Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:04 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 foundations of the earth. Now, let's begin.
Speaker 1 00:00:29 Hello and welcome back to Life Refresh Podcast. You know who it is. This is Ryan Robinson. I'm excited and delighted to share another podcast with you today. I want to first of all just make sure that you are subscribed, uh, through this podcast. I'm excited to shift the format of the podcast a little bit, and I talked about this at the beginning of the last podcast, but, um, what we're getting into is getting into more interviews. There are stories that need to be captured in regards to a life refreshed. I recognize that there are principles and teachings and things that we've done so far, but there's people that are actually living this. There are people that have actually gone through the processes, and many, many of us, if, if we're being transparent, have gone through it. But we, we sometimes get encouraged by other individuals that have gone through something and have gone out the, and have come out the other side better, more prosperous, more resilient.
Speaker 1 00:01:33 So I'm excited to really bring these, uh, episodes to you. Uh, we have quite a few, uh, interviews. One, and, and again, I'm not gonna name any of our guests until <laugh>. They actually get revealed for the podcast here. But I'm, I'm really, really excited about what these interviews can unlock for you as a listener. Many times we forget that life refreshed or what is a life refreshed. This is way in the beginning that we talked about, but there are many aspects and areas of our lives that actually are always being refreshed and cultivated. So if we're thinking about, you have your, your family, you have your faith, you have finances, you have your health and fitness, um, you also have your emotional wellness, and then you have your spiritual growth, which is, is the very much a huge part that influences everything. But again, you can't be, you can be super spiritual and not do anything active and your health be <laugh>, be terrible, or you can be in great financial health but have very poor relationships.
Speaker 1 00:02:49 So you need to have all of these, and every one of these areas of our lives require refreshing. At some point, even once you have defined for yourself what you think it looks like, um, then you end up having to redefine or refresh what that looks like. And again, life is always teaching us lessons. As long as we're alive, we're going to be learning lessons every single day. And, uh, we need to embrace them. We need to embrace them cuz the version that we are now isn't the version that we are going to stay. And we need to be open, willing, honest, with ourselves about the changes that need to be made. Because what worked in one season in our lives may not work anymore, and we need to be open to that. And hearing people that have gone, you know, have gone through their process and continuing to go through process is really, uh, awesome to, to hear and talk about.
Speaker 1 00:03:47 So, again, excited about those. Probably we'll see some time we give it about a month or so, you'll start seeing some of these interviews pop up. So, um, with that being said, let me just jump right into today's topic. Um, I'm actually gonna start off with the story is basically about what I was, what I've seen when I was a young kid, uh, visiting family. My Aunt Mary lived in Oxford, Ohio. Um, many of you know, uh, Miami of Ohio, Miami University in Ohio is in Oxford. And I recall our family trips to go visit her. And I remember driving up into campus, um, at the time it was a really big hill <laugh>. It was pretty steep. Um, it was very steep. And then I remember the bell tower. Soon as you come into the campus, I remember seeing all the pretty red brick buildings around, and then even the brick road because it made so much noise, <laugh>.
Speaker 1 00:04:57 And I remember seeing all the people on our way to go see my Aunt Marion, particularly. There's a u d f ice cream spot that we used to frequent on our way back home from seeing and visiting my Aunt Mary. And, uh, it was just a great, great experience for me just to see. I remember I would just get up out of the, uh, I would get up out the seat of my, my car and out of the car and just look and just all the, the brick and everything. Uh, fast forward, um, high school, I went to Oxford again. And at this point my, my aunt had moved, um, out of Oxford, Ohio. So I didn't go back until I started playing football. And my high school always had, uh, a seven on seven tournament at Miami University every summer. And it was a great time.
Speaker 1 00:05:54 Like I, I loved driving into Oxford. I don't know what it was, but it just felt like college. It just felt good to be in a university, a space like that. And, uh, I remember just telling my friend and my, and, uh, his family, I would love to go to Miami University. I literally had vision and visualized myself going to this school since I was a little boy. And I didn't know how I was going to get there. I had pretty good grades, but I wanted to play football there. Lo and behold, God made a way and I ended up being able to play, uh, at or play football beyond the football team at Miami University. And, uh, I met my brothers, I met my wife there. Uh, I've had some of my best experiences there. So why am I bringing up this story? The thing that many of us forget is that our standard of living, our opportunities for growth, the aspirations that we have in our lives, the things that we desire to do, be, and in a way see ourselves, is all built upon the level of exposure you've been given to a particular circumstance.
Speaker 1 00:07:24 So, uh, I wanna, I guess if I could title this, I'm call the power of exposure. Uh, and this we may, this may be a part one, part one of these, of this one because this one's such a powerful topic that I think we negate and don't do it justice. Um, so, um, a couple things, um, about the word exposure. And I want to again, just use the <laugh> the Webster's, uh, definition. But, um, it is the revelation of an identity or a fact. Um, it is also a photography term, which exposure means is the, the amount of light per unit area reaching the frame of a photographic film or the surface of an electronic, uh, image sensor. So it, the shutter speed gets determined by how much exposure, how much light actually gets into the lens. So with that being said, we are always getting exposed to new infrequent things.
