-some years. This is probably the first year I haven't coached. Coach

Michaelwrestling or

Noahother sports? I've coached a bunch of sports, but wrestling predominantly.

MichaelSo you would believe that we have, in a sense, like an illusion of influence now with our abilities to vote. You don't think any real change happens? No,

NoahI think there's a unit party for the most part. When it comes to abortion, things along those lines, I mean, do I think it should be taxpayer funded? Hell no. You know, if I looked at the collective, I personally think it's wrong. Yeah. Thank you. Things that are out of my control.

MichaelI hear what you're saying. To an extent. And I do hear what you're

Noahsaying. And I don't know where. I'm like, now I'm at that point where I'm divided on how much I go into a certain argument or opinion for the struggle of what I believe. Now, if I'm coaching a kid and I have buy-in, you know, and I've built relationships with them, then that's usually where I start, personally. Yep. Do I believe everything Charlie Kirk said? Yeah, I can see from my perspective. I'm a big fan of that stuff in my right wing. I believe the whole system is made to create hypocrisy, if that makes sense. I do this, a lot of stuff. My father-in-law is a big socialist.

MichaelOh, okay. So we have some great discussions.

NoahI honestly think we want the same thing. We want different ways to get there. Does that make sense? Because when I get and dig and dig and dig in our discussions, they're not different. But the talking points are. Does that make sense? If we live in a free country, where does it start, where does it end when it comes to freedom?

MichaelWell, and that's where I think we need to invoke God's name. You know, because we all want, we'll say peace and freedom, but... Where's that start, stop? Yeah. Based on the freedom to choose, right? I mean, what is faith? What's the hope versus the unhopeful? Yeah, and we all agree with living in a nation with laws, though. So even the people that would say they, you know, the people that say they want reproductive rights, so thus they want abortion. So they would claim to be kind of liberal. We want more freedom, they'd say. But in reality, they want certain other things restricted. So we all kind of make up our own sets of laws. There's no vacuum of that. And so the only law that makes sense is God's law. And so we need to be able to say this is what God has said is right and wrong. And that's what government needs to hold people accountable to.

NoahWell, I mean, there lies a divide on that, right? Because perspective driven of what, I mean, so when you look at the prejudice side of stuff and you bring religion in, all religion believes that there's something. They all believe different ways to get there. They all believe in different avenues. You mean there's only one way?

MichaelAbsolutely, there's only one way, yeah. There's

Noahthe human

Michaelconcept. Well, it's not a human concept. That's how it is. The human concept is many ways. The way that God has said it is there's one way. Jesus proclaimed that there's one way, and it's through him. And I want to get back to some stuff you said earlier about how you influence people. I think you're on the right track that we want to influence people in our local circles. Right. Once you win them a little bit, too, sometimes they'll listen to you more. But at the same time, I have a confidence in not in our government. I'm sort of with you with the way government works here. But I have a confidence that through even just these single conversations, you know, with a guy like you, that if I can get people thinking God's thoughts, God has the power to actually change our culture from from our hearts.

NoahYeah, but I mean, I understand strike up conversation, but, you know, the Holy Spirit takes control of that. I mean, we can gather and surround ourselves with people that are like-minded and people that hold us accountable and could be yes people. But I mean, you also have the evils of Christianity as well with the Jones deal. I mean, all these cult-driven things that were based off underneath Christianity,

Michaelnot because Christianity is bad. Yeah, humans. Humans have perverted every good thing that God's given into something else. They know not what they do. How much? Where does that start and stop? I have no clue anymore. I've seen death, and I've seen the most evil things that I've ever thought I would do, and it's taken me 20-some years to get back to a place of peace. So are you a Christian? You'd be born again Christian?

NoahI have. I used to run a youth program. Okay. Youth ministry. So you trust Christ

Michaelas your Savior.

NoahYeah, I have a lot of questions still. Yeah? Yeah. Anything? I still wrestle. Yeah, anything? I still wrestle with God. You wrestle spiritually. I still wrestle.

MichaelThat's what Jacob did, right? He wrestled with God in Genesis. For sure. And he was given the name Israel. Oh,

Noahyou got to go? No, I'm just making sure I got an exam. Well, here's the thing. It's one thing to have some questions because we don't understand, and a lot of what God does is mysterious. It's above our ways of thinking. It's another thing to have questions that are of the nature of

Michaeldoubting God's goodness.

NoahWell, I don't know if I doubt God's goodness. I doubt man behind the push of God's plan when God's plan is already set. Does that make sense? I know what you're saying, but... But again, I'm not trying to... I don't ever really talk to people about this stuff. You know, maybe people, you know, like this conversation, somebody, you know, brings it up, but that's

Michaelmy own wrestle. That's my own battle for the fact that I'm digging deeper for my own answers. I'm not just taking things at face value. It's not a blind faith for me anymore. It's more of a... Sure. No, that's good. You know, so... But here, I want to give you my... But believe me. I want to give you my card. Believe me. This has a couple of

Noahwebsites. We've been pretty close.

MichaelYeah, this has a couple of websites that I run that'll have some answers for you, and I'd be happy to keep talking to you after today. What's your name?

NoahNoah, my name is Michael. What I want to encourage is that if it's here you are, you're wrestling with with thoughts about God and you're you're going to a university where you take a test and you can you can have these thoughts even about your own government. And there's a freedom you're enjoying because. Yeah, for sure. And believe me, the anarchy that people claim they want

Michaelto break down the system. Believe me, I'll come out on top. I know that. But people won't. I'll be hurt. I mean, you know, when we talk about, when I talk about the evil and the pain that I've seen, now I'm bringing my kids and my wife and things that they've never, they're going to lose their innocence based on what's going to happen. Well, but I want to, I just want to challenge you that the freedom you and I enjoy to like just have this conversation about it, The children that are being murdered every day under the cover of law in our society, they don't have that freedom. And if you and I were the ones,

Noahlet me finish, let me finish, if you don't mind. If you and I were the ones that were being persecuted and attacked, we would want somebody who to fight for us if we were voiceless. And so I want you to think about the fact that you're probably right about your morals. Hopefully you're truly saved by grace through faith. And if you're not, you're wrestling with it. You're going to get there. There's two parts. You have faith. You have good works too. Well, the good works follow faith. The good works follow it. No good works, you don't have

Michaelfaith. Yes. So you have to follow your faith with your good works. They go hand in hand. And everybody wants to save it. And that's what I'm challenging. That's what I'm going to challenge you

Noahabout. People water it down with just saying, hey, I have faith and I'm saved. And well, well, there's there's there's limits to that. And that's but that's why I'm but that's exactly my

Michaelpoint is while you're enjoying the freedom that Christ has given you. You're not you're not speaking up for those that don't have a

Noahvoice for themselves. I'm enjoying. So this is this is your chance. Not my mom. Yeah. And you can go already set in stone. That's my issue. But you you could be you could be like standing

Michaelnext to me next time. talking to people about changing their mind about abortion, helping protect the innocent. And that's a good work that God has foreordained that we should do.

NoahWhich is fine. I don't know where I'll be in ten years, but I know for me... I want you

Michaelto think about it becoming your battle. I'm still

Noahclimbing out of the grave, baby.

MichaelWell, hey, any questions, let me know. I've got the blog. Happy