How to Avoid a Bummer Summer

Jesse:
Well, we officially made it. It's the end of season three of Go Mad. The only reason we're not tearing up is that we're already jazzed for season four.

Yes, jazzed. That and we can't stop laughing about Brad's Panera Bread story. Just listen for yourself.

Today, Doug and Brad give tips on how to avoid a bummer summer by being intentional with your time and with your relationships. We hope you have a great summer and we look forward to starting the conversation again in the fall. Ready?

Let's go mad

Brad:
Welcome everyone to GoMad with Doug and Brad and Jesse. Here we are, we're back in the studio. It's our season finally.

What wait? Wait. Season finale.

That's it. I think that is it. These were the big things.

You always had well, I mean obviously we have to end on a cliffhanger. We don't know what it is yet, but uh season finales all the time Cliffhanger. So Jesse may just mute us partway through and this that's it.

Brad:
That's just the cliffhanger. What were they saying?

Doug:
We're gonna end halfway through the sentence. of what color is Brad going to dye his hair? So you just gonna have to dye or what the Yes he's gonna surprise you. His hair is going that he died and then it stops and the next season starts with purple.

Brad:
So what we're gonna do today is we're gonna spend a just a few minutes together wrapping up our season three, and we're gonna be talking about how not to have a bummer summer. Now, this is not just gonna be about for You personally, it will be uh some helps for you, but how you as a parent, a grandparent, aunt, uncle, youth leader, what whoever you are that's listening to this, you can avoid having a bummer summer yourself and help others in your life have the same thing. But first of all, I do need to point out it's hot Uh I I like to state the obvious.

A little bit. Yeah. It is a uh but the good thing is what I've noticed where where we live here Is that it is hot, but it is a massively disgusting, wet, gross heat.

So that's I think that's that's good, isn't it?

Jesse:
Thank you for pointing that out.

Doug:
That's what they say, isn't it? I I couldn't believe it The the you know there's like I looked at the weather app today and it said actual temp ninety-seven feels like temp. Mars.

And I no, so, but I gotta tell you this really fast. I saw this um this summer deodorant commercial online. It's for this thing, I think it's called Lume or something, and they call it an all-body natural deodorant, which for the summer, which I'm not sure how that all works.

It's quite a workout right after the shower. Hopefully it's not in place of the shower. But this was great.

Listen, the way they put it is Uh, I gotta read this word for word. A man of increasingly heftier carriage may find greater incidence of perspiratory excessiveness. Those of us who have a few extra pounds might be able to uh see where I'm coming from, but oh yay, summer.

Brad:
Oh my goodness. That is pretty funny. I don't even know what to do right now. So it is summer and uh the uh extra dose of deodorant doesn't hurt, but uh I will say that uh I've got some big summer plans coming up. But first, Jesse Doug, what any any Big summer plans or what do you like to do I in the summer?

Jesse:
What what you got? Well, we have this thing called Warrior Leadership Summit coming up next week.

Brad:
We do Warrior Leadership Summit is coming and you Jesse and you Doug are part of the mostly native, you guys aren't, I hate to tell you, but mostly native worship team close at Warrior Leadership Summit where we will have hundreds Of native young people from across North America. I can't wait.

Doug:
And then of course on Eagles Wings, if we're talking about uh summer plans, you know um that our family will sometimes travel with the on Eagles Wings team to offer support. Uh so my summer plans are basically touring the beautiful restrooms of the country. In other words in other words, somehow my kids I don't know how all three could have been. They were all blessed with the world's smallest bladder. So every thirty minutes Dad.

Brad:
No, no, please don't say it.

Doug:
Dad, stop again

Brad:
I do have to tell you, for me, we have this new uh splash pad in Harrison. I'm laying there all summer. I'm just I know it's both children, but they're children might be a little bit reserved.

No, I've reserved it. It's blocked out for hours just for me. Mommy, what's Dude, the big man running in the middle of the splash.

Doug:
Just jump over him.

Brad:
So actually what I am doing is in just a uh few days My family and I start with Warrior Leadership Summit. We load up an RV and uh we travel with the On Eagles Wings hope team and we get to see front row seat of what God is doing. We get to chase his glory.

As one of our cooks for the team once said, we chase his glory all summer seeing the miracles he does through native young people telling other native young people about the hope they found in Jesus. Now, an RV life, you see like awesome the commercials you see, camping world commercials and all these things. It's like These families are we don't RV like others.

It is families are like pulling into these campgrounds and it's beautiful and they they set up we we've stayed in a couple RV parks. We'll just stay like one night night while traveling. And people have like inflatables.

There's pink flamingos in their yard and everything. It's like we so we don't do that, but what we You normally do, you know, we're driving along and we're trying to stay ahead of the team, get places we need to go and everything. So I s I see a Panera bread.

Awesome. So there we go. We're stopping for lunch.

Normally, I know I'm driving a large RV. Normally, I park and I go in I saw that there was a wide open drive-thru. I mean like it was wide there's nothing there's nothing I've This is what they call foreshadowing in novels There is nothing on either side I'm telling officer the person, the person taking my order.

Did they say a word No. I think they went and got the other workers. Uh so so I go to that window. And you know Panera has windows.

All around. So everyone inside. All of a sudden I start pulling forward and there's just this tight wall that I I I can't even explain the sound I heard.

I started pulling through. There was nine and I so I thought the good news is end of the story I thought that it was going to be just ripped up the side. It wasn't. Yeah, it took out the window.

Run honey! Forget the order! Drive-thru had a whole new meaning.

Uh but but I have to tell you that I now cannot show my face at any Panera ever again because of embarrassment.

Jesse:
That went out in a company-wide email

Brad:
They have the picture of the RV and Brad's terrified face by the case.

Jesse:
That was probably about a decade ago

Brad:
And it lives in infamy in my family. We every summer that stuff in those R V commercials. Or the R V movie with Robin Williams.

I gotta tell you, it's closer than you think after some of those experiences. But you know what That was because I thought I knew the better way to go. I thought, hey, I know the right direction to take.

Playing by your own rules, kinda. Exactly. And All of a sudden I found myself thinking about David.

Uh now we're gonna be like, what? Yeah, we are, we are. So this is where I all of a sudden and and there's a scene in R V actually the movie where he Doesn't listen to the GPS winds up going over a mountain top that uh d and and it's ridiculous, but we see that Uh just our own lives where we're like, hey, no, I know better.

I know I can fit through there. I know that I can do this and uh and make it through, but then all of a sudden we realize, oh wait, I took a detour leading to what could be a bummer summer. 1 Samuel 11, 2 through 5.

One late afternoon, David got up from taking his nap and was strolling on the roof of the palace. From his vantage point on the roof, he saw a woman bathing. The woman was stunningly beautiful.

David sent to ask about her and was told, isn't this Bathsheba, daughter of Eliam and wife of Uriah the Hittite? David sent his agents to get her. After she arrived, he went to bed with her.

Then she returned home. Before long, she realized she was pregnant. We see in this passage what happens when we take a detour.

And that's what we're going to talk about this summer. Is how to avoid those summer detours and how you can help someone else not have a bummer summer filled with regret So let's let's dive in.

Doug:
You know, that's it's interesting too that that in that scripture that it says of David, in the in the springtime when when kings were going to war He decides to kind of skirt his spiritual responsibility and just start maybe just taking a look around, taking a glance at the when I hear that story, man. I I think about how easy it is for us to view Bathsheba on our phones these days. How and all it took was a glance We we uh a great way to start a detour in the summer, because there are people walking around not a lot of clothes, all that stuff, is is just to start to give in to those things, especially if you're a guy But the the cool thing about the summer is it has kind of a different rhythm.

You know, I think we'd all probably say there's some things we'd like to improve about ourselves. Why not take the summer to work on those some areas we maybe we need to grow spiritually, some relationships, uh, maybe especially with our spouse or with our kids, maybe our grandkids that we'd like to see become stronger. or closer.

So, Brad, I you brought up this idea the other day, and the first thing that hit me was this don't let this summer go by, Doug, without asking the Lord, maybe each day during this summer, like King David did, Psalm 139, search me, O God, and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there's anything offensive in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

And then maybe try this. Write down what he tells you. If you ask him that, especially in a quiet place He will tell you, give him a little time, be still, know he's God.

Maybe he's telling you to get serious about walking away. from something that you've been too dependent on that's affecting your relationship with him. Maybe it's an addiction.

And maybe he's just saying, get closer to your spouse. Take this time with your kids. where they have a different rhythm, where they're uh they've got more free time on their hands.

Are they gonna just spend it um uh playing video games all summer or are you gonna be intentional with your kids, your grandkids, your your youth group and really make an impact with them.

Brad:
I think that's the key is we see that David took this brief detour. He was a man after God's own heart. And he takes this brief to detour because there's more time, things are a little different, seasons changing.

And all of a sudden we see that with ourselves, that we take these momentary detours that can lead to huge regrets. And we know that summertime is a time with more time. Honestly, it's a time with more skin that people are seeing.

It's a time with more time on devices for for your kids and grandkids especially because you may still be working going to work your normal schedule what are your kids doing all day at home what are they spending their time looking at And you may say, well, the devices, hey, we've got we've got internet filters, we've got blockers and everything else. The enemy keeps looking for ways that those can be beat where the images can come through. So you could look at it as, man, there's all these things and there's all this time and there's chances for just a vacation.

But we know that a vacation without purpose. can all of a sudden go a different direction than you had ever hoped. And so what we're talking about is, yeah, Doug, how how do we look at where we can invest our summer instead of wasting a summer to invest it.

Invest your summer in saying, hey, we have extra time. We have things that we could look at doing something that we don't usually have the time to do because of school, because of sports, whatever else, all of a sudden What can we do as a family to invest our summer in our family and in the lives of others?

Doug:
I want to encourage you if you're listening and you uh have some time this summer. Spend some time, like I said, asking God to to point out areas where you can honor Him more. You may find an area Where you need him to break some chains, it could be something you're too dependent on, even an addiction.

For some I just feel like very briefly here, I'm gonna do this in sixty seconds. uh kind of a uh a way a prescription for breaking free of an addiction. Three B's, real quick, a brother, be accountable to someone you trust.

Sin is a vampire, drag it into the light. In James 5. 16, it says, if you need healing, confess your sin to one another.

So number one. of the three bees a brother. Number two, a Bible.

Romans 12, 2 says, we're transformed by the renewing of our minds. Let God's word clorox your mind. Spend extra time there.

Memorize scripture. that has to do with beating this addiction. And finally, a bat, like a baseball bat.

In Acts 19, we see how uh the church found some things that were dishonoring to God, some some sorcery books and they didn't go sell them. They didn't put them in a drawer somewhere. They did a bonfire in the middle of the town.

Uh They were burning every bridge ev they were burning every bridge back to the old them. So so you can't go back, so you're new and free, so you'll never go back. Burn those bridges.

If a bridge is a s an SI swimsuit issue um uh movies with the wrong junk and whatever it is, be radical about getting rid of that stuff. Do you have anything, Brad, this uh this

Brad:
Summer you might be trying with your kids or uh first of all, I really like that, Doug, as far as the uh be the phrase you used, be radical. about it because I think that we live in a world where it's kinda like, well, this is okay. I don't want to look too different.

I don't want to do I don't want to stand out too much. It takes radical faith and radical steps of faith to have a radically life-changing summer And that's where you can look. We we okay, so you you hear people all the time talk about, I've got to get in shape for the swimsuit.

I've got Long way to go. But uh you've got to get you know, people are like more than a week. No doubt.

Going on vacation in a week. I better get started. Well, and so you talk hear people talk about that because they want to look different for the summer.

What if you look at this as an opportunity to look different on the other side of summer? Or all of a sudden you say, man, by the time our kids start school, our grandkids start school, by the time It maybe you have an empty nest and you're like, man, by the time my wife and I just get on the other side of the summer, how do you want things to look? And I think one thing that is a huge area of focus is to intentionally spend time together.

So let's talk about the family for just a minute here. That before you look outward, make sure that you are Caring for the family at home. So uh Doug, you and I were talking, and I love one of the things you mentioned just the other night.

I just said to my kids, I'm like, all right, who wants to play Mario Kart? I'm the worst. I am I am That's what they love.

I love the game, but they're like Dad you have to drift. I'm like I don't know what you're saying and I Mario Kart the video game. They're like press it.

Yes, they're like pray they're they're like Pl press these eight keys all at once and turn around and you will all of a sudden win. And I'm just like, but they know it is we have so much fun because well they do. No, we have so much fun because I'm coming in Uh not dead last, which is good, but I know they're gonna win, but we have a lot of fun just doing that together.

So the point on that is What are your kids doing? What does your spouse do that you could do along with them instead of just saying, hey, go have fun. What can you do to invest in them?

Doug:
I love that example. When you hear it at first, you might go, well, are you crazy joining them playing video games? I don't like video games.

That's not really the point. The point is rather than, you know, a and m you might have a conviction against your kids playing video games, and that's fine, but um but whatever it is, something that they love doing, enter into it with them rather than saying, oh that's kids stuff. Especially m maybe maybe because you're not as good at it as they are, because they will have the greatest blast.

They're they're well. They're owed. Mom and dad are always in charge.

They'll have a blast seeing mom and dad kind of struggle through it and something they can beat them in Brad. You're right. Summertime is a great time.

Summertime the summer months are kind of a bonding agent time where where you can grow in a relationship at warp speed compared to the rest of the year where there's school and something happening in sports every night.

Brad:
Uh Doug, talk to me about Uh just something I know you've shared it on the podcast before, but what's uh talk to us about the uh dude's power verse. Uh the talk to us about what Maybe some a place someone could get started.

Doug:
Yeah, le yeah, let's let's do a couple of these here. Yeah, we we a little while back, you know, we want our kids to love the Bible. But they're they're younger.

And and I mean one is eighteen now, one is twelve, one is twenty one. But what we do is we've always tried to make um scripture learning, a fun thing. So we we have this thing called now we also go over scripture with our with our daughter.

But but she's in college, so it's just like the three dudes, me and my two sons, and we we have a just the dude's power verse. Just the dude's power verse, and we chant this. And we learn a scripture verse that might be especially good for a growing young man.

We make it fun. Sometimes there are prizes if you can if you learn a certain level of them. And like we'll do these like the On Eagles Wings team does.

Dad will teach the On Eagles Wings team these scriptures. And they'll use these enormous huge body movements that are funny. I'm not talking like little finger puppets.

I'm talking like Big and and my boys just absolutely love it. You know what happened the other day? My son was praying for something.

that we needed. We had learned a scripture verse a little earlier just about you do not have because you do not ask, and when you do ask, you don't receive because you ask with the wrong motives. Real quick, he prayed and he said, He said, Lord, you know that we need this.

Um, I know you say we don't have because we don't ask, but we are asking. And you say that that we don't get what we ask for because it's for the wrong reasons. Well, this is a great reason.

We want to bring you glory, God. So would you please bring this to us and God in his mercy two days later actually directly answered that prayer. Um it was awesome seeing our kids approach God with scripture.

So yeah, start maybe start a Bible verse contest, you know, play, play video games with your kids. Teach.

Brad:
uh what do you got you gotta have a couple ideas i think i think the reality is that uh you you may be like man we can't learn a verse week we can't do this or whatever else but you can start Get started with something new. Start a new family tradition that that Start with short verses. Yeah, and I do love what you say as far as one of the reasons we mentioned the video games, we mentioned kind of the fun motions with verses. Some are supposed to be fun in people's minds. It's supposed to be a time of fun. So if all of a sudden you're like, we're going to study the word of God together in our extra

Doug:
So you learn to not disobey your parents.

Brad:
That's the thing. So just make it fun. Make it something they'll remember and help them.

What a great phrase to hear, can we do that again? Oh. You know something's happening there.

Jesse, I wanted to ask you real quick For those, this is kind of on the personal level, uh, for those who maybe listen, just have some extra time this summer, you're doing something uh to do a little more learning this summer. Oh yeah. And and w what are you doing with some of your summer?

Jesse:
Yeah. Um I well Doug, you mentioned Romans twelve two before. If you look ahead to Romans twelve, eleven, it says, never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor serving the Lord.

And the reason why that hits me is because some are I I attend when my th uh rhythm and when my schedule gets thrown off. I mean I I can get lazy. And um it's not bad to take breaks.

It's good to take breaks. But getting lazy in my love for and service to the Lord, uh, like you mentioned David before, can actually have some long-term penalties. So I think about even things like regular things like church attendance and spending time with the Lord and spending time with other Christians.

Um, if I let that slack or slide during the summer I'm actually endangering myself moving forward. Um, so uh I I'm in school for the summer uh and that takes up a lot of time, but I I I'm trying as much as I can. How can I stay involved in church and have others around me to encourage me in that zeal?

Because I find when I'm off on my own, my zeal is gonna turn a little bit. lazy and a little bit sloppy.

Doug:
Man, that's that is so good. Jesse's actually getting his um your master's at what is it, Jesse? It's your MDiv. You're Masters of Divinity, pretty awesome thing.

Brad:
I will say, yeah, that's why he's in school. It's not because he was held back or anything like that.

Doug:
That's not the summer school he's in. Uh no, but I love that Jesse. That's another maybe another quick great example here is um is uh whether you're grandparent, parent working with young people.

Um, ask your the the kids that you have some influence with to think about who needs help in the community. Summer's a great time to help them learn how to serve. Ask them to think about that themselves.

Ask them how they think then they could help those people, maybe it's elderly people, then give it a name and put it into action together. Nothing bonds you together like serving together. Let's these summer months be your bonding agents with your family, especially when your kids own it.

It was their idea, they named it, they decided how to help them You know how easy it is to find a nursing home in your town and call them. It's really you might think it's hard, call them and just say, could our kids come and read with, talk with the the um older folks there that are maybe lonely and you have just taught your kids that summer is about not just yes having fun yourself

Brad:
but serving and learning and bonding together by doing that. And bringing some summer fun to someone else.

Brad:
Even that can be fun.

Brad:
And guess what's even easier to find than a nursing home in your area? A neighbor. Look next door.

Yes. Your neighbor. I I have uh neighbors around me who are now we'll be traveling most of the summer, but A couple of them have just sold their houses, not because of us.

I want to make that clear. But uh they've they've sold their homes. Pretty much.

And they're an execs. If they're loading up a moving truck, what about stopping and saying, hey, do you need any help with that? If they are just a neighbor to make something for them in your town next door to you in your community who are the people in need.

So I love that single mom, bring some cookies. Absolutely. So listen, I hope you've got where we're coming from today that We have an opportunity in the summer choice to make really.

Are we going to make the bold choice to avoid the detours, to avoid those mistakes that can be made when we take that Spiritual summer vacation, and are we gonna help others? Make the bold choice to help others. Embrace what this summer can be in a fun way, in an enjoyable way, but yes, in a life-changing and meaningful way.

We pray that you'll be able to do that. We thank you for joining us this season for all that we've covered. Uh we have covered so much ground.

Doug:
Season three already done.

Brad:
And Doug, what would you say for those that are looking forward to a season four

Doug:
We've got some great ideas already for season four, including some great guests. Great guests. We do want to thank you for for listening and uh and hopefully Together we're learning and hearing from God about how to be a greater ambassador for Him.

We're all in this together. We would ask one thing. Maybe between now and when season four starts in the fall, would you share if you enjoyed this podcast, would you share it with a friend or maybe six of them?

Um, leave a review. Um, click five stars. If it's only one star, make sure you blame Brad in the review.

No, but But really i i we would really appreciate it if maybe even pray about who who could benefit from um learn more about how to be an ambassador and and maybe share it with them, share it with the family member. We sure would appreciate that because

Brad:
We can't wait to get to season four with our friends here again. So from all of us, all of you, just an encouragement to have just avoid that bummer summer. Be Christ's ambassador every day as you go through the summer months ahead.

Brad:
And we pray that from now till we get to talk with you again, you will go mad.