Speaker 1 00:08:40 If you're a foodie like I am, I enjoy having a good dinner somewhere. And a lot of times there are places that I haven't been to that a friend might recommend, or I might be with them and they say, you know what, let's go to this restaurant here. And the thing is, what they're doing is they're exposing me, or in many cases we call it broadening our horizons and essentially being able to add a different experience to the very our very lives, really. Because the thing is, is once you've experienced something, you can't unexperience it. You, you take pictures of it to remind yourself of what that experience was like. You take the time to document it so that you won't forget it. But the thing is, you've lived it. So you cannot say anymore that, oh, I never did that. No, there's evidence now that you have now the light is on.
Speaker 1 00:09:43 The revelation has been, has the revelation has been, had been, has been sent, and you are now no longer in the dark that this particular thing exists. Again, there are both good sides and bad sides to exposure, but the, but on the positive side of this, for your life personally, you have to be able to expose yourself to some of the, of the things that youi aspire to do. One crazy thing that I would do, and you know, it's something I I need to get back into doing, but um, when I first moved to Columbus, um, I didn't really drive around a lot. I just stayed in my particular part of the city. And that was what I, that's what I did. I just frequent where I was at. Um, I was challenged by my father-in-law to just drive around one day, go a different route to work, uh, even though there was like two <laugh>, uh, at the time.
Speaker 1 00:10:44 But I was like, you know, that's a good idea. I'll just go ahead. I'll drive around, take a look and see, see what these neighborhoods look like. And one of the things that I found was, uh, the, the city we actually live in now, and I just exposed, like, I just drove through. I had never seen anything quite like where we live and it just felt like the next step. But what I did was I couldn't say I didn't know that it existed. Why? Because I drove through it, I saw it with my own two eyes. And at that point my life became about how can I get over there now that I know that it exists and there's a possibility that I could be over there in this part of town? What does that look like to acquire? So I basically turn it into a goal.
Speaker 1 00:11:40 I would drive past that place every time I was on that part of town. If I was driving to the mall, I would actually go to the mall and then go by the spot and then drive through the neighborhood and then go back home, get back on the highway, then head back, head back west. So I literally took the time to be and expose myself to where I wanted to be before here it is, before it became a reality. Now, I already talked about faith. Faith is a substance of things. Hope for the evidence of things. Not seen completely understand that. But the thing is, sometimes what we have to do is we have to see ourselves in a place before it actually happens. And unfortunately, what many of us don't do is that in order for new seasons and new things to begin, something has to end.
Speaker 1 00:12:38 And I'm going to speak from Ecclesiastes cuz this is super famous scripture that most everyone knows at this point. But I want to articulate this because a lot of this is exposure. And um, this book is, uh, this particular piece is written by, uh, Solomon, who is the, the wisest man to have ever lived, as well as the wealthiest. But he's in this book e Ecclesiastes, which is a very, um, lamenting kind of book of, of reality. So, so let me read this off real quick. This is, uh, Ecclesiastes three versus one through five. It says to everything, there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven, a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to pluck what is planted. A time to kill and a time to heal, a time to break down, a time to build up, a time to weep, and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones.
Speaker 1 00:13:51 A time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing. And this is the thing I want to really get into the, the other part of this scripture. Okay, let me start the scripture over a little bit <laugh> so that we can, we can get this together. Ecclesiastes chapter three. We'll start there and then we'll go down to maybe verse 10, 10 or 11. There is a time for everything, a season for every activity under the heavens. A time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill, a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build up, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and time to gather them. A time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear, to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak and a time to love and a time to hate, and a time for war and a time for peace.
Speaker 1 00:15:10 What do workers gain from their toil? I have seen bur the burden God has laid on the human race, and he has everything He's made, everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart. Yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. That each of them may eat and drink and find satisfaction in their toil. This is a gift of God. I know everything God does will endure forever and nothing can be added to it and nothing can take it away. God does it so that people will fear him. So I just read to verse 14. So if you, if you're in your Bibles, you can go ahead and read that if you want to, but there's some wisdom in here when it comes to exposure.
Speaker 1 00:16:09 In order for anything to start any kind of new beginning, there has to be something that has to end. So when you now are exposed to something different, that is essentially the end of something for you. If you have had, oh, I, I love Donatos Pizza, I really do. I I donatos is a pretty good pizza. Now this is the thing, if there is a better pizza out there that I you enjoy, like I say, if you had authentic, uh, New York style pizza and it was incredible, you essentially now have leveled up your pizza eating experience. So now, now that you've had this amazing pizza from, you know, somewhere, then you go back to Donatos, Donatos ain't really hitting like it was before because why you have now acquired a taste for something different. And the thing is, is because of that exposure you have now leveled up your taste buds, your senses, your uh, definition of what great pizza or cