WEBVTT 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:19.880 What is he talking about? 00:00:19.880 --> 00:00:23.080 How is this even-- like, how does this sound logical to you? 00:00:25.120 --> 00:00:27.760 How were people agreeing with, like-- 00:00:27.760 --> 00:00:31.680 so I grabbed the camera, set it up, 00:00:31.680 --> 00:00:34.360 and I recorded a response. 00:00:34.360 --> 00:00:37.480 And it was good. 00:00:37.480 --> 00:00:41.120 It wasn't crazy. 00:00:41.120 --> 00:00:44.440 I felt like it was pretty articulate. 00:00:44.440 --> 00:00:46.440 But it was definitely, like, sharp. 00:00:46.440 --> 00:00:51.480 And you could hear the frustration of my voice. 00:00:51.480 --> 00:00:54.640 You could probably see it in my eyes. 00:00:54.640 --> 00:01:00.080 But before I posted it, I did something 00:01:00.080 --> 00:01:01.400 that I don't always do. 00:01:01.400 --> 00:01:03.360 I've gotten better at it. 00:01:03.360 --> 00:01:06.480 But I was like, let me think about this. 00:01:06.480 --> 00:01:10.080 And then I mentioned it to some people close to me, 00:01:10.080 --> 00:01:13.120 like, Mottie. 00:01:13.120 --> 00:01:15.160 And I was telling her why it was mad and what happened. 00:01:15.160 --> 00:01:18.720 And like, I knew, like, she's going to get it. 00:01:18.720 --> 00:01:22.120 And she did get it. 00:01:22.120 --> 00:01:28.280 But her reaction wasn't the same as mine. 00:01:28.280 --> 00:01:34.000 It was like-- she wasn't like, yeah, you need to post that. 00:01:34.000 --> 00:01:35.760 Or like, you nailed it. 00:01:35.760 --> 00:01:37.960 She wasn't super supportive, even though it was Valentine's 00:01:37.960 --> 00:01:38.480 week. 00:01:38.480 --> 00:01:41.440 [INAUDIBLE] 00:01:41.440 --> 00:01:45.720 Her reaction was, like, quieter. 00:01:45.720 --> 00:01:51.560 And when I saw that, I realized, like, something uncomfortable, 00:01:51.560 --> 00:01:55.720 I might be right. 00:01:55.720 --> 00:01:59.160 But my approach wasn't going to actually accomplish 00:01:59.160 --> 00:02:02.120 what I'd hoped it would. 00:02:02.120 --> 00:02:05.520 I think it would have expressed something. 00:02:05.520 --> 00:02:07.000 It might have felt good. 00:02:07.000 --> 00:02:07.760 It might have felt right. 00:02:07.760 --> 00:02:11.840 I probably would have made a really good point. 00:02:11.840 --> 00:02:15.280 There definitely would have been, like, confirmation bias. 00:02:15.280 --> 00:02:18.840 Like, people that believe and think like me 00:02:18.840 --> 00:02:22.080 would have given me the validation that I need. 00:02:22.080 --> 00:02:23.040 They would have liked it. 00:02:23.040 --> 00:02:23.920 They would have shared it. 00:02:23.920 --> 00:02:24.880 They would have commented. 00:02:27.800 --> 00:02:29.720 But would it have changed anything? 00:02:33.560 --> 00:02:35.760 Would it have helped anyone see differently 00:02:35.760 --> 00:02:40.000 was the question that I've sat back and asked. 00:02:40.000 --> 00:02:44.840 Or would it have just added heat to an already burning room? 00:02:44.840 --> 00:02:47.480 [LAUGHTER] 00:02:47.480 --> 00:02:49.560 So I didn't post it. 00:02:49.560 --> 00:02:51.760 It's sitting on my desktop. 00:02:51.760 --> 00:02:52.920 Do you guys want to see it? 00:02:52.920 --> 00:02:53.520 No, I'm just kidding. 00:02:53.520 --> 00:02:53.840 I'm kidding. 00:02:53.840 --> 00:02:54.340 No. 00:02:54.340 --> 00:02:56.160 [LAUGHTER] 00:02:56.160 --> 00:02:56.820 I'm just kidding. 00:02:56.820 --> 00:02:57.320 I'm joking. 00:03:01.080 --> 00:03:01.720 I didn't post it. 00:03:01.720 --> 00:03:03.120 I sat with it. 00:03:03.120 --> 00:03:06.360 I was like, you know what? 00:03:06.360 --> 00:03:10.400 This isn't going to help anything. 00:03:10.400 --> 00:03:12.560 No, it's still on my desktop. 00:03:12.560 --> 00:03:13.560 It's still there. 00:03:13.560 --> 00:03:17.160 [LAUGHTER] 00:03:17.160 --> 00:03:18.520 If I ever run into this congressman, 00:03:18.520 --> 00:03:20.160 I'll just have a conversation face-to-face. 00:03:24.360 --> 00:03:26.120 Have you ever noticed how easy it is 00:03:26.120 --> 00:03:30.000 to just kind of get small, not physically, 00:03:30.000 --> 00:03:34.200 but internally your world narrows. 00:03:34.200 --> 00:03:36.800 You stop noticing most things around you. 00:03:36.800 --> 00:03:38.240 You stop noticing nuance. 00:03:38.240 --> 00:03:40.040 You stop noticing the person. 00:03:40.040 --> 00:03:42.080 You only see the position or the thing 00:03:42.080 --> 00:03:44.680 that they're saying, your breathing changes. 00:03:44.680 --> 00:03:46.080 Everything feels urgent. 00:03:46.080 --> 00:03:49.040 Everything feels personal. 00:03:49.040 --> 00:03:52.240 And from that narrowed place, you react. 00:03:55.200 --> 00:03:58.280 You send the text. 00:03:58.280 --> 00:04:01.120 You fire off the comment. 00:04:01.120 --> 00:04:02.360 You assume the motive. 00:04:02.360 --> 00:04:03.560 You label the person. 00:04:03.560 --> 00:04:06.600 And later, sometimes just a couple of minutes later, 00:04:06.600 --> 00:04:09.200 sometimes it's hours or days later, 00:04:09.200 --> 00:04:13.760 you realize, like, you weren't really seeing clearly 00:04:13.760 --> 00:04:17.960 when you posted that, or you weren't 00:04:17.960 --> 00:04:23.640 maybe seeing exactly what you were seeing intensely, 00:04:23.640 --> 00:04:26.360 but not clearly, not with that clarity. 00:04:29.480 --> 00:04:34.640 So that thought kind of set up this week for me. 00:04:34.640 --> 00:04:37.720 Because we're living in a time, I think, that makes it feel. 00:04:39.280 --> 00:04:40.320 Very easy. 00:04:40.320 --> 00:04:44.960 It makes me very easy to narrow our focus. 00:04:44.960 --> 00:04:53.040 Every headline, every clip, every algorithm fed outrage. 00:04:53.040 --> 00:04:58.320 And it's not because nothing's happening to my computer. 00:04:58.320 --> 00:05:00.320 I think Jane's in my office. 00:05:00.320 --> 00:05:04.000 The mouse is moving on my computer right now. 00:05:04.000 --> 00:05:04.600 Stop it. 00:05:07.240 --> 00:05:09.480 They're taking over, guys. 00:05:09.480 --> 00:05:11.120 What in the-- wait. 00:05:11.120 --> 00:05:12.720 Stop. 00:05:12.720 --> 00:05:13.800 Somebody doing this? 00:05:18.280 --> 00:05:20.600 Let me turn off my Bluetooth. 00:05:20.600 --> 00:05:21.560 You're right here? 00:05:21.560 --> 00:05:22.600 Somebody's moving it. 00:05:22.600 --> 00:05:23.120 There we go. 00:05:23.120 --> 00:05:24.000 Let's turn my Bluetooth off. 00:05:24.000 --> 00:05:26.480 Maybe that'll help. 00:05:26.480 --> 00:05:29.520 Where was I had? 00:05:29.520 --> 00:05:31.960 I don't have a nice show. 00:05:31.960 --> 00:05:34.320 Sam said, you were showing us the video. 00:05:38.240 --> 00:05:41.800 Look, it's one of the-- this is our time right now. 00:05:41.800 --> 00:05:43.160 And I don't think most of us are trying 00:05:43.160 --> 00:05:46.160 to become hardened. 00:05:46.160 --> 00:05:50.440 I think most of us actually care deeply. 00:05:50.440 --> 00:05:56.840 But I think caring deeply without space, without breath, 00:05:56.840 --> 00:06:01.320 without kind of widening the-- not being so narrow in our focus-- 00:06:01.320 --> 00:06:02.920 can turn into something else. 00:06:05.560 --> 00:06:09.360 The question that's been sitting with me in this, 00:06:09.360 --> 00:06:15.080 that I think sometimes we don't ask as much in the church 00:06:15.080 --> 00:06:19.000 because we remove our humanity a lot of times 00:06:19.000 --> 00:06:22.920 when we start talking about spirituality. 00:06:22.920 --> 00:06:25.480 The question is, how do we stay human when everything 00:06:25.480 --> 00:06:28.920 around you is trying to shrink you? 00:06:28.920 --> 00:06:30.320 So we're going to talk about it today. 00:06:30.320 --> 00:06:32.480 I have a lot of notes. 00:06:32.480 --> 00:06:35.080 We're going to go just get ready. 00:06:35.080 --> 00:06:36.920 I'm going to try and-- 00:06:36.920 --> 00:06:38.600 I might go fast today. 00:06:38.600 --> 00:06:39.440 Don't let me squirrel. 00:06:43.560 --> 00:06:45.080 I should have taken like double my ADHD 00:06:45.080 --> 00:06:46.320 back there or something. 00:06:46.320 --> 00:06:48.640 [LAUGHTER] 00:06:48.640 --> 00:06:50.600 There's a psychologist, Jonathan Heit, 00:06:50.600 --> 00:06:52.240 you guys-- if you've been here for a little bit, 00:06:52.240 --> 00:06:53.600 you've probably heard about him. 00:06:53.600 --> 00:06:55.960 He wrote a book called The Righteous Mind. 00:06:55.960 --> 00:06:56.680 Yeah, it's a good one. 00:06:56.680 --> 00:06:59.440 The Righteous Mind, it's why good people 00:06:59.440 --> 00:07:03.800 are divided on religion and politics. 00:07:03.800 --> 00:07:07.600 Super solid book-- I love his stuff. 00:07:07.600 --> 00:07:13.480 But one thing he says is the emotional tale wags 00:07:13.480 --> 00:07:15.920 the rational dog. 00:07:15.920 --> 00:07:19.360 In other words, we like to think we reason our way 00:07:19.360 --> 00:07:21.840 to our position or our logic. 00:07:21.840 --> 00:07:25.320 But most of the time, we feel our way there first. 00:07:25.320 --> 00:07:28.600 And then we build arguments afterward. 00:07:28.600 --> 00:07:31.920 He uses another metaphor throughout the book, 00:07:31.920 --> 00:07:36.760 an analogy that he talks about in the book where he-- 00:07:36.760 --> 00:07:37.600 it's really helpful. 00:07:37.600 --> 00:07:41.760 He says, your mind is in two parts. 00:07:41.760 --> 00:07:47.080 It's like a writer sitting on top of an elephant. 00:07:47.080 --> 00:07:50.160 So this is the picture I want you to get. 00:07:50.160 --> 00:07:52.320 Your mind is two parts. 00:07:52.320 --> 00:07:54.040 There's a writer, and then there's an elephant. 00:07:54.040 --> 00:07:58.800 The elephant is the emotional, impulsive part of your brain. 00:07:58.800 --> 00:08:02.260 And then the writer is the logical, rational part 00:08:02.260 --> 00:08:02.720 of your brain. 00:08:06.880 --> 00:08:09.720 The elephant's much bigger. 00:08:09.720 --> 00:08:11.120 It's much stronger. 00:08:11.120 --> 00:08:13.800 It reacts much more quickly. 00:08:13.800 --> 00:08:16.680 The impulsive, emotional part of your brain. 00:08:16.680 --> 00:08:19.680 Something happens, and impulse happens. 00:08:19.680 --> 00:08:22.520 You hear something, you see something, impulse happens. 00:08:22.520 --> 00:08:24.400 And then while you're running on this elephant, 00:08:24.400 --> 00:08:26.240 the writer is like, all right, let me explain 00:08:26.240 --> 00:08:27.080 why this is happening. 00:08:27.080 --> 00:08:28.480 Let me give you a good reason. 00:08:28.480 --> 00:08:30.480 But it's explaining why you're running that direction. 00:08:30.480 --> 00:08:32.520 Does this make sense? 00:08:32.520 --> 00:08:35.800 You'll emotionally react before you actually 00:08:35.800 --> 00:08:38.240 use reason or logic to do something. 00:08:41.400 --> 00:08:43.960 If the elephant decides to move, the writer 00:08:43.960 --> 00:08:50.000 is mostly just holding on and explaining where they're going. 00:08:50.000 --> 00:08:52.320 And the uncomfortable part is when 00:08:52.320 --> 00:08:55.240 it comes to moral issues, which Jonathan Hite 00:08:55.240 --> 00:08:57.560 is a moral psychologist, a social psychologist, 00:08:57.560 --> 00:08:59.440 so he talks a lot about morals. 00:08:59.440 --> 00:09:02.960 When it comes to moral issues, justice, politics, religion, 00:09:02.960 --> 00:09:08.920 harm, fairness, the elephant almost always moves first. 00:09:08.920 --> 00:09:12.720 You see this in all of these things, 00:09:12.720 --> 00:09:16.080 like that tightening you feel? 00:09:16.080 --> 00:09:18.160 When I saw this video, the tightening 00:09:18.160 --> 00:09:20.560 I felt, that's not my logic. 00:09:20.560 --> 00:09:22.520 That's my elephant. 00:09:22.520 --> 00:09:26.640 My emotions are engaged, and I'm reacting. 00:09:26.640 --> 00:09:30.480 And the argument that I start forming in my head, then, 00:09:30.480 --> 00:09:33.480 is the writer trying to catch up with my emotions. 00:09:33.480 --> 00:09:35.800 And explaining, I'm not trying to slow the elephant down, 00:09:35.800 --> 00:09:38.240 just trying to explain why we're running. 00:09:38.240 --> 00:09:40.320 You guys tracking? 00:09:40.320 --> 00:09:43.280 No, maybe? 00:09:43.280 --> 00:09:46.480 This is why two people can see the same video, 00:09:46.480 --> 00:09:49.600 hear the same words, see the same event, 00:09:49.600 --> 00:09:53.200 and walk away absolutely convinced of opposite conclusions. 00:09:56.280 --> 00:09:58.920 It's not always about intelligence. 00:09:58.920 --> 00:10:03.000 It's often about just instinct. 00:10:03.000 --> 00:10:05.760 And Hite's research shows that we all 00:10:05.760 --> 00:10:10.800 have different moral taste buds. 00:10:10.800 --> 00:10:18.080 Some people are wired strongly toward care and protection. 00:10:18.080 --> 00:10:21.920 Some are wired strongly toward loyalty. 00:10:21.920 --> 00:10:27.520 Some toward authority, some toward fairness, some toward liberty, 00:10:27.520 --> 00:10:28.840 freedom. 00:10:28.840 --> 00:10:33.400 He has these six moral taste buds. 00:10:33.400 --> 00:10:34.880 So when something happens, your elephant 00:10:34.880 --> 00:10:38.080 reacts based on what feels morally threatened to you. 00:10:40.760 --> 00:10:45.840 If loyalty feels threatened, you react one way. 00:10:45.840 --> 00:10:48.280 If harm feels threatened, you react another way. 00:10:48.280 --> 00:10:52.560 If authority feels threatened another way. 00:10:52.560 --> 00:10:56.840 And the writer shows up later to say, 00:10:56.840 --> 00:10:59.120 here's why this makes perfect sense. 00:10:59.120 --> 00:11:01.240 Here's why my reaction, my statement, the thing 00:11:01.240 --> 00:11:03.080 that I did, this is why it makes perfect sense. 00:11:03.080 --> 00:11:04.480 I'm going to explain this to you. 00:11:04.480 --> 00:11:08.880 But it's just explaining what has already happened, which 00:11:08.880 --> 00:11:12.080 means I think something really important for us, 00:11:12.080 --> 00:11:16.640 if you're trying to change someone's mind 00:11:16.640 --> 00:11:19.200 and you go straight for their logic, 00:11:19.200 --> 00:11:22.120 you're trying to talk to a writer that's 00:11:22.120 --> 00:11:23.840 on top of a running horse. 00:11:23.840 --> 00:11:27.640 I mean, a running elephant, a horse makes more sense to me. 00:11:27.640 --> 00:11:30.840 Who rides elephants? 00:11:30.840 --> 00:11:33.040 You're trying to talk to a writer. 00:11:33.040 --> 00:11:36.920 The logic make a rational point when 00:11:36.920 --> 00:11:42.840 the emotional, impulsive part of this mind 00:11:42.840 --> 00:11:43.480 is already running. 00:11:43.480 --> 00:11:46.880 The elephant's running. 00:11:46.880 --> 00:11:50.800 When the elephants are running, arguments just don't land. 00:11:50.800 --> 00:11:54.680 They just bounce because the body is already in motions. 00:11:54.680 --> 00:11:57.400 Things are already happening. 00:11:57.400 --> 00:12:00.240 So what I realized when I watched my video back 00:12:00.240 --> 00:12:04.600 is I wasn't trying to persuade. 00:12:04.600 --> 00:12:09.200 I was just trying to discharge feelings. 00:12:09.200 --> 00:12:10.600 And there's a difference. 00:12:10.600 --> 00:12:14.000 Because if the goal is just to make a point loudly, 00:12:14.000 --> 00:12:17.480 then mission accomplished. 00:12:17.480 --> 00:12:19.840 But if the goal is transformation, 00:12:19.840 --> 00:12:21.600 then that's a much taller task that 00:12:21.600 --> 00:12:24.600 takes a little bit of slowing down. 00:12:24.600 --> 00:12:26.800 I think about if you're in an argument 00:12:26.800 --> 00:12:30.000 with someone close to your significant other, 00:12:30.000 --> 00:12:35.600 you're just a friend, they say something like it's attacking. 00:12:35.600 --> 00:12:39.600 Do we just like-- let me take a second. 00:12:39.600 --> 00:12:43.440 What do they really mean by that? 00:12:43.440 --> 00:12:49.440 And then reason it logically and then respond? 00:12:49.440 --> 00:12:51.920 No, because your elephant's like, heck no, let's go. 00:12:51.920 --> 00:12:54.440 Come on, that the elephant is ready to fight. 00:12:54.440 --> 00:12:57.800 And then you say it, and you're like, 00:12:57.800 --> 00:13:00.040 now I've got to make a reason why that makes sense. 00:13:00.040 --> 00:13:02.600 Because when they come back at me, I go, no, no, no. 00:13:02.600 --> 00:13:04.320 You were wrong. 00:13:04.320 --> 00:13:07.280 Here's why. 00:13:07.280 --> 00:13:10.280 Because you didn't think. 00:13:10.280 --> 00:13:11.800 Not your fault. 00:13:11.800 --> 00:13:14.840 None of us do. 00:13:14.840 --> 00:13:19.600 Because the way we're wired, impulse happens. 00:13:19.600 --> 00:13:27.360 So you have to be very, very thoughtful and specific 00:13:27.360 --> 00:13:30.000 in trying to slow yourself down. 00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:33.520 And it won't always happen, because the elephant's 00:13:33.520 --> 00:13:37.560 going to take off. 00:13:37.560 --> 00:13:44.120 But if you're trying to reason, make a logical point, 00:13:44.120 --> 00:13:46.440 we've got to know that we're not just talking to the writer, 00:13:46.440 --> 00:13:48.400 to the reason, the logic of someone. 00:13:48.400 --> 00:13:51.120 You're talking to a nervous system. 00:13:51.120 --> 00:13:53.280 You're talking to their belonging. 00:13:53.280 --> 00:13:55.280 You're talking to their identity. 00:13:55.280 --> 00:13:59.240 There's so much wrapped up in what we are talking about, 00:13:59.240 --> 00:14:03.200 especially when it comes to these massively moral things. 00:14:07.080 --> 00:14:13.760 And here's where this kind of gets even more layered, height. 00:14:13.760 --> 00:14:16.920 Also talks about how moral conversations 00:14:16.920 --> 00:14:20.760 are rarely neutral. 00:14:20.760 --> 00:14:23.040 When you challenge someone's moral view, 00:14:23.040 --> 00:14:25.760 you're not just disagreeing with an idea. 00:14:25.760 --> 00:14:29.880 You're threatening something sacred to them. 00:14:29.880 --> 00:14:32.840 And when something sacred feels threatened, 00:14:32.840 --> 00:14:35.880 the elephant doesn't slow down. 00:14:35.880 --> 00:14:38.840 It accelerates. 00:14:38.840 --> 00:14:40.920 So the question becomes, if elephants are running, 00:14:40.920 --> 00:14:42.640 what actually slows them down? 00:14:46.960 --> 00:14:49.640 Because yelling at an elephant doesn't call them it. 00:14:49.640 --> 00:14:52.040 Logic alone doesn't call them it. 00:14:52.040 --> 00:14:55.080 Embarrassing it doesn't call them it. 00:14:55.080 --> 00:15:00.560 If anything, that just makes it harder like charging. 00:15:03.720 --> 00:15:08.760 I think this is where this conversation gets really-- 00:15:08.760 --> 00:15:13.200 like when we step back, a lot of us are things right now 00:15:13.200 --> 00:15:15.160 are heated. 00:15:15.160 --> 00:15:15.680 Anybody else? 00:15:15.680 --> 00:15:18.880 Is that just my Facebook and Instagram and TikTok 00:15:18.880 --> 00:15:25.600 and anything else that exists? 00:15:25.600 --> 00:15:28.720 And there's a reason for it. 00:15:28.720 --> 00:15:31.800 I won't go into it, but I'll give you this. 00:15:31.800 --> 00:15:33.080 Jonathan Heit, this psychologist, 00:15:33.080 --> 00:15:34.640 also wrote an article for The Atlantic, 00:15:34.640 --> 00:15:39.440 where he talks about how the reason we are here 00:15:39.440 --> 00:15:43.200 happened in about 2009. 00:15:43.200 --> 00:15:46.480 Because about that time is when Facebook added the Like button, 00:15:46.480 --> 00:15:50.720 and when Twitter added the retweet. 00:15:50.720 --> 00:15:54.560 The reasoning-- so the Twitter retreat was a big one. 00:15:54.560 --> 00:15:57.400 Because you could put something out. 00:15:57.400 --> 00:15:58.400 People like it. 00:15:58.400 --> 00:15:59.320 They retweet it. 00:15:59.320 --> 00:16:01.160 It can go viral. 00:16:01.160 --> 00:16:03.360 And now we've got this big group that 00:16:03.360 --> 00:16:06.040 believes what I said too. 00:16:06.040 --> 00:16:09.280 And in fact, with all of that happening, 00:16:09.280 --> 00:16:12.360 we start to get these like segmentation, 00:16:12.360 --> 00:16:17.640 is this divide, and you guys-- 00:16:17.640 --> 00:16:22.120 I mean, one, you guys know that I love the psychology 00:16:22.120 --> 00:16:23.920 and how it intersects with theology. 00:16:23.920 --> 00:16:27.400 But I'm also back in school for psychology, 00:16:27.400 --> 00:16:29.360 so I'm reading a lot right now. 00:16:29.360 --> 00:16:33.000 So all of this is just like working for me. 00:16:33.000 --> 00:16:36.240 But so you take height, his idea of the writer 00:16:36.240 --> 00:16:40.120 and the elephant, and you look at some like long before, 00:16:40.120 --> 00:16:42.680 like modern psychology, there were other people that 00:16:42.680 --> 00:16:43.480 observed this too. 00:16:43.480 --> 00:16:49.240 And what they observed was crowds and systems 00:16:49.240 --> 00:16:52.520 make this even bigger. 00:16:52.520 --> 00:16:55.040 Like we widen this out. 00:16:55.040 --> 00:17:00.680 It's one thing if it's just your elephant. 00:17:00.680 --> 00:17:05.800 It's another thing when you're in a herd of elephants. 00:17:05.800 --> 00:17:08.920 There's a sociologist from like the late 1800s. 00:17:08.920 --> 00:17:11.520 Emil Durkheim. 00:17:11.520 --> 00:17:14.360 He studied religion, culture, crowds, 00:17:14.360 --> 00:17:19.200 how groups behave when they gather around like a shared symbol 00:17:19.200 --> 00:17:21.560 and a shared identity. 00:17:21.560 --> 00:17:25.080 And he used this phrase, collective effervescence. 00:17:25.080 --> 00:17:29.680 You ever do like this, maybe in school, 00:17:29.680 --> 00:17:33.720 like take a big-- there was a big nail or like a big screw. 00:17:33.720 --> 00:17:38.480 And then you took wire, and you like wrapped the wire around 00:17:38.480 --> 00:17:40.960 to create-- like then you put batteries on it, 00:17:40.960 --> 00:17:42.200 and it creates this electricity. 00:17:42.200 --> 00:17:43.360 Did you guys do this? 00:17:43.360 --> 00:17:43.920 It's science. 00:17:43.920 --> 00:17:47.520 I know I get-- so he had this thing 00:17:47.520 --> 00:17:54.280 where like people circle around this central symbol, 00:17:54.280 --> 00:17:56.880 identity in religion and politics. 00:17:56.880 --> 00:17:59.840 And there's this thing that people circle around. 00:17:59.840 --> 00:18:01.760 And as they move, it's this collective effervescence. 00:18:01.760 --> 00:18:04.040 It's like described as like an energy that 00:18:04.040 --> 00:18:07.360 rises when people come together around a shared cause, 00:18:07.360 --> 00:18:10.840 a belief, an identity. 00:18:10.840 --> 00:18:12.680 Like you felt this, right? 00:18:12.680 --> 00:18:15.520 Go to a sports event. 00:18:15.520 --> 00:18:16.360 You've got a team. 00:18:16.360 --> 00:18:17.400 They've got a team. 00:18:17.400 --> 00:18:19.440 We're all rallied around. 00:18:19.440 --> 00:18:22.280 People are yelling at each other, maybe. 00:18:25.160 --> 00:18:27.400 You got a concert. 00:18:27.400 --> 00:18:28.320 Some kind of rally. 00:18:28.320 --> 00:18:31.280 You're-- you got a worship night. 00:18:31.280 --> 00:18:35.240 Or a protest, like we're all rallied around this thing. 00:18:35.240 --> 00:18:38.800 And you feel this kind of like energy. 00:18:38.800 --> 00:18:40.160 The emotion multiplies. 00:18:40.160 --> 00:18:41.720 The conviction intensifies. 00:18:41.720 --> 00:18:45.560 The sense of belonging gets stronger. 00:18:45.560 --> 00:18:49.000 And that's not automatically bad. 00:18:49.000 --> 00:18:50.240 Because belonging is powerful. 00:18:50.240 --> 00:18:52.400 And I think we are all looking for belonging. 00:18:52.400 --> 00:18:55.120 Shared identity, it can be beautiful. 00:18:55.120 --> 00:18:58.440 But Durkheim also understood something else. 00:18:58.440 --> 00:19:01.880 When emotion multiplies in a crowd, 00:19:01.880 --> 00:19:07.720 individual reflection often decreases. 00:19:07.720 --> 00:19:11.520 It's harder for you to reason and logic 00:19:11.520 --> 00:19:14.920 through something when the crowd around you all 00:19:14.920 --> 00:19:17.800 agrees with your thoughts, right? 00:19:17.800 --> 00:19:19.460 Or you agree with their thoughts. 00:19:23.680 --> 00:19:26.080 Don't scroll. 00:19:26.080 --> 00:19:27.640 So you don't just have one elephant moving. 00:19:27.640 --> 00:19:29.120 You just track them with the elephant? 00:19:29.120 --> 00:19:31.280 Is it a weird analogy? 00:19:31.280 --> 00:19:34.640 OK, so you don't have this one elephant moving anymore. 00:19:34.640 --> 00:19:39.200 You have this herd of elephants all moving in the same direction. 00:19:39.200 --> 00:19:43.240 And when herds of elephants run, they don't check maps. 00:19:43.240 --> 00:19:48.880 They just kind of follow movement, right? 00:19:48.880 --> 00:19:50.600 So now imagine this. 00:19:50.600 --> 00:19:53.600 Your elephant reacts to something. 00:19:53.600 --> 00:19:55.960 But you're not alone. 00:19:55.960 --> 00:19:57.840 You open your phone. 00:19:57.840 --> 00:20:02.520 And suddenly, you see hundreds, thousands of elephants reacting 00:20:02.520 --> 00:20:08.760 to the same way, and the energy rises. 00:20:08.760 --> 00:20:14.040 And now it's just moral reaction. 00:20:14.040 --> 00:20:17.320 Like, it's not just moral reaction. 00:20:17.320 --> 00:20:17.960 It's identity. 00:20:17.960 --> 00:20:18.680 It's tribe. 00:20:18.680 --> 00:20:22.040 It's us versus them. 00:20:22.040 --> 00:20:26.360 And when belonging then fuses with reaction, 00:20:26.360 --> 00:20:28.120 it gets very hard to slow down. 00:20:31.120 --> 00:20:34.640 Because now, if you question the movement, 00:20:34.640 --> 00:20:37.240 you're not just questioning an opinion. 00:20:37.240 --> 00:20:41.440 You are risking your place in the herd. 00:20:41.440 --> 00:20:43.240 And belonging is powerful. 00:20:46.240 --> 00:20:48.960 We underestimate, I think, how powerful belonging can be. 00:20:51.760 --> 00:20:55.200 So Durkheim wasn't seeing crowds as evil. 00:20:55.200 --> 00:21:00.560 He was saying, crowds are intense. 00:21:00.560 --> 00:21:05.040 An intensity amplifies whatever is already there. 00:21:05.040 --> 00:21:07.640 Which means, if elephants are running, 00:21:07.640 --> 00:21:09.840 the herd makes it louder. 00:21:09.840 --> 00:21:13.160 And when it's loud enough, the rider can't hear itself think. 00:21:16.840 --> 00:21:20.880 So now we've got-- height has this psychology idea. 00:21:20.880 --> 00:21:22.920 You've got a sociology that comes in with a herd. 00:21:22.920 --> 00:21:28.040 And this group think, so it's not just instinct anymore. 00:21:28.040 --> 00:21:28.440 It's culture. 00:21:31.320 --> 00:21:35.160 So yeah, height, the elephant moves first. 00:21:35.160 --> 00:21:38.440 Riders just kind of trying to keep up. 00:21:38.440 --> 00:21:42.480 Durkheim, the herd, amplifies that movement. 00:21:42.480 --> 00:21:45.160 And then we talked last week about a guy named Dietrich Bonhoeffer. 00:21:45.160 --> 00:21:46.840 Bonhoeffer was a theologian, a pastor. 00:21:49.720 --> 00:21:56.000 He watched what happened when someone at the front of a herd 00:21:56.000 --> 00:22:00.880 learns how it can keep the herd running. 00:22:00.880 --> 00:22:03.000 Bonhoeffer, he lived in Nazi Germany 00:22:03.000 --> 00:22:05.560 in the late '30s, early '40s. 00:22:05.560 --> 00:22:07.760 And he watched ordinary people, intelligent people, 00:22:07.760 --> 00:22:10.040 become swept into something destructive. 00:22:10.040 --> 00:22:13.680 And he wrote this line, stupidity 00:22:13.680 --> 00:22:20.400 is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice. 00:22:20.400 --> 00:22:23.000 And he wasn't insulting people in this. 00:22:23.000 --> 00:22:25.160 He was diagnosing something. 00:22:25.160 --> 00:22:29.240 He was saying that under the influence of power, propaganda, 00:22:29.240 --> 00:22:32.920 fear, people could lose independent perception, 00:22:32.920 --> 00:22:35.160 independent think. 00:22:35.160 --> 00:22:36.840 They weren't thinking freely anymore. 00:22:36.840 --> 00:22:44.960 They were reacting collectively, captive to the movement. 00:22:44.960 --> 00:22:46.200 So here's the connection. 00:22:46.200 --> 00:22:48.440 You've got height and Durkheim if the elephant moves first 00:22:48.440 --> 00:22:49.880 and the herd amplifies it. 00:22:49.880 --> 00:22:54.040 Then all a leader has to do is keep the elephants moving. 00:22:57.760 --> 00:23:01.720 Because if the herd's moving, then the rider 00:23:01.720 --> 00:23:04.280 can't hear anything. 00:23:04.280 --> 00:23:08.040 Fear works, outrage works, perceived threat works, 00:23:08.040 --> 00:23:10.240 constant crisis works. 00:23:10.240 --> 00:23:13.560 Does this sound familiar to anyone? 00:23:13.560 --> 00:23:18.960 Because a running herd is very narrowly focused. 00:23:18.960 --> 00:23:23.480 When elephants are running, they are not reflecting on things. 00:23:23.480 --> 00:23:25.080 They're not evaluating nuance. 00:23:25.080 --> 00:23:28.520 They're not calmly reconsidering. 00:23:28.520 --> 00:23:31.800 They are surviving. 00:23:31.800 --> 00:23:34.400 And if things start to slow down, if people begin to breathe, 00:23:34.400 --> 00:23:37.080 that the herd begins to settle, the easiest way 00:23:37.080 --> 00:23:41.360 to regain control is to create another perceived threat, 00:23:41.360 --> 00:23:45.600 another crisis, another enemy, another emergency. 00:23:45.600 --> 00:23:48.600 You've got to get them running again. 00:23:48.600 --> 00:23:52.480 Because a running herd is easier to steer than a calm one. 00:23:55.040 --> 00:23:56.200 And Bonhoeffer saw this. 00:23:56.200 --> 00:24:02.720 He saw how this happened in his people 00:24:02.720 --> 00:24:05.320 and in the church in Germany. 00:24:09.400 --> 00:24:11.600 And here's the hard part. 00:24:11.600 --> 00:24:19.640 He believed that arguing inside the stampede rarely works. 00:24:19.640 --> 00:24:25.040 You can shout logic at a running herd, but it will not land. 00:24:25.040 --> 00:24:26.160 The noise is too loud. 00:24:26.160 --> 00:24:27.440 The fear is too active. 00:24:27.440 --> 00:24:30.600 So what did he suggest? 00:24:30.600 --> 00:24:33.840 He believed that sometimes the lead elephant 00:24:33.840 --> 00:24:36.520 has to be removed. 00:24:36.520 --> 00:24:38.480 In his time, that meant political resistance. 00:24:38.480 --> 00:24:40.000 It meant refusing compliance. 00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:42.840 It meant eventually overthrowing a regime. 00:24:42.840 --> 00:24:47.120 Bonhoeffer actually was part of a whole assassination 00:24:47.120 --> 00:24:48.680 attempt on Hitler. 00:24:48.680 --> 00:24:50.560 Like he went a little calm down. 00:24:53.920 --> 00:25:00.240 For us, I think, yes, voting matters. 00:25:00.240 --> 00:25:01.520 I think it's our voice. 00:25:01.520 --> 00:25:02.480 We get to use that. 00:25:02.480 --> 00:25:04.520 I think participation matters. 00:25:04.520 --> 00:25:06.040 I think structural change matters. 00:25:06.040 --> 00:25:09.520 But Bonhoeffer also understood that something deeper-- 00:25:09.520 --> 00:25:10.600 there's something deeper here. 00:25:10.600 --> 00:25:15.200 If you only remove a lead elephant without changing the herd's 00:25:15.200 --> 00:25:19.360 instinct to stampede, then another one will just rise. 00:25:19.360 --> 00:25:21.800 Because the deeper issue isn't just leadership, 00:25:21.800 --> 00:25:23.600 it's formation. 00:25:23.600 --> 00:25:27.960 It's how easily we allow fear to mobilize us. 00:25:27.960 --> 00:25:32.160 How quickly we surrender perception to the loudest voice. 00:25:32.160 --> 00:25:33.360 So the question becomes, how do you 00:25:33.360 --> 00:25:38.120 calm a herd without becoming another panicked voice in it? 00:25:40.720 --> 00:25:45.680 How do you interrupt fear without weaponizing fear? 00:25:45.680 --> 00:25:49.000 How do you resist without mirroring the frenzy? 00:25:51.520 --> 00:25:54.600 Because if we fight panic with panic, 00:25:54.600 --> 00:25:58.640 we just create two stampedes. 00:25:58.640 --> 00:26:01.520 And history shows us that that rarely ends well. 00:26:01.520 --> 00:26:03.840 And I say this because I think that that's-- 00:26:03.840 --> 00:26:06.840 my natural instinct is to do this. 00:26:06.840 --> 00:26:08.520 It's to fight back. 00:26:08.520 --> 00:26:09.600 It's to argue. 00:26:09.600 --> 00:26:12.240 It's to make points. 