Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to the Life Refresh podcast. My name is Ryan Robinson, and if you are looking for a podcast that is designed to uplift, encourage, and revive your heart, mind and spirit, you're in the right place. Welcome to the journey of becoming the version of you God designed from the.
[00:00:20] Speaker B: Foundations of the earth.
Hello and welcome back to Life refresh Podcast. You know who it is. It's Ryan Robinson. Thank you for joining once again. We just started a series called Control Alt Delete and I had a little tagline for it called The Hotkeys of Relationship and it's great. Again, we just got started with obviously the first one, Control. But today we're going to be talking about the Alt portion, alt meaning alternative. So before I get into the podcast or to the content for today, share this, let someone know.
I hope and pray that this would be a meaningful topic for you, especially as we're going into a season where we get to run into a lot of people. There's a lot of pressure to visit and see folks and eat here and then go there and so on and so forth. So I hope that this provides a little bit of context and insight. So control alt delete.
Well, I had to correct myself. It's command option delete if you're an Apple person. But if know just going for what we're familiar with, with Command Control Alt Delete, it is a series of keys that have a particular function that cause, once done in sequence, will cause the operation of a particular device to be terminated or completely restart the system as it needs to.
It is something that we typically ignore. May not have seen a correlation to that combination taking place in our relationships, but in this particular way, I've been felt or been led to really talk to that particular function, how that is in our relationship. So we're talking about the alt portion of that. And I'm going to give a little bit of detail to this, but I consider this the alternate path that happens in a relationship. So the Alt key on the keyboard is used to change the function of other keys offering alternative operations. So consider this. If you hit the Alt key and then press another, say a letter on the keyboard like a B or an A, it could, depending on what your operating system is, trigger the computer to make a Greek letter like beta or alpha.
Again, you would only know, like I said before, if you're Apple or a PC, what that particular alternate function is. But in some cases, that alternate function may be visible on the keyboard. So some laptops, if you hold the Alt key, may have volume or excuse me, brightness on the screen that will be able to be adjusted. There may be some other functions that come up because of holding that particular button and then another key. So it gives again, it's the same key if you just didn't have any other buttons pressed. But if you press the alternate button, you will get something that you typically would not have gotten. And it is something that's hidden. It's something that doesn't necessarily is heavily broadcasted unless you're actually in that world. So alternate, how does that work in our relationships? So I'm going to talk about go back to what we talked about before. I'm going to talk about Genesis chapter two. And I've read before Genesis chapter two, beginning at verse 18 all the way down to the end to 25. But I'm going to just jump right into it at 21 to provide some context here. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While the man slept, the Lord God took out one of the man's ribs and closed up the opening. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib, and he brought her to him. At last the man exclaimed, this is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. She will be called woman because she was taken from man. This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife and the two are united into one. Now the man and the woman were both naked and they felt no shame.
So we talked about how this worked out essentially, right? This was something that in many cases God wanted everyone to be one. So when God creates something, he usually creates something one time and then pulls from that one to create many.
Hence why we have the Earth is fully multiplied with people because from one person, Adam and the second person, Eve, the entire Earth was replenished. The Bible says to be fruitful and to multiply. So that is in many cases what has happened. So what I want to talk about here is the alternate path that happens, okay? Now we talked about and we know and many of us know, and if you don't know, adam and Eve had an issue with the serpent, a particular slithery villain which deceived Eve into doing something that she probably wouldn't have done or known to do. So I'm going to teach on this just briefly, and then we're going to talk into how this works.
Genesis, chapter three. The next chapter says this the serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he said to the woman, did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden? He says, of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden. The woman replied, Is only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat? God said, you must not eat of it or even touch it. If you do, you will die. You won't die. The serpent replied to the woman, god knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil. The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom that it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate it too. At that moment, their eyes were open and they were suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. And they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.
When the cool evening breeze was blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees. And the Lord God said to the man, where are you? He replied, I heard you walking in the garden. So I hid. I was afraid because I was naked. Who told you you were naked? The Lord God asked, have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?
Okay, so that was Genesis, chapter one, verses one through ten through eleven. And what's important here is, in most cases, what ends up happening is that we sometimes have alternate ideas and alternate perspectives in relationships. And one of the things and this is a perfect example, because this happened and is not between Adam and Eve, it's between God and Adam and Eve, right? So two to one, and this is why this is important to talk about.
Many times when we are in relationship with people, we have an idea of what we think these things should look like. I have a daughter and I have a son, and my daughter typically tells me what she thinks this particular outcome should look like. So if she has she loves dressing herself.
She actually has really incredible fashion.
But some days as kids, right, some days it just doesn't work or the patterns just don't match up, right? So she decides one day that I want to wear this. And I'm like, Baby, it is 72 degrees outside. You don't want to wear a long sleeve shirt and some sweatpants, you won't like it.
But you know what she'll tell me is she says, Well, Daddy, it looks cooler outside. Or excuse me, let me rephrase that it looks different outside than what I am wearing.
This even applies when it gets cold outside. That's a real one that's happening right now.
It's a little chilly outside, but it's sunny, so it looks warmer than it actually is. So her perspective is, I'm going to just wear what I think it is outside, but in reality, it's freezing outside. It is a sunny, cold day.
And what ends up happening is most of the time we only get part of the story.
And because we only get part of the story and not getting the full round piece of the picture, we end up preparing for something that we only have perspective on but have no information about. And we end up being unprepared for the circumstances that we're going to be experiencing when we go outside. One of the things I used to do growing up and I wish I didn't do it, but I would just sometimes go, it's a cool day, I'm outside, it's hot. I'll take my coat off, start running around thinking I'm Superman or Batman or whatever.
Not like Batman can catch a cold because he's human. But anyway, I digress.
But there's times where I just thought I could just beat whatever it was. So whatever my parents said was needed for me to do, I would do the opposite because it seemed like a better idea.
It just seemed better. But in reality it really wasn't. It was a dumb idea, clearly. So with that being said, when you're in relationship with a partner or with someone, you have to be on one accord.
Let me go to Ecclesiastes, and Ecclesiastes, while I'm pulling it up, is a book of wisdom book. It comes right after Proverbs and it's actually a very I won't call it a sad book, but it is it's a very sobering book, let me say that, because what it does is it really talks about and give you some context. The author of that book is King Solomon. And King Solomon is considered the wealthiest and wisest individual and king who has ever walked on this earth.
There is something called Solomon's Temple and it was blinged out. It was one of the most beautiful and most stunning expressions for God's presence to reside in. Solomon was gifted with this unsurmountable amount of wisdom and because of it he wrote one was given the opportunity to write the Book of Proverbs, which has all sorts of wisdom in it. But also the Book of Ecclesiastes talks about the sobering things that comes with wisdom. Almost knowing too much has a gift and a curse.
And one of the taglines that happens all the time in this book, it says it's like chasing the wind. Everything is meaningless. That's what it talks about. Everything is meaningless. Now, I don't want to go into a negative piece, but why is a book like that in the Bible? Well, I think it's applied because sometimes wisdom and knowing has its burden and you need to be able to know what that is. So Ecclesiastes, chapter four, verses nine through twelve.
This one is the value of a friend. That's the tagline of it says, two are better than one because they are a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, for he has no one to help him up again. If two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one be warm alone?
Though 1 may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
Okay, so this ties right back in to what God's initial design for us to be, which is the thing that he said was not good, was that man shouldn't be alone. But this also says here that man should also be on the same page with the other man, or in this case, what we talked about, the other God with God himself. So sometimes we're not in concert with God. Have you ever been to ever seen ballroom dancing? Now, Dancing with the Stars is ballroom dancing. I'll give you that kind of credit. But if you have never seen ballroom dancing in person, it is an incredible thing to watch.
It's incredible. I mean, to see people flow together so effortlessly, to be able to stun, to be moving, to have joy and just glide across the dance floor is a crazy and amazing thing to watch.
So much so I took ballroom dancing. I took ballroom dancing. Yes, I did. I know a bunch of them. And one of the things that I learned in ballroom dancing is that there has to always be a give and a take.
There may be some alternate things that may happen that the partner will trigger, the lead may trigger. There might be something. But the thing is, you will never see unless someone's really mad or if you're watching a movie, someone who is in the middle of a dance routine, just walk off and go a different way. You don't ever see that. Why? Because that's not in concert with what they've practiced.
And honestly, the only time you see uncoordinated people is when they don't practice what they said they signed up to do.
I'm going to leave that there for a minute.
If you are uncoordinated in what you do, you never practiced it in the first place.
Now, this is the thing. If you practice and you bump your knee and you step on the toe or something, that's fine. That comes with learning how to be coordinated. Just like I talked about in the last podcast, toward the end, three legged races aren't fun. No one's in control. You have to balance each other out. But there's a heavy cost in going an alternative route. If you choose to do one thing or your thing, or in the midst of having other people tied to you that you're also responsible for, there's a heavy cost involved. You can make a decision that affects your entire family.
And he's like, well, I thought it was best.
There has to be some trust involved. Yes, I get it. But there also has to be a one accord. There's another thing I'll pull up here, and Jesus even exemplifies this very well, and it is in John, the book of John, and it's in John 17.
And I'll just summarize the chapter, but one of the things that Jesus prayed for in John, chapter 17 is for oneness he says that I pray that they'll be one like you and I are one.
Right? And this close level of intimacy is required for anything to flow. In Acts chapter two, the Holy Spirit does not fall in the upper room unless everyone is on the same page. I'm going to read it because this is super important.
This is how important oneness is to God. Let me do this. Here we go. And this is the Day of Pentecost, verse one. When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.
Suddenly a sound like a blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the house where they were sitting.
They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
Now the important key here is that there had to be oneness.
In order for something to flow, there had to be oneness. And it's so hard in our world these days to get people to agree on one thing.
In my family, sometimes it's hard to agree on pizza on Fridays or a sub.
But the oneness is not just them being physically in one place, but it meant that they were all looking for the same mission together. They were all on one accord and God knows the heart before he looks on the outside. So everyone was looking for the same thing. And at that moment, boom. The Holy Spirit fell when there was oneness. Not alternate routes, not one going one way, one going the other way. And then all of a sudden there said, I'll meet you on the other side. No.
How can one be able to keep themselves warm? That's what Ecclesiastes chapter four says.
You need someone with you because if we talk about the law first mentioned, god said it's not good for man to be alone. So with that being said, alternative routes are hard to do when you're by yourself.
Now, if you take an alternate route together, that's a better trip, that is a better trip. That is a better circumstance, that is a better situation to be in because you're not alone.
Now this is the thing. What these hotkeys can do is they can produce loneliness if you use them at the wrong time, especially if you use them in combination. I mean, control and alternate routes gives to me it's a bad rap.
But again, this is incredible for you all, for all of you listeners. And this is something I've always learned. I was not the best guy at this early on in marriage. I'm still not the best at this that I have my idea of what things look like.
But I need to be able to submit that idea to someone else to shoot holes in. And maybe my idea isn't that great.
Maybe the route. Maybe might there maybe there might be a better route.
But if I don't say anything, if I don't submit it for consideration, I'll just be taking a trip by myself.
And that's a lonely trip, especially if you got to go far.
But that concludes today's.
The alternate route in relationship.
Again, it's a hotkey.
You split team, you break team, you got an issue. You got a problem.
Any team sport will tell you as soon as you break team, you're going to have challenges.
But that concludes today's podcast. We have one more left, and then we'll talk about one more thing before we get into our next topic. But keep it locked, and we'll see you in the next pod. Peace.
