Episode Transcript
[00:00:21] Hello again and welcome back to Life Refresh podcast. You know, it is usual suspect Ryan Robinson here with you today, and I'm excited to, I was going to conclude the Control Alt delete series, but what I'm going to do is I'm actually going to add one more Topic to this. And what we're going to really talk about is when you have all the keys together, the control alternative, the deleting portion of it, all of those things work in combination with one another. And they actually, even though they individually, even though those keys individually have a function, the combination of that function opens up a whole nother list of opportunities. So I think about this. If you've played video games, and I wish I knew the actual control or combination of controls and buttons that opens up new levels and opportunities. I believe it might be either in a PlayStation game or like Sonic the Hedgehog or something. I'm dating myself with this. But there are opportunities where if you set the right combination of buttons and keys, it actually opens up way more opportunities and options than we have ever thought or could imagine. So on a Windows computer, for those who were with Windows 95, let's go way back, or 98, if you pressed the combination keys of control Alt delete, it would actually populate and bring up what we call a task manager. Okay, now what it would show, and this happens on other operating systems as well, but I think the Microsoft one actually stays in our minds because it would pop up, is show what was open at the time and also show what was actually functioning or not functioning properly.
[00:02:36] It gives us the clarity to say something needs to be closed, something needs to be rebooted. There is something that's actually taking more memory and more ram than needed, and it's actually causing the whole system to shut down. Now, if you deleted that one particular thing that was taking up all the resources you were able to practically be able to get back into and function on your computer and your system. Well, but it provoked that combination of keys, actually opens up a whole nother list of opportunities. So even though that menu popped up, there's also an opportunity for you to completely reset your system. Okay, so we're going to actually call this podcast control alt delete. The reboot, reviving and renewing relationships.
[00:03:50] I just couldn't leave you all with the individual keys and not actually go through and show what the combination of keys does. So with the combination that we talked about in the first three podcasts, if you haven't seen them, make sure you go back and listen to those, because all of them have a piece into actually resetting and reframing the relationship.
[00:04:13] The combination of control alt delete is used here. It is to interrupt the system's operations and reset or reboot or pop up a menu that prompts you to see visually what is actually taking up the resource or what's not functioning properly. It is done to resolve the issues.
[00:04:38] That's crazy. And then basically start fresh.
[00:04:43] How often do we run into situations in relationships where we're like, listen, I just need to start over.
[00:04:50] We need to start anew. We need to basically refresh and restart and revive some things. And particularly as we're getting into the last month of the year, we have to reevaluate. And most people, even though it is the season, Thanksgiving and Christmas and giving and all those kinds of things, we cannot help but to look at what is coming.
[00:05:16] Seven days after we celebrate Christmas, people are already thinking about their new year's resolutions. They're thinking and planning about who they're going to be or vow what they are now. This year, they won't be by the time the new year hits the following year.
[00:05:36] So again, these are some things that we all do. We all make resolutions, we all make some commitment to ourselves. But the thing is, particularly around this time, particularly when we go through family time and spending with family and friends, we have to remember that we also need to revive and reboot ourselves in the relationships around us. Right?
[00:06:01] So to me, during this time, that combination of keys is extremely important, extremely important to growth for your personal development and keeping things fresh in your relationship.
[00:06:18] There is, and I'm going to pull up some scripture here for us to expound upon.
[00:06:27] God himself actually is a God that likes to do new things.
[00:06:35] He likes to refresh things.
[00:06:39] And it is something that many of us, I would say many of us, get stuck where God was.
[00:06:52] Okay, and how do I say that? Why do I say that?
[00:06:58] Because it's comfortable for us.
[00:07:02] It is comfortable for us to know what God did. Because knowing what he did is incredible. He's like, oh, man, I love what you did, God. I am so thankful for it.
[00:07:15] But also, what makes it difficult is that season might have been so good that you just don't want to leave it and don't want to leave it for better.
[00:07:26] I'm guilty of being that kind of person who has stuck in what you've been in for a long time, maybe longer than you need to. And actually, God is pushing you to do something new in your life. But because what you thought was what God had done for you in one season. You don't think he's going to do greater in another season? It keeps you stagnant. It keeps you completely unopened and unwilling to be able to do something new.
[00:08:03] And I'm going to take us to. Took me a minute here to the book of Isaiah, which is for any people interested in the Bible.
[00:08:19] It's called the little Bible because there are 66 books in the Bible.
[00:08:25] This book has 66 chapters in it.
[00:08:29] And I can go into it, but let me get right to the scripture. We're going to Isaiah 43. We're going to start at verse 16. Isaiah, chapter 43, verse 16. And it says this. Thus says. Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, who brings forth chariot and horse, army and warrior. They lie down and cannot rise. They are extinguished, quenched like a wick. Remember not the former things. Here we go. Nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing now. It springs forth. Do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and the rivers in the desert. The wild beasts will honor me, the jackals and the Ostriches. For I give Water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, the people who I've formed for myself, that they may declare my praise.
[00:09:39] Okay, so let me provide a little bit of context here, because this will make sense once you have some context for it.
[00:09:51] Many people know about Moses. Moses was sent as a deliverer for the israelite people from Egypt.
[00:10:00] And essentially, this particular scripture is referencing that moment in time when the Israelites were set free.
[00:10:12] Pharaoh. The Bible says, God hardened his heart and made him send out an army, and the pharaoh went with him to basically pursue and kill the people of God. So they are at the Red Sea, and they turn around and they see a litany of armies coming to destroy the Israelites. And the Israelites are saying, Moses, you should have left us where we were. Now we're going to die. And they start complaining.
[00:10:49] So Moses says, behold, for you will see the power of the Lord be displayed. So Moses is like, okay, what do I do?
[00:10:59] And then God says, well, what do you have in your hand? And he had a staff. Now, this is the same staff that when God told him to throw down, it turned into a snake. He did all kinds of stuff.
[00:11:12] It was anointed by God. It was a tool that he was able to use and Moses was able to use to convey the power of God and display it to pharaoh.
[00:11:22] So he lifts up his hand and puts the staff forth toward the Water and the Water's part, and the Israelites walk on dry ground.
[00:11:33] And what this is doing is it is referencing the fact that God will take care of your enemies. So as soon as all the Israelites were on the other side, and as the egyptian army was following the Israelites, soon as they got through the walls of the Water came crashing down and drowned Pharaoh's army.
[00:11:57] So everyone knew that the God of Israel was with them and was nothing to be played with. Okay, now this is the piece that gets amazingly crazy. Now they're talking about wilderness in this. So they were in the wilderness for 40 years, which this trip should have actually taken about eleven to twelve days, but they actually circled around for 40 years not to get deep into it. That'd be for another podcast or maybe a Bible study one day. But what ended up happening is God used unconventional ways to feed and give the people of Israel the nourishment and hydration that they needed. Okay, so I'll give you a perfect example.
[00:12:44] One time, Moses, God told Moses to people were thirsty. So he said, okay, this is what you need to do. I need you to strike the rock. So he struck it and water came flowing out of this rock.
[00:13:00] So another moment, when they're trying to give food, God says, okay, I'm going to send manna. And mana was like a flake material that they could make bread from. And then they would send, he would also send quail. And the thing is, you couldn't hoard it. You only needed it for the day and the time which you needed it. So it was your daily bread, which is what we speak of the our father from that give us this day our daily bread. Meaning it's referencing back to this moment in time. Right.
[00:13:36] So the thing is, God will always use unconventional ways in order to exercise your faith. Okay, the thing is, once you think God's going to bless you one way, he's going to bless you in another way. Why is that so important?
[00:13:56] And I mentioned this before, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. This is Hebrews eleven. And in that it means that if you know that God is going to do something for you because he's done it before, in the same way you have knowledge of it, there's no faith needed.
[00:14:21] There's no faith needed knowing, like, oh, that's always going to be there, right? God did it there. He's always going to do that. There is no faith to be required. Now when you initially had that circumstance, yeah. You needed some faith for that because at the time, you didn't know that you were going to get provided for in this dispensation. Okay.
[00:14:43] And now God says, okay, all right, I need their face now. I just can't count on. They can't just count on what has always been there. I need to do something new. Because the thing is, face is like a muscle. If you don't work the muscle, it will.
[00:15:09] I can't even say atrophy. There we go, atrophy. You have to. And many of us, even if you work out, there's this thing called muscle confusion, which means you don't want to necessarily work the same muscle the same way because your body will get used to it and the progress will start to, instead of going like hockey stick up, you'll start to plateau because your body is so used to that kind of training. So you have to do something to your body to confuse it, to adapt to different things. And that's exactly what God does to our faith.
[00:15:47] He has to require us to get uncomfortable in order to exercise new dimensions and further dimensions, not just for his glory to be shown, but for your faith to be increased. Now, why does this all have to do with relationships? I'm glad you asked. Relationships always require some kind of reboot. Now, the person that I am, I've been married officially for 13 years, y'all. I look pretty good. My wife does, too. So I want you to see this and just picture this. If you looked at me now and looked at me the day I got married, I would tell you, those are two completely different people.
[00:16:38] Even though I look the same, I'm a different person than what I see in that photo.
[00:16:47] And the thing is, it may look the same to you, but to me, I'm a different person. So what ends up happening is in relationships, marriages, every person is an iteration of what they once were.
[00:17:05] A picture, again, worth 1000 words. But it also is a snapshot of one particular point in time.
[00:17:15] It doesn't show the story that led up to that photo. The maturation, the tears, the pain, the struggle, the laughs, the joy.
[00:17:29] Those things aren't captured in there. So sometimes what has to happen is you have to separate yourself, or at least one version of yourself in order to walk into another version of you. Now, we do this through person I talked about. We do it through resolutions and those kinds of things. But life has a way of making you mature pretty quick, whether you want to or not.
[00:17:58] And many people say, I'm going to be the same person? No. You may have the same heart, but you're not the same person. If you're the same person, you'll be doing the same thing over and over again. And people call that insanity, right? So in relationships, you're never going to be the same person. So let me also give this particular illustration here.
[00:18:27] Most people, at least in western world, we see time as linear.
[00:18:33] It is beginning to end, right? So perfect example is an obituary, right? So you have your born date, your dead date, and then a line in between, right?
[00:18:46] So what ends up happening, though, in the eastern world, is that you're orbiting, really, or resolutions around a time. So you may be one years old and that's your first path, or circle around the sun.
[00:19:11] And as you get older, you're supposed to be able to go further and further up, but you'll see that you're going up and up, so it's more like a spiral than going in a circle. Now, if you're looking down on it, yeah, it looks like a circle, but you're actually really going up higher, but you're going in different stages and different phases. So my birthday is my birthday, I can't remember this word, my orbit around the sun, for lack of a better word. But I'm also a different person.
[00:19:46] So there's some things that I've learned. There's things that actually leveled me up a bit.
[00:19:51] So I always love saying that birthdays, when birthdays come, I either say I'm in chapter 30 something or I'm at level 30 something, because the same level that I'm on, the level that I was on, is no longer the level I am on. Because now that I've gone through that, I have new tools that are going to help me elevate, get the things that I need. And for some reason, I'm thinking about Mario.
[00:20:20] I'm thinking about Mario. I've been watching a lot of Mario lately, but there's always different levels to it, right? There's superpowers, there's extra mushrooms. There's all kinds of things that actually you will need in order to go to a different level. But you have to go through the path you have to go and build up the acumen, the skills necessary for that to be sustained, for the level that you're going to be on. So why do I say this about relationships? If your relationship is stuck at year one, you're not going to go too far.
[00:20:56] You can't. You have to reboot.
[00:20:59] You have to reboot, particularly if it's bad, if it's rough, if you're having challenges, communication problems, other issues that come along with it, you're not finding the same page, you're having financial troubles, whatever that may be. You have to find a way to reboot.
[00:21:15] And rebooting isn't a bad thing.
[00:21:20] Okay, let me frame this up, because what it is doing is it's going to keep somebody who's listening to this from ending something that just really needs to be refreshed. Okay.
[00:21:36] I was helping a gentleman, a friend of mine, with their computer.
[00:21:43] I'm like a level one it person. I can get a lot done.
[00:21:51] Now, the thing is, we were trying to work on a particular function on this software, and they were telling me like, hey, it's not working for me.
[00:22:02] And I'm like, what do you mean it's not working? Like it should be working.
[00:22:06] When's the last time you've updated or reset your computer?
[00:22:10] Oh, I don't ever do that. I'm like, what do you mean you don't do that? Yeah, I don't want to lose anything.
[00:22:20] I don't want to lose anything.
[00:22:24] I said, well, I said, I hope you understand this, but when you do reset, it actually gets you all the software updates that you need. It clears out the cachet that you have on the Internet. It reassigns and reallocates Ram to the proper places. It closes windows that you may think you have closed, but are actually on a different desktop somewhere. So once we went through that process of rebooting the computer, everything started working again. In fact, it worked better.
[00:22:59] But we had to be willing to lose what we all started out with for the sake of a reboot and a refresh.
[00:23:10] Now I'm going to close with this.
[00:23:13] God is always doing something new.
[00:23:16] The part that he says, can you perceive it?
[00:23:22] It may look like a loss, but could it be a win?
[00:23:30] Could it be an argument?
[00:23:35] But could it be you getting closer to better communication?
[00:23:41] Could it be a financial challenge?
[00:23:45] Be teaching you what really matters and what you should be putting your resources towards?
[00:23:51] I don't know what it could be for you. I don't know what it is for you, but what I do know is that everything has a purpose. Bible says that all things work together. For those who love the Lord and are called according to his purpose.
[00:24:10] There's nothing wasted. God is the most efficient being that nothing on this earth that he creates, whether it be a circumstance or creation, ever gets wasted.
[00:24:24] It always has a purpose.
[00:24:27] So as you're going into this time of reboot refreshing and reviving of relationships, remember that you're not losing anything if you reboot. In fact, you might be gaining something.
[00:24:42] A reboot just lets you know that something's going wrong.
[00:24:46] Yeah, your settings might be where you think they should be. All that good stuff. Yeah, I get it. I understand.
[00:24:52] But what I'll tell you is a reboot is not going to cause you to lose what you worked for. Your hardware. The computer is not going to make you lose the person, but it actually will probably operate much better if you are willing to hit the whole combination of keys and let it do what it's been designed and functioned to do.
[00:25:16] Again, I hope this blesses you. Keep it locked here. If you think this is blessing you, please share this with someone. Share the podcast, share the YouTube video here.
[00:25:28] But I'm going to tell you, this is going to be an incredible year.
[00:25:32] We still got a few more weeks left in the year. Actually, we got about three or four weeks left in the year. So we're going to have some incredible, incredible opportunities to hear from other people besides me, y'all. Yes, I know you like my voice. I know all that good stuff. But I want to be able to have some conversations and I think some meaningful conversations before the new year gets here that we'll be able to articulate and encourage one another to become who we've been called to be. All right, y'all, we'll catch you in the next one. Peace.