00:26:12.240 --> 00:26:16.920 Most of you guys know, I'm a trained interrogator. 00:26:16.920 --> 00:26:20.520 I'm ready to argue. 00:26:20.520 --> 00:26:25.600 I can make some good points, but it doesn't get us anywhere. 00:26:29.880 --> 00:26:31.040 It doesn't end well. 00:26:33.800 --> 00:26:37.080 So the question then is, what slows elephants down? 00:26:37.080 --> 00:26:38.040 You don't scream at them. 00:26:38.040 --> 00:26:38.840 You don't shame them. 00:26:38.840 --> 00:26:40.160 You don't humiliate them. 00:26:40.160 --> 00:26:41.880 You create safety. 00:26:41.880 --> 00:26:43.880 You reduce threat. 00:26:43.880 --> 00:26:51.920 You introduce a calm presence in wildlife biology. 00:26:51.920 --> 00:26:56.520 Elephants calm when the perceived threat decreases, 00:26:56.520 --> 00:27:00.840 when a trusted member of the herd begins to slow down, 00:27:00.840 --> 00:27:04.200 when the environment feels safe again. 00:27:04.200 --> 00:27:07.280 In other words, they kind of co-regulate their nervous 00:27:07.280 --> 00:27:07.800 systems. 00:27:10.360 --> 00:27:15.400 One calm body can influence another. 00:27:15.400 --> 00:27:17.880 And this is where I think we shift from political theory 00:27:17.880 --> 00:27:21.440 to something deeper for us, more transformational, 00:27:21.440 --> 00:27:27.320 more spiritual, what I believe that we are called to. 00:27:27.320 --> 00:27:33.200 Because Jesus walked into a deeply divided time also. 00:27:33.200 --> 00:27:38.280 Roman occupation, religious, factionalism, zealots, 00:27:38.280 --> 00:27:43.320 Pharisees, power struggles, public spectacles. 00:27:43.320 --> 00:27:46.320 And he refused to run with the herd. 00:27:46.320 --> 00:27:50.880 He refused to be mobilized by fear. 00:27:50.880 --> 00:27:56.440 And he stayed honestly, really, really human. 00:27:56.440 --> 00:27:59.480 Which for a lot of us, that doesn't make an eye, he was God. 00:27:59.480 --> 00:28:02.120 Jesus was showing us what humans really can be. 00:28:09.280 --> 00:28:11.840 So I'm going to look at Jesus. 00:28:11.840 --> 00:28:14.240 Because this isn't just psychology, right? 00:28:14.240 --> 00:28:15.480 He's a church. 00:28:15.480 --> 00:28:18.800 This is formation. 00:28:18.800 --> 00:28:21.720 Matthew tells us something in Matthew 4. 00:28:21.720 --> 00:28:22.960 It's simple, but it's important. 00:28:26.040 --> 00:28:28.960 He says that Jesus was led by the spirit 00:28:28.960 --> 00:28:32.560 into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 00:28:36.280 --> 00:28:38.880 So when you see Jesus in this early on in his ministry 00:28:38.880 --> 00:28:43.400 and in Matthew, he doesn't begin in a crowd. 00:28:43.400 --> 00:28:46.600 He begins in silence. 00:28:46.600 --> 00:28:48.640 He doesn't begin in applause. 00:28:48.640 --> 00:28:50.240 He begins in hunger. 00:28:50.240 --> 00:28:52.400 He's on a 40-day fast. 00:28:52.400 --> 00:28:53.440 No food. 00:28:53.440 --> 00:28:54.440 He's alone. 00:28:54.440 --> 00:28:56.800 He goes out into the wilderness. 00:28:56.800 --> 00:29:00.920 And in that wilderness state, the pressure comes. 00:29:00.920 --> 00:29:03.720 Let me read the whole passage and just let it sit. 00:29:03.720 --> 00:29:05.000 Matthew 4, verse 1. 00:29:05.000 --> 00:29:06.720 Then Jesus was led by the spirit into the wilderness 00:29:06.720 --> 00:29:08.480 to be tempted by the devil. 00:29:08.480 --> 00:29:12.600 After fasting 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry. 00:29:12.600 --> 00:29:17.240 The tempter came to him and said, if you are the son of God, 00:29:17.240 --> 00:29:20.480 tell these stones to become bread. 00:29:20.480 --> 00:29:22.920 And Jesus answered, it is written, 00:29:22.920 --> 00:29:25.000 man shall not live on bread alone. 00:29:25.000 --> 00:29:28.640 But in every word that comes from the mouth of God, 00:29:28.640 --> 00:29:31.600 then the devil took him to the holy city 00:29:31.600 --> 00:29:34.480 and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 00:29:34.480 --> 00:29:37.000 If you are the son of God, he said, throw yourself down. 00:29:37.000 --> 00:29:40.240 For it is written, he will command his angels concerning you, 00:29:40.240 --> 00:29:41.880 and they will lift you up in their hands 00:29:41.880 --> 00:29:47.000 so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. 00:29:47.000 --> 00:29:48.720 Throw yourself, let the angels catch you, 00:29:48.720 --> 00:29:51.400 and just prove who you are. 00:29:51.400 --> 00:29:53.000 And Jesus answered him. 00:29:53.000 --> 00:29:57.240 It's also written, do not put the Lord your God to the test. 00:29:57.240 --> 00:29:59.760 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain 00:29:59.760 --> 00:30:02.400 and showed him all the kingdoms of the world 00:30:02.400 --> 00:30:06.280 and their splendor, all this I will give you. 00:30:06.280 --> 00:30:08.560 If you will bow down and worship me, 00:30:08.560 --> 00:30:11.040 Jesus said to him, away from me Satan, 00:30:11.040 --> 00:30:13.000 for it is written, worship the Lord your God 00:30:13.000 --> 00:30:16.560 and serve him only, then the devil left him, 00:30:16.560 --> 00:30:18.400 and angels came and attended to him. 00:30:22.760 --> 00:30:25.360 Now, step back from the story for a minute 00:30:28.320 --> 00:30:30.440 because we've probably heard this story a lot 00:30:30.440 --> 00:30:35.440 from a reduced to personal morality, right? 00:30:37.960 --> 00:30:40.400 Don't turn stones into bread, don't jump off buildings, 00:30:40.400 --> 00:30:41.480 don't worship Satan. 00:30:42.960 --> 00:30:44.880 If you grew up in the '90s, early 2000s, 00:30:44.880 --> 00:30:46.960 like worshiping Satan would have meant 00:30:46.960 --> 00:30:48.720 like listening to the wrong music. 00:30:51.000 --> 00:30:52.680 Don't listen to it backwards. 00:30:58.120 --> 00:30:59.520 That's countries that you said. 00:31:01.000 --> 00:31:03.720 But look what's actually happening in this moment 00:31:03.720 --> 00:31:06.720 with Jesus, every temptation is about power. 00:31:06.720 --> 00:31:10.320 If you are the son of God, prove it, demonstrate it, 00:31:10.320 --> 00:31:13.800 use it, exploit it, perform it, leverage it. 00:31:13.800 --> 00:31:15.960 The first temptation is economic power. 00:31:15.960 --> 00:31:17.800 It's, you're hungry, solve it. 00:31:17.800 --> 00:31:20.440 Use your ability to self-preserve. 00:31:21.600 --> 00:31:24.000 The second is the spectacle power. 00:31:24.000 --> 00:31:26.240 Throw yourself down, create a viral moment. 