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What Bono Has, C.S. Lewis Predicted, and Most of Us Are Missing
Have you ever wondered why the Bible doesn’t always make sense, even after years of reading or attending church? In this episode of Seek Go Create, host Tim Winders kicks off a five-part series exploring the real story behind the pages of scripture, and why true understanding requires more than just effort or hustle. Drawing inspiration from C.S. Lewis, Bono, and his own life journey, Tim invites you to discover what it means to move from striving and performance to genuine peace and transformation. If you've ever felt stuck or confused in your faith, this conversation will give you fresh courage to explore what might be missing—hint: it’s not “trying harder.”
"What if the thing you're missing isn't more effort, but just having more peace?" - Tim Winders
Access all show and episode resources HERE
Reasons to Listen:
- Explore Why the Bible Often Feels Confusing: Tim Winders shares his own journey of struggling to understand the Bible, even after decades in church, offering fresh insights into why scripture sometimes doesn’t make sense—and what to do about it.
- Discover the Life-Changing Concept of the “New Man”: Drawing inspiration from C.S. Lewis and a recent interview with Bono, this episode digs into powerful ideas about identity, transformation, and finding true peace rather than endless hustle.
- Get a Candid Look at Faith “Unlearning”: Tim opens up about losing everything, walking away from hustle culture, and the process of unlearning religious habits to finally discover what the Bible’s story is really all about—paving the way for listeners to reflect on their own spiritual journey.
Key Lessons:
- Striving vs. Abiding - Tim shares his personal journey from living in “hustle culture”—believing success comes only through striving and effort—to discovering the power of peace and abiding. Sometimes, what we’re missing in life and faith isn’t more effort, but a deeper sense of peace.
- Identity Over Performance - A recurring theme is the difference between basing your value on performance versus identity in Christ. Tim highlights that many of us, even in spiritual pursuits, get caught up in proving ourselves, when the biblical message is really about transformation—becoming a new creation rather than simply improving the old self.
- Unlearning in Order to Re-Learn - Despite decades of church involvement and biblical study, Tim realized he didn’t fully grasp the Bible’s overarching story. Real growth began when he allowed himself to unlearn surface-level interpretations and prosperity-focused readings, creating space to rediscover the true narrative of scripture.
- The “New Man” Concept - Drawing inspiration from C.S. Lewis’s “Mere Christianity” (specifically the concept of the “New Man”), Tim explores the idea that genuine transformation in Christ isn’t about minor self-improvement, but becoming a whole new version of ourselves—calm, secure, and truly at peace.
- Scripture Should Lead to Peace, Not Pressure - Tim emphasizes that misunderstanding our identity leads to faith feeling like pressure and obligation. When we really understand who we are in Christ, scripture becomes a source of peace, not stress—and the Bible’s story shifts from being a book of rules to an invitation to personal and spiritual transformation.
Episode Highlights:
00:00 Introduction to the Series
00:24 The Journey of Understanding the Bible
03:04 Setting the Stage: Location and Setup
04:41 Personal Journey and Struggles
05:24 The Turning Point: Bono and C.S. Lewis
11:33 The Concept of the New Man
24:25 Contrasting the Old and New Man
27:54 Conclusion and Next Steps
Resources for Leaders from Tim Winders & SGC:
🎙 Unlock Leadership Excellence with Tim
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Transcript
Hello everyone.
Speaker:Tim Winders here.
Speaker:Welcome to episode one of what's gonna be a five part series, and this
Speaker:one's titled I'll Get to all this later, what Bono has or seems to have.
Speaker:C. S Lewis predicted and most of us are.
Speaker:Missing.
Speaker:Yeah, that's a little bit of a teaser here for the first episode, and a lot
Speaker:of themes we're gonna be looking at here, identity versus performance.
Speaker:Talking about the new man that CS Lewis discussed in his book, mayor
Speaker:Christianity, and why this matters for us and sort of my journey that I've been
Speaker:on for the last two or three years in.
Speaker:Trying to be clear on what this book here, for those people that might
Speaker:be watching on the video, the Bible really means, and this is coming from
Speaker:someone who's been reading it and thinking, I've been studying it for
Speaker:30 plus years and coming to terms with just really over the last few years,
Speaker:Understanding it more, maybe not completely, but more, but let me tell
Speaker:you what this season is all about.
