Dad Answers The Tough Questions Introduction

What's my purpose? Why am I here? Where did I come from? How come there's so much evil in the world? I'm scared. How do I know what's true anymore? Hey kids. It's honestly so great to see you all again. As you probably noticed, it's been a while since I've made a long form video. Some of you thought that I stopped making videos, but I've actually been doing shorts so that we can stay connected. Despite the algorithm's attempts to disconnect us, I'm still trying to do that to keep us connected. But I've been away from long form videos for a bit, mainly because I just can't get out of my head the fact that we really need to talk about some of life's bigger questions. And I've hinted that I wanted to do that. We live in a world that's full of turmoil, and the unrest in the Middle East recently is unsettling. I'm also saddened to hear about the depression and anxiety that so many young people are experiencing today. I think at the core of this issue is a lack of hope. But for me, my faith actually gives me hope. Proverbs 12.25 says, Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression. But a good word makes it glad. So if I believe I have a good word to make you glad, or if I have answers that can help, how can I sit idly by and not share that hope with you? As a dad, I think that's the most loving thing that I can do. Do you know what the word gospel means? It means good news. Think about that for a second. If you had some good news, I mean the best news you've ever heard in your whole life, but you never shared it with me because you're worried that I might be offended, what kind of friend are you? Or what kind of friend am I if I do the same thing? Honestly, I think the response would be something like, you mean you knew this all along and you didn't tell me? In my new series where Dad Answers the Tough Questions, we're going to unravel what I'm talking about. I've been wrestling with the best way to go about this, and this introductory video is what I have come up with. Before I explain more, here's a dad joke for you. I was going to tell you a joke about existentialism, but there was no purpose. So I thought, what's the point? I'll be starting my new series this Sunday called Dad Answers the Tough Questions. And no, this won't be, how can we stump Dad? That would be far too easy. Instead, this will be honest discussions about life. These will be similar to the conversations that I have had over the years with my own kids, and still do, but now I want to have them with you. Because I'm a man of faith, I'll naturally be bringing how I see life through that lens. And so, if you don't share my faith, that's fine. I hope you still feel welcome here. Think of it as listening in on a conversation and comparing my perspective with your own. There's a saying I like, it says people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. So we're about six years into this channel, so hopefully I've earned enough goodwill with you that we can go a little deeper without scaring you off. As a man of faith, we're called to help the fatherless, widows, and orphans. And I receive messages and comments from people in all of those situations. When people write me, looking for answers, the first thing I do is I tell them to read the book of John and ask God to reveal himself to you. Some people respond with, thanks, I'll try that. Other people respond with, do you have anything else you can share with me? There's actually a story in the Bible about a man named Naaman. He was a powerful military commander and he was respected by everyone. But he had a serious problem. He suffered from leprosy. A young servant girl told him there was a prophet in Israel who could help him. So Naaman traveled a long way to see the prophet Elisha. Now Naaman probably expected something impressive. Maybe a big prayer. Some dramatic moment or some kind of ceremony. But instead, Elisha didn't even come out to meet him. He just sent a message. Go wash in the Jordan River seven times and you will be healed. And Naaman was actually furious. He thought, that's it? I came all this way for that? Our rivers back home are better than this one. He was ready to leave angry, still sick because the answer just seemed too simple. But his servant said something wise. They told him, if the prophet had asked you to do something difficult, wouldn't you have done it? Why not do this simple thing? So Naaman humbled himself. He went down to the Jordan River and dipped himself in the water seven times. And when he came up the seventh time, his skin was completely healed. Sometimes the thing standing between us and the help we need isn't the difficulty of the past, it's our own pride. Because sometimes the answer is simple, but we still have to be humble enough to do it. It reminds me of Proverbs 12.1 Whoever loves instruction loves knowledge. But he who hates correction is stupid. I do want to give you a quick heads up. In this series, we'll be grappling with some of life's most difficult questions. So some episodes may not be appropriate for younger viewers. When I upload my videos, I check the box that says not meant for kids, but I know a lot of younger people still watch. While 99% of my videos are perfectly fine for younger viewers, this series may be different. Also, what might add to the confusion is I say hey kids at the beginning of my videos. As I've said before, that's a term of endearment. I even have some 80-year-old kids watching, which of course is biologically impossible. So right now, the plan is to release these videos on Sundays, which I thought would be appropriate, with the first one beginning this Sunday, March 15th. I do plan to still continue making my regular how-to videos as a resource for you, but this series will allow us to have more depth in our relationship. At the very least, you'll know where I am coming from, and why I started this channel in the first place. In this series, we're going to tackle some of the big questions in life. Where did I come from? Surely you've thought about that. Why am I here? And what is my purpose? When I first started this channel, my goal was to simply help anyone who might need a little help. As you've probably heard me say before, I thought I might have 30 or 40 followers that I could then mentor