00:31:26.240 --> 00:31:30.000 Let heaven catch you, imagine the crowd, right? 00:31:31.200 --> 00:31:33.160 And then the third is political power. 00:31:34.240 --> 00:31:36.960 All the kingdoms of the world I will give you. 00:31:39.200 --> 00:31:42.120 It's not subtle, that's empire. 00:31:43.680 --> 00:31:48.680 And here's the thing, none of these offers were imaginary. 00:31:51.120 --> 00:31:52.720 Jesus could have done them. 00:31:54.440 --> 00:31:56.720 And that's what makes it temptation for him. 00:31:58.680 --> 00:32:03.080 Because if power was the point, if dominance was his mission, 00:32:03.080 --> 00:32:07.120 if controlling the system was the goal, he would have taken it. 00:32:08.240 --> 00:32:10.160 But he doesn't take it, he refuses. 00:32:12.120 --> 00:32:14.880 Not because power is inherently evil, 00:32:14.880 --> 00:32:19.880 but because power divorced from love always narrows focus. 00:32:24.400 --> 00:32:28.320 And Jesus refuses to let his identity be mobilized by ego. 00:32:29.560 --> 00:32:34.640 So every temptation begins the same way, if you are the son of God. 00:32:34.640 --> 00:32:39.360 In other words, are you secure enough in who you are? 00:32:42.000 --> 00:32:43.120 Not to prove it? 00:32:45.440 --> 00:32:47.840 Are you grounded enough not to perform? 00:32:50.160 --> 00:32:52.560 Are you beloved enough not to weaponize it? 00:32:56.000 --> 00:32:58.160 And this is the part that it hits me. 00:32:59.680 --> 00:33:05.840 Because when I look at a lot of what passes for spirituality 00:33:05.840 --> 00:33:09.520 or leadership in the church, in the U.S., 00:33:09.520 --> 00:33:13.360 there's this obsession with influence and with access 00:33:13.360 --> 00:33:16.880 and proximity to power and with building bigger platforms 00:33:16.880 --> 00:33:19.000 and how do we take, we need to be in power. 00:33:19.000 --> 00:33:21.360 That's what God wants for us to be in power here. 00:33:22.640 --> 00:33:25.520 But I can't help but think if power was the strategy 00:33:25.520 --> 00:33:27.120 then Jesus would have taken it. 00:33:29.560 --> 00:33:32.640 If controlling Rome was the mission he would have aligned with Rome. 00:33:34.480 --> 00:33:38.240 If dominating culture was the goal, he would have grabbed the kingdoms. 00:33:39.560 --> 00:33:42.440 But instead, he walks back to Galilee. 00:33:44.840 --> 00:33:46.840 He touches lepers. 00:33:46.840 --> 00:33:48.440 He eats with tax collectors. 00:33:48.440 --> 00:33:51.360 He tells stories about seeds and lost coins. 00:33:51.360 --> 00:33:53.160 He calms storms. 00:33:53.160 --> 00:33:55.520 He refuses to mirror the frenzy. 00:33:56.920 --> 00:33:59.000 He doesn't energize the herd. 00:33:59.000 --> 00:34:00.600 He tries to slow it all down. 00:34:03.600 --> 00:34:05.520 And for me, this is where it connects back 00:34:05.520 --> 00:34:07.000 to everything we've been talking about. 00:34:07.000 --> 00:34:09.760 Height says instinct moves first. 00:34:09.760 --> 00:34:11.720 Durkheim says crowds amplify instinct. 00:34:11.720 --> 00:34:13.960 Bonhoeffer says systems exploit instinct. 00:34:13.960 --> 00:34:18.000 And Jesus says you don't fight that with more instinct. 00:34:19.680 --> 00:34:22.400 You don't calm a stampede by charging harder. 00:34:22.400 --> 00:34:26.640 You don't, you can't stop, you gotta root yourself 00:34:26.640 --> 00:34:31.640 so deeply in belovedness that you cannot be baited by power. 00:34:35.680 --> 00:34:38.760 Because here's what I think the wilderness shows us. 00:34:38.760 --> 00:34:41.480 The wilderness is where you learn to sit with hunger 00:34:41.480 --> 00:34:42.840 without grabbing control. 00:34:44.000 --> 00:34:45.480 That's where you learn to sit with identity 00:34:45.480 --> 00:34:46.800 without having to prove it. 00:34:49.360 --> 00:34:52.360 It's where you learn to sit with influence without exploiting it. 00:34:53.920 --> 00:34:56.920 And if you don't learn that in the wilderness, 00:34:56.920 --> 00:34:58.800 you'll reach for power in the crowd. 00:35:02.440 --> 00:35:04.160 So if you think about this culturally for a second, 00:35:04.160 --> 00:35:05.800 I'm gonna try and get us there. 00:35:07.120 --> 00:35:10.920 We're in a moment where power is constantly offered. 00:35:10.920 --> 00:35:14.200 Political power, social media power, religious power, 00:35:14.200 --> 00:35:19.200 narrative control, and the temptation is subtle. 00:35:20.200 --> 00:35:22.360 If you really cared, you dominate. 00:35:24.920 --> 00:35:28.560 If you really loved justice, you'd crush your opponents. 00:35:29.680 --> 00:35:33.360 If you really believed truth, you'd control the narrative. 00:35:35.280 --> 00:35:40.280 But Jesus, his refusal, tells us something profound. 00:35:41.040 --> 00:35:43.760 The kingdom is not built by force of volume. 00:35:43.760 --> 00:35:45.920 It's built by force of formation. 00:35:48.000 --> 00:35:50.280 And I think we've been talking about this a lot. 00:35:50.280 --> 00:35:53.040 I think this is where awe comes back in. 00:35:53.040 --> 00:35:56.000 Because awe does something power cannot, 00:35:56.000 --> 00:35:59.240 awe, this emotion that we see something, 00:35:59.240 --> 00:36:01.440 we realize that we're part of something so much bigger, 00:36:01.440 --> 00:36:04.320 that we are small in this big thing, 00:36:04.320 --> 00:36:06.080 that it doesn't make us small in a bad way. 00:36:06.080 --> 00:36:08.240 It makes us more connected to each other. 00:36:09.920 --> 00:36:11.680 It does something that power cannot, 00:36:11.680 --> 00:36:14.960 all reduces the ego and it widens your perception. 00:36:16.960 --> 00:36:19.520 It reconnects you to something larger than yourself. 00:36:19.520 --> 00:36:22.320 When you experience awe, whether it's in nature, 00:36:22.320 --> 00:36:27.320 or music, like moral beauty, grief, silence, 00:36:27.960 --> 00:36:30.160 your nervous system softens. 00:36:32.000 --> 00:36:34.120 Your sense of self shrinks in the best way. 00:36:34.120 --> 00:36:36.480 You become less obsessed with proving 00:36:36.480 --> 00:36:38.280 and more open to seeing. 00:36:41.120 --> 00:36:43.800 And a person who's been widened by awe 00:36:43.800 --> 00:36:46.120 is harder to mobilize by fear, 00:36:47.920 --> 00:36:50.160 harder to manipulate by outrage, 00:36:50.160 --> 00:36:52.640 harder to bait into dominance. 00:36:54.440 --> 00:36:57.000 So maybe the question isn't, how do we win? 00:36:57.920 --> 00:36:59.920 Maybe the question is, how do we stay human? 