Speaker:and it sort of revolves around this question of what if the thing you're
Speaker:missing isn't more effort doing more hustling more, but just having more.
Speaker:Peace.
Speaker:That's sort of the opposite of what we're taught in the world we're in
Speaker:today, but it's what we hear about in the Bible and scriptures and
Speaker:something that I've been walking out really more over the last few years.
Speaker:I don't think I've arrived.
Speaker:And the second thing, I guess the question is, what if the confusion you feel about
Speaker:maybe your faith or life or things that are going on, the surroundings, what's
Speaker:happening in the world, it's because you've been trying to become something
Speaker:that God never asked you to become.
Speaker:And so we're gonna talk about that a good bit in not just this episode.
Speaker:But this next five part series and this series is, I'm titling it Why The
Speaker:Bible doesn't Make Sense Yet, and it's a five part journey through confusion,
Speaker:context, and what I'm calling Kingdom.
Speaker:Clarity.
Speaker:If you've ever felt stuck in your faith or unsure about maybe what scripture
Speaker:means or there are just certain chunks of the Bible that you go, I don't know
Speaker:what is going on there, what it really means, you're in the right place.
Speaker:That's what we're gonna be discussing here.
Speaker:'cause that's where I was a few years ago after I had gone to Bible school,
Speaker:after I had attended churches and studied for a large portion of my life.
Speaker:And in many ways I almost disconnected from a lot of that and just spent
Speaker:quiet time studying, being at peace and rest, and learning more about
Speaker:what the story of the Bible really is.
Speaker:So I wanna welcome you to this series.
Speaker:As I said earlier, I'm Tim Winders.
Speaker:This is my walk from striving to abiding, from making scripture
Speaker:fit to letting it speak.
Speaker:So, let's begin.
Speaker:Let's get started.
Speaker:Most of you know I typically broadcast, or I typically share my episodes
Speaker:and do our interviews from the RV, from our moving and mobile office.
Speaker:Theo that we've named our rv, but, not now, not for this series.
Speaker:I believe, and maybe not for the next few interviews I'm gonna be doing, I'm
Speaker:actually in a location in the Atlanta metro area where I'm doing some work.
Speaker:More and more I'm traveling in and out of here.
Speaker:So I've set up in a spare bedroom.
Speaker:I've got some shelves with some.
Speaker:I guess just some props behind me.
Speaker:'cause these aren't necessarily mine.
Speaker:I'm gonna be adding my books and all of these shelves over time.
Speaker:I do have my studio set up here and I'm still sort of getting used to it.
Speaker:So you're, you're stepping into it just like myself.
Speaker:But, welcome into the, Atlanta Metro version of Seek, go Create studios.
Speaker:I think we're gonna have fun with this because I'm actually gonna be
Speaker:setting up here over to my right.
Speaker:I guess it'll be your left.
Speaker:There's gonna be a place where I could do in person interviews
Speaker:and I'm hopeful to do that.
Speaker:I think that's gonna be fun.
Speaker:I just wanna mention for those that might be going, wait, where's the rv?
Speaker:He's not in the RV currently as I'm recording this, the RV is still located
Speaker:in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
Speaker:I'm in the Atlanta area and my wife Gloria is here with me for the next few weeks.
Speaker:Then we'll be flying back to, South Dakota.
Speaker:So that's kinda what's going on.
Speaker:But let's dive in.
Speaker:This is.
Speaker:Kind of an important, I guess topic for me.
Speaker:I have been not wrestling with it, but I've just been wondering how I wanted
Speaker:to share this part of my journey.
Speaker:You know, seek, go Create is really a journey type podcast.
Speaker:That's what we talk about when we interview guests, and it's really been
Speaker:my journey now for 300 plus episodes.
Speaker:And this next series, or these next few episodes are really me trying to
Speaker:capture what I've been through, what I've been journeying, or the path
Speaker:I've been going down for the last really 3, 4, 5 years, but for the
Speaker:last two years, really, really strong.
Speaker:With just coming to understand things a little bit more.
Speaker:And the cool thing about this episode is it's kind of come to a head with
Speaker:a recent podcast that I listened to with Bono on Joe Rogan's podcast.
Speaker:I recently read Mayor Christianity from CS Lewis, and it kind of gave me the.
Speaker:Theme that I want us to begin with as we sort of travel down this
Speaker:path that I've been going down.
Speaker:So, so we're starting with this, we're starting with Bono Cs Lewis,
Speaker:the Bible, and, we're gonna, we're gonna have some fun with it.
Speaker:Many of you may or may not know my past is that I've always been, I've
Speaker:kind of told people I'm a child of the sixties and seventies and I came.
Speaker:To my work, I guess my work world and all kind of came into being in the eighties.
Speaker:In the eighties.
Speaker:For those of you that might be young and don't remember,
Speaker:it was the go go go eighties.
Speaker:there was a movie called Wall Street.
Speaker:Gordon Gecko was in that movie There was a statement that he made
Speaker:that's, greed is good, and that was sort of the way that I lived.
Speaker:I was gonna be successful, I was gonna make money.
Speaker:I probably had a. Bit of a spiritual foundation from people that had
Speaker:been praying for me over the years, grandparents and things like that.
Speaker:But I was just going to be successful.
Speaker:My college life, what I wanted to do, the work I wanted to do was all
Speaker:about succeeding and much of that revolved around financial success.
Speaker:And I was going at it.
Speaker:I would, would've been a definition if you looked in the dictionary
Speaker:under hustle, culture or hustle.
Speaker:That would've been me in the eighties, nineties, probably into the two thousands.
Speaker:And I was just striving to succeed.
Speaker:I wanted to impress.
Speaker:I wanted to make my mark.
Speaker:I wanted to perform, I wanted to produce, and I was doing that even after I came
Speaker:to know Christ in the early nineties in ministry and even in leadership.
Speaker:I was still striving.
Speaker:I mean, even when I knew that Jesus said My peace.
Speaker:I bring and give to you.
Speaker:I still felt like if, if it was to be, it was up to me.
Speaker:I mean, I was chasing, and some of you may be able to relate to that.
Speaker:I mean, I was just go, go, go.
Speaker:I would convince myself I wasn't tired and exhausted.
Speaker:I was living off of adrenaline and all of that was fine and good.
Speaker:I mean, I had some ups and downs along the way.
Speaker:Worked corporate for a while, had my own business.
Speaker:We had our own businesses in the early two thousands, but I could tell you
Speaker:when it started unraveling, it started unraveling in 2008 when multiple companies
Speaker:that we had all in real estate, we were living in a big house, thought we were
Speaker:doing well, all that kind of stuff.
Speaker:When all of that stuff, I realized that I. Couldn't do what I wanted to do.
Speaker:I couldn't impress, I couldn't just hustle my way out of things.
Speaker:I couldn't do it under my own power.
Speaker:I realized as I sort of hit a wall and financially we went, went
Speaker:through bankruptcy, I had burnout.
Speaker:I questioned a lot of things.
Speaker:I questioned a lot of things spiritually.
Speaker:I. I say I spent a lot of time in prayer.
Speaker:It was probably a lot of whining and just crying out to the Lord.
Speaker:I hit a wall and most people have hit a wall.
Speaker:You know, there's the theme that I've seen as I do a lot of
Speaker:interviews on seek, go create of people making significant change.
Speaker:In their lives only after some catalytic event.
Speaker:Well, my catalytic event was 2008, roughly to 2012, 13, where we went through
Speaker:this slow downward spiral of losing our home, becoming homeless, going bankrupt
Speaker:financially, not knowing What we were going to do, and that is when we, left
Speaker:our home of 6,000 square feet ish, whatever, and moved into a Honda van.
Speaker:I only mentioned the size of the house, to give you the perspective
Speaker:of going from big to extremely small, putting a few things in storage.
Speaker:Thankfully we had some family that helped us out to keep us
Speaker:from just being totally destitute.
Speaker:But, we just hit the road and traveled and did that for a few years.
Speaker:Then went to Bible school for a few years, and then financially
Speaker:we were doing much better.
Speaker:and then, my wife said we should move into an rv.
Speaker:So that's kind of the story that led to the rv.
Speaker:But what happened during that time after oh eight?
Speaker:It forced me.
Speaker:I was forced to slow down and reevaluate everything,
Speaker:including how I understood this.
Speaker:I'm holding it up for people in the, on the, uh, that are listening in,
Speaker:but for people watching the video.
Speaker:I had to rethink how I understood the Bible because what I had been doing
Speaker:up to that point, and really up until just a few years ago, is I would
Speaker:dive into the Bible and I would look for the formulas that would help me.
Speaker:I. Succeed that would help me be successful.
Speaker:I mean, I had a pretty healthy background in the Prosperity Gospel and that's, you
Speaker:know, kind of the base and foundation of that is taking scriptures and
Speaker:trying to use them for your success.
Speaker:It's a lot more than that, but that's what I was doing.
Speaker:And the reason I bring it up is I know a lot of people do that.
Speaker:I believe modern churches.
Speaker:Most of them, I believe, and especially in, Americanized or westernized
Speaker:churches, they really have that prosperity gospel baked into them.
Speaker:And so I think a lot of people deal with that.
Speaker:I'm gonna talk about the journey that I went through and some of the
Speaker:realizations that I came to just from a spiritual foundation in some
Speaker:of the episodes that are coming up.
Speaker:But what I wanna do here is I want to, I. I wanna kind of begin as
Speaker:Covey would say with the end in mind.
Speaker:And so the best description I've seen of the end is what CS Lewis
Speaker:describes in Mayor Christianity.
Speaker:Now, not too long ago I decided to read Mayor Christianity and
Speaker:my wife Gloria loves CS Lewis, and I don't dislike CS Lewis.
Speaker:It's just.
Speaker:Man.
Speaker:He is, he is rich with his language.
Speaker:And, and I, I've tried to read through the Narnia stories.
Speaker:You know, he wrote The Chronicles of Narnia, which are famous, I guess
Speaker:in the, in the circles of fiction and also in spiritual fiction world.
Speaker:But I, I just can't quite get.
Speaker:Through those and, and glory.
Speaker:My wife says, you need to read CS Lewis because of this and
Speaker:his understanding and his depth.
Speaker:And I don't disagree with that.
Speaker:so what I did was, sometime back I decided I was gonna read, mayor Christianity.
Speaker:Got a copy of it right here, mayor Christianity.
Speaker:Which is sort of foundational.
Speaker:It's not a fiction book like, the Chronicles of Narnia.
Speaker:But what I wanted to do is I was just gonna go through it.
Speaker:I was gonna read a chapter a day, meditate on it, think about it.
Speaker:And I did that.
Speaker:For those that may not be aware mere Christianity, Is a book that CS Lewis,
Speaker:it's a book that came from some talks that he did during World War ii.
Speaker:He's British and Britain, the islands were being bombed by Germany much of this time.
Speaker:There was a lot of fear, there was a lot of things going on.
Speaker:And I think what he was doing was, some of those talks that he did on the radio
Speaker:was just trying to make sense of it.
Speaker:trying to project some peace and all for people, I believe
Speaker:is what he was trying to do.
Speaker:I'm, I think I've read that history.
Speaker:And so I enjoyed it because they took those talks and then
Speaker:put them in a book or he did.
Speaker:And then, so that's the book, mayor Christianity.
Speaker:But I really, I didn't enjoy it like I believe I should until the last
Speaker:chapter, which is titled The New Man.
Speaker:And I'm going to get to that in just a moment and talk more about it.
Speaker:But when I read that chapter, Bells went off in my head and I went, that is my
Speaker:goal, is to be what he's talking about.
Speaker:That's what I've been seeking.
Speaker:That's what I've been searching for.
Speaker:That's the feeling, the nourishment that I want to have in my soul
Speaker:is what he describes there.
Speaker:And I'll talk about it more in just a moment, but let me mention the second
Speaker:thing that I wanna talk about in this.
Speaker:A few weeks ago, I listened to Joe Rogan from time to time.
Speaker:I don't listen to all his stuff, but I, I love what he's able to do with a.
Speaker:Three, three and a half hour interview.
Speaker:I wish I could do those.
Speaker:I wish I could have guests that we could just talk and go into depth.
Speaker:Because one of the things I don't think you could do with a long form interview
Speaker:is I don't think you could hide.
Speaker:I think that.
Speaker:Who you are can be flushed out.
Speaker:I don't think you could pretend for that period of time.
Speaker:but Bono was on Joe Rogan, and I've always been intrigued by Bono.
Speaker:he's one that years ago, I mean, I love his music.
Speaker:I'm a child of the eighties and all that.
Speaker:When U2 and the Bandies in were becoming popular and doing well,
Speaker:and a few years ago I did see.
Speaker:U2 on their Joshua Tree tour where they did the entire Joshua Tree album.
Speaker:Streets With No Name and all those cool songs.
Speaker:They did that in Concert Live.
Speaker:That was really, really cool.
Speaker:Saw those in stadiums.
Speaker:So I like Bono, but I, I've never really heard him speak at length.
Speaker:Well, I'll tell you that this long form interview that he
Speaker:did with Joe Rogan, I was just sitting here in my mind going, he.
Speaker:Seems to be.
Speaker:One of the new men, the new man that CS Lewis is talking about.
Speaker:Bono seems to be in that place.
Speaker:And some of you, if you're cynical, you would say, well, he is got a lot of money.
Speaker:He's famous and all that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's not that a lot of people that are famous and have a lot of
Speaker:money, they don't have that piece.
Speaker:They, they're, they're just going through a mess and we see a lot of that play out.
Speaker:Bono's just.
Speaker:He's relaxed and I, I, I know he is, got a spiritual presence to
Speaker:him and there's just a piece there.
Speaker:He was on there, he was promoting a book, I believe, but that it didn't
Speaker:feel like there was an agenda.
Speaker:He was just abiding.
Speaker:And that's when it hit me as I was listening to Joe Rogan.
Speaker:Not long before I had read this Mayor Christianity, the chapter,
Speaker:the new man that CS Lewis discussed, and it just went, bam.
Speaker:That is an example of what CS Lewis was talking about, and it's
Speaker:an example of what I desire, I seek to be that that is described.
Speaker:I'm gonna describe it in just a moment so you'll know what I'm talking about.
Speaker:that is.
Speaker:What we're looking at here, and I think what I wanna do now is I
Speaker:want to, define a little bit more of what CS Lewis was talking about.
Speaker:So my apologies, but I'm actually gonna read a little bit from
Speaker:the, mayor Christianity book.
Speaker:And again, everything that I'm talking about here is from the last chapter.
Speaker:So anyway, I've got a bunch of things highlighted in this last chapter.
Speaker:I'm gonna, I'm gonna just kinda hit some of those so that
Speaker:you can get a flavor of it.
Speaker:I recommend this book, definitely Mayor Christianity, but I really
Speaker:recommend the last chapter and, and to me again, it's what.
Speaker:It's what we're working towards.
Speaker:So one of the things he mentions here is that we are not looking for improvement.
Speaker:I think many times I would read scripture, I would go to church,
Speaker:I would try to have relationship with Christ in order to improve.
Speaker:But what CS Lewis, says here is that we're not looking for mere
Speaker:improvement or being better.
Speaker:What we are desiring is transformation and that is being a new man.
Speaker:That's what he talks about here.
Speaker:So that was one underline, and then CS Lewis says here, I should
Speaker:not be surprised if when the thing happened, very few people noticed.
Speaker:That it was happening.
Speaker:In other words, the transformation to being a new man.
Speaker:And, anyway, he's just kind of giving some history here, he says, and really
Speaker:what we're doing is we're looking to make a change from being creatures of God
Speaker:to this is so good to being sons of God later when I talk about in other episodes.
Speaker:What the story of the Bible is all about.
Speaker:I believe that's what it's all about.
Speaker:It's about us moving from being creatures of God to being sons of God.
Speaker:That's very important when one starts trying to understand books like revelation
Speaker:and eschatology and end times is, is what we're moving towards or being sons of God.
Speaker:Let's see something else.
Speaker:Here we are.
Speaker:He talks about the steps of going from being a creature to being a son.
Speaker:It is voluntary.
Speaker:It's something that we do pursue and allow and also receive it, but we do have
Speaker:that choice and a lot of people get maybe confused about that, but it is a choice,
Speaker:and so it's a journey that we go on.
Speaker:That's what we talk about here on Seek Go.
Speaker:Great.
Speaker:This is the journey that we go on.
Speaker:And one of the things CS Lewis says, he says, I have called Christ
Speaker:the first instance of a new man.
Speaker:He's the first.
Speaker:He is the new man.
Speaker:And then one of the things I wanna do, this is the paragraph that when I read
Speaker:this, it just exploded in my mind.
Speaker:I'm going, that's it.
Speaker:That's it.
Speaker:That's it.
Speaker:That's what I desire to be.
Speaker:So I'm gonna read a little bit, my apologies, but this is from
Speaker:almost the end of the book.
Speaker:And c. S Lewis says already, the new men are dotted here
Speaker:and there all over the earth.
Speaker:Some, as I have admitted, are still hardly recognizable, but others can be recognized
Speaker:every now and then one meets them.
Speaker:Their very voices and faces are different from ours.
Speaker:Stronger, quieter, happier, more radiant.
Speaker:They begin where most of us leave off, they are, I say recognizable,
Speaker:but you must know what to look for.
Speaker:They will not be very like the idea of religious people, which you have
Speaker:formed from your general reading.
Speaker:They do not draw attention to themselves.
Speaker:They tend to think that you are being kind to them when they are really.
Speaker:Being kind to you.
Speaker:They love you more than other men do, but they need you less.
Speaker:They will usually seem to have a lot of time.
Speaker:You will wonder where it comes from when you have recognized one of them.
Speaker:You will recognize the next one much more easily.
Speaker:Anyway, to put it at the very lowest, it must be great, great fun.
Speaker:And here's what CS Lewis says about it.
Speaker:And this is really, I guess, the exclamation point on the journey.
Speaker:He said it is something like that with Christ and us, the more we get what
Speaker:we now call ourselves out of the way.
Speaker:And let him take us over.
Speaker:The more truly ourselves we become In that sense, our real selves
Speaker:are all waiting for us in him.
Speaker:When we hear that term in Christ, that's what it is.
Speaker:So it's a real giving up of self.
Speaker:And you know that there's a word that we hear a lot, and that word is authentic.
Speaker:It's real.
Speaker:And sometimes we don't know exactly what that means.
Speaker:That's what CS Lewis I think is capturing in this new man is being authentic.
Speaker:So the reason that I tied that in with Bono is that I don't
Speaker:think we have a lot of examples.
Speaker:Bono was a great example and so that's the reason that I wanted to talk about.
Speaker:Bono on this.
Speaker:You know, there, there are some other examples.
Speaker:I may get to them in just a moment, but, uh, you just know it some,
Speaker:here's some descriptions that I've taken to kind of help me with it.
Speaker:The new man is calm.
Speaker:Is present.
Speaker:Peaceful.
Speaker:They're secure in their identity, comfortable in their own skin.
Speaker:They're not reactive.
Speaker:They seem to be more proactive.
Speaker:Nothing seems to shock or surprise them.
Speaker:They're not addicted to performance.
Speaker:I told you that I was maybe still are a little bit working on that.
Speaker:They're comfortable in their own skin.
Speaker:They're just at peace and relaxed.
Speaker:You don't feel hurried.
Speaker:They don't feel distracted.
Speaker:You know, we're a very distracted world in society right now, but think, like
Speaker:I said, bono, if you go listen to that Joe Rogan episode, he's just relaxed.
Speaker:Bono, one of the biggest rock stars I think in the world.
Speaker:Most people know who he is.
Speaker:It is just sitting there with Joe Rogan having conversation
Speaker:telling him, you know what?
Speaker:you've got a good touch, a good feel for what's going on in society.
Speaker:I wanted to come talk to you.
Speaker:He's telling Joe Rogan that Bono is telling him that.
Speaker:So anyway, Bono's a great example.
Speaker:Another great example that seems to be this way is Fred Rogers, Mr. Rogers.
Speaker:He was cool and peaceful and relaxed and, You know, just invited people in.
Speaker:You just kinda wanted to be around him.
Speaker:Didn't get bogged down with a lot of junky stuff.
Speaker:Just kinda seemed to rise above it.
Speaker:A few others that sort of seemed that way to me.
Speaker:Dallas Willard, Eugene Peterson, you know, they lived quiet, powerful, anchored.
Speaker:Lives and I'm sure there are others and maybe, maybe it's tough to look
Speaker:at examples like this and probably a lot of people that we don't even
Speaker:know who they are, are this way.
Speaker:And I think that that is, I think it's good to just have examples like that.
Speaker:Alright, so if we talk about the new man, we need to contrast the old man.
Speaker:And I can do this because I. Believe I was that way.
Speaker:Always anxious.
Speaker:Very performative caught in comparison and in the world we're in today
Speaker:with social media, the comparison thing can just eat away at you.
Speaker:It can just knowledge your soul.
Speaker:Always striving for approval, always trying to impress,
Speaker:and that is the old man now.
Speaker:Why does this matter?
Speaker:For what we're talking about with this series, many will read scripture.
Speaker:Or the Bible or they'll go to church or they'll do their spiritual stuff like
Speaker:it's a to-do list or a self-help guide, or they're, they will try to twist scriptures
Speaker:to fit their beliefs and dogmas guilty.
Speaker:Guilty, guilty.
Speaker:I have done that.
Speaker:I have taken scripture and taught on it and shared information and, and,
Speaker:and I've known that maybe I didn't have a full grasp of the biblical story.
Speaker:Well, only in the last few years, have I. Come to grasp the biblical story more.
Speaker:The Bible is about a transformed identity living from who we are in
Speaker:Christ, not toward it, not seeking it, not looking to get to that.
Speaker:And this shift made me realize how off track my reading had been.
Speaker:How what I was trying to do was.
Speaker:Find something that would fit with how I was living, not change
Speaker:the way I was living to make it fit the biblical narrative.
Speaker:And it just really set the foundation for everything else.
Speaker:Now, the thing that I don't want to do, but I'm about to do it, so I'm letting
Speaker:you warn, I'm warning you right up front, is I don't want to get in the
Speaker:mode of just plucking out scriptures.
Speaker:I see that happen so much.
Speaker:I don't wanna do that, but.
Speaker:It.
Speaker:There are some scriptures that I'm gonna use to kinda hammer home.
Speaker:I guess what we're talking about here, second Corinthians five 17, if anyone
Speaker:is in Christ, he is a new creation and that is what we are moving towards
Speaker:a new creation, both individually and I believe as a society and as
Speaker:a culture and as a family of God.
Speaker:Romans 12, two be trans.
Speaker:Formed by the renewing of your mind.
Speaker:And then John 15, five, abide in me apart from me talking
Speaker:about Christ apart from me.
Speaker:You can do.
Speaker:Nothing.
Speaker:And so that's where, that's the journey we're walking on, and I
Speaker:wanted to kind of set the stage for what CS Lewis called the New Man.
Speaker:The example that I saw in Bono.
Speaker:I. As what we are maybe moving towards.
Speaker:Not that we're trying to put Bono up with Christ or see us Lewis with Christ,
Speaker:but they just provide us examples.
Speaker:So, and listen, here's the deal.
Speaker:If we don't know who we are.
Speaker:The Bible will always feel like pressure, not peace.
Speaker:And in fact, a lot of people can get all uncomfortable if they're in a religious
Speaker:setting where they're trying to establish all these rules and regulations law,
Speaker:and they could use these scriptures.
Speaker:It's easy to do and create pressure, not peace.
Speaker:This Bible, I'm putting my hand on it right here.
Speaker:It should.
Speaker:Bring peace if we understand what that story is.
Speaker:And then next time, in the next episode, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna share
Speaker:why after decades, literally decades of being in church and studying,
Speaker:going to Bible school for a few years.
Speaker:I still didn't understand the Bible story, and here's what I know from
Speaker:interacting with a lot of people, churches, bible school, things like
Speaker:that, they don't understand it either.
Speaker:And I'm not trying to be critical.
Speaker:I'm not trying to judge or condemn.
Speaker:I just know that was my journey.
Speaker:And I know from interacting with people, it's their journey too.
Speaker:And so I am gonna walk through how I began unlearning so I could relearn what.
Speaker:Was true.
Speaker:So, listen, next time get ready because, we're gonna get into more of, you
Speaker:know, how to truly, truly understand what the story of the Bible really is.
Speaker:We'll see you next week on Seek, go Create.