and walk alongside. My original plan also included sharing my faith. And now that the dust has settled on this channel, I think it's time to do that more openly with you. Last August, I had emergency gallbladder surgery. And if you've ever had surgery, you know you have to sign forms in case something goes wrong. You basically have to sign your life away. You know, I've personally never had complications from surgery, thankfully, but I do know people who have. Several people, actually. A good friend of mine named Darrell, he was a pastor, he went in for knee surgery about 15 years ago. And there were complications and he actually never recovered from the anesthesia. I'm not trying to scare anyone. If you need surgery, I'm simply saying that moments like that remind us that life is fragile and we need to think about these things. While I was recovering in the hospital, I found myself thinking again about my own mortality. I've often talked about living your life with an open hand so that God can place things in it and he also can take things out of it. But when it comes to my YouTube channel, I realize I may have closed my hand to him. So I want to fix that by opening it back up. Because there's more to life than fixing things around the house. As a dad, I want to share my heart and my perspective on life with you. If you've watched this channel at all for a while, you probably know I have some kind of belief in a creator. I do talk openly about my faith in my book and in my interviews and I usually end my videos by saying God bless you. But there's a lot of confusion in the world and there's a lot of people who wear crosses or say God bless you and yet their lives don't seem to match up to that. So I just want to try to clear up the confusion. So part of this series is simply bringing some clarity to what I actually believe. I receive comments, emails and messages asking some very tough questions and I try to answer respectfully and thoughtfully in hopes that it helps. When I answer because they ask me, I feel it's necessary to explain my point of view and it's through the lens of my overall outlook, which of course includes my faith. I'll be turning 62 this year so I'm entering what many people would call the twilight years of my life. Over the past several months, while thinking about this series, I keep thinking, you know, I don't want to wait until I'm on my deathbed to say, oh by the way, here's how I made sense of life. That'd be strange, wouldn't it? I'd rather talk about it now so we can discuss it, debate it and learn from each other. Proverbs 27.17 says, as iron sharpens iron so one person sharpens another. About two years ago, you probably saw that I shared this, my good friend Dave Lawson was dying and during that time we spent hours praying and reasoning together because I believed then and I still believe now that that was the most loving thing that I could do if I called myself a friend of him. I told Dave, I said, Dave, I'm just one beggar showing another beggar where to find bread. So this may or may not make you uncomfortable, I don't know but Jesus claimed that he is the truth. So logically speaking, either he is or he isn't. So if you choose to reject him, that's your choice. While my kids were growing up, I used to tell them I just want to know what's true. The one thing that I would ask of you is make sure you know what or whom you're rejecting if in fact you reject him. Be careful not to build up a straw man and then knock him over. You owe it to yourself to search things out. For example, maybe you met someone that called themselves a Christian and he was a horrible person. Because that's out there, I've seen it. And so you rejected Christianity based on that. Or there's been a lot of bad things done in the name of Christianity or religion in general. Therefore you reject Christianity. I would encourage you to do your own research before making the decision. When the Apostle Paul, who was originally actually killing Christians before his conversion, once he was converted went out on missionary journey and was in Berea. He commended them for searching the scriptures to see if what he was saying was true. There's a great book called Evidence That Demands a Verdict that I would highly recommend that you read. It was written by a skeptic who took the time to do his own research. Near Christianity is also a good research and it's fairly short. Evidence That Demands a Verdict is pretty big. Near Christianity was written by C.S. Lewis, who was a former atheist. To kick off this series, I've recorded three conversations with my good friend and fellow dad, Abdu Murray. He's actually an international speaker and the author of several books, including his newest book, Fake ID. How AI and identity ideology are collapsing reality and what to do about it. I thought it would be a good resource, right? I met Abdu when he visited our church last year. He's incredibly thoughtful and intelligent. But what struck me the most about him was his kindness. He doesn't treat people like they're foolish for asking honest questions. So together, we recorded three conversations. Episode one is how do I determine what's true when there's so much information out there? Like AI and deep fakes and a growing culture of distrust. Episode two is there's so much evil in the world. If God exists, why does he allow it? And episode three is why am I here and what is my purpose? So look for my first video with Abdu on Sunday. I hope you'll join me as we explore these questions together. And lastly, I want to encourage you to hold these conversations with an open hand until you have all the information you need to make a decision. There are so many questions. We can't possibly get to all of them in one episode. So you might come away thinking, well, that makes sense. But now I have five more questions. And that's to be expected. But hopefully, as we reason together, slowly your questions will be answered. Just know that you may not get every answer you're looking for this side of eternity. But I believe there are enough good answers to take a step of faith. It's not a leap of faith. It's a step. And if you have any questions that you would like me and Abdu or just me to address, let me know in the comments. Thanks for watching, and God bless you. Dad, how do I