00:37:02.320 --> 00:37:04.840 Because if we stay human, we stay interruptible. 00:37:07.040 --> 00:37:09.120 If we stay interruptible, we become, 00:37:09.120 --> 00:37:11.760 we don't become captives to the stampede. 00:37:11.760 --> 00:37:15.400 We can ask questions, we can listen. 00:37:17.200 --> 00:37:21.920 And maybe that's what resisting looks like in this moment. 00:37:25.200 --> 00:37:28.840 Which is hard, like maybe you guys don't wanna yell at people. 00:37:32.000 --> 00:37:32.840 I do. 00:37:32.840 --> 00:37:34.920 (laughs) 00:37:38.320 --> 00:37:41.960 Maybe resisting just looks like slowing down, 00:37:41.960 --> 00:37:46.960 listening, I think, very sad, like, yes. 00:37:47.840 --> 00:37:51.960 I sat with some pastors this last week. 00:37:51.960 --> 00:37:56.960 All pastor churches that are majority African American. 00:37:57.040 --> 00:38:01.720 And man, to listen to them talk about like social justice 00:38:01.720 --> 00:38:03.680 and the need to vote. 00:38:03.680 --> 00:38:05.640 And like, it's just something I didn't grow up with 00:38:05.640 --> 00:38:08.280 because in the evangelical church is kind of like, 00:38:08.280 --> 00:38:09.480 here's who you vote for. 00:38:09.480 --> 00:38:14.480 I mean, I didn't tell you that, but if you are a Christian, 00:38:16.640 --> 00:38:18.840 but I'm not gonna tell you that, 00:38:18.840 --> 00:38:20.640 and then that's kinda it, right? 00:38:20.640 --> 00:38:23.200 But I do think like, yes, vote, yes, speak, 00:38:23.200 --> 00:38:26.680 yes, advocate against injustice. 00:38:27.640 --> 00:38:30.560 But don't surrender your nervous system to panic. 00:38:33.280 --> 00:38:36.440 Don't surrender your humanity to outrage. 00:38:36.440 --> 00:38:39.360 And don't surrender your formation 00:38:39.360 --> 00:38:42.060 of becoming who you're called to be to the herd. 00:38:44.000 --> 00:38:46.560 We're living in a moment designed to keep us running, 00:38:46.560 --> 00:38:49.160 designed to keep us reactive, keep us tribal, 00:38:49.160 --> 00:38:51.280 keep us angry, keep us afraid. 00:38:51.280 --> 00:38:54.940 And when we run long enough, we forget what calm feels like. 00:38:58.640 --> 00:39:00.320 Jesus steps into wilderness. 00:39:00.320 --> 00:39:03.320 He faces the offer of power and he refuses, 00:39:03.320 --> 00:39:06.520 not because he's passive, not because he doesn't care, 00:39:06.520 --> 00:39:08.560 not because injustice doesn't matter, 00:39:08.560 --> 00:39:12.720 but because he refuses to let fear form and shape him. 00:39:14.280 --> 00:39:17.440 He refuses to be the kingdom with the tools of the empire. 00:39:17.440 --> 00:39:19.800 He refuses to let ego define leadership, 00:39:19.800 --> 00:39:24.320 and he shows us what being a healthy, whole human can look like. 00:39:27.840 --> 00:39:29.880 Maybe that's the call right now. 00:39:29.880 --> 00:39:32.760 Not to withdraw, not to be silent, not to stop caring, 00:39:32.760 --> 00:39:35.400 but to refuse to become what we oppose. 00:39:36.960 --> 00:39:39.640 Refuse to let outrage become our oxygen. 00:39:41.440 --> 00:39:46.440 Refuse to let fear be the thing that forms us. 00:39:49.240 --> 00:39:51.960 Because here's what I realized this week, 00:39:51.960 --> 00:39:53.680 when I didn't post that video, 00:39:55.560 --> 00:39:57.200 nothing changed out there. 00:40:00.200 --> 00:40:01.840 But something did change in here. 00:40:05.520 --> 00:40:08.120 I wasn't as small, I wasn't as tight, 00:40:08.120 --> 00:40:09.540 I wasn't as reactive. 00:40:11.440 --> 00:40:12.800 And I think that matters. 00:40:15.720 --> 00:40:18.600 Because the kind of person that I become 00:40:18.600 --> 00:40:21.120 determines the kind of world that I help create. 00:40:23.640 --> 00:40:25.360 And if I speak from a narrowed place, 00:40:25.360 --> 00:40:27.560 I contribute to narrowing. 00:40:27.560 --> 00:40:31.560 If I live from a widened place, I contribute to widening. 00:40:31.560 --> 00:40:35.440 And awe is one of the ways that we widen. 00:40:37.360 --> 00:40:40.640 It reminds us that we're small, but not insignificant. 00:40:40.640 --> 00:40:43.840 Reminds us the world is bigger than the algorithm. 00:40:43.840 --> 00:40:45.760 Reminds us that the person across from us 00:40:45.760 --> 00:40:47.520 is more than their position. 00:40:49.880 --> 00:40:52.400 It doesn't make us passive, it makes us grounded. 00:40:54.040 --> 00:40:55.760 And grounded people can tell the truth 00:40:55.760 --> 00:40:57.640 without becoming violent in spirit. 00:40:59.560 --> 00:41:02.040 Robert's not here today, he would argue with me. 00:41:04.480 --> 00:41:06.480 Grounded people can resist injustice 00:41:06.480 --> 00:41:08.400 without surrendering their humanity. 00:41:09.640 --> 00:41:13.040 And grounded people can speak clearly without mirroring chaos. 00:41:15.600 --> 00:41:20.600 I see a lot of chaos like fueling it. 00:41:22.200 --> 00:41:24.040 So here's the invitation this week. 00:41:24.040 --> 00:41:27.720 Before you post, before you react, this is to me, 00:41:27.720 --> 00:41:32.720 before you react, before you escalate, pause, 00:41:32.720 --> 00:41:35.320 breathe and ask yourself, 00:41:36.200 --> 00:41:38.140 am I responding from fear? 00:41:39.680 --> 00:41:44.160 Or from belovedness, from knowing I'm loved? 00:41:44.160 --> 00:41:45.800 Am I trying to dominate? 00:41:45.800 --> 00:41:49.000 Or am I trying to widen the conversation? 00:41:49.880 --> 00:41:53.120 Am I running with the herd or am I staying human here? 00:41:55.200 --> 00:41:56.760 Because I think this is the way of Jesus. 00:41:56.760 --> 00:42:00.440 Not grasping, not proving, not performing, not conquering, 00:42:00.440 --> 00:42:04.400 but rooted, present, unhurried and clear. 00:42:04.400 --> 00:42:07.800 And when we live like that, we become hard to manipulate, 00:42:07.800 --> 00:42:11.840 hard to mobilize by outrage, hard to recruit, interfere 00:42:11.840 --> 00:42:14.820 and that quietly is resistance. 00:42:16.440 --> 00:42:21.440 So arsenal, stay awake, stay grounded, stay interruptable, 00:42:28.520 --> 00:42:32.440 and above all, go love well. 00:42:35.240 --> 00:42:37.040 Because love is not naive, 00:42:37.040 --> 00:42:39.640 it's not weak, it's not silent, 00:42:39.640 --> 00:42:42.520 but it's the only thing strong enough to calm a stampede 00:42:42.520 --> 00:42:43.680 without becoming one. 00:42:45.000 --> 00:42:48.080 So go do that, love well, that's who you're made to be. 00:42:48.080 --> 00:42:51.080 (audience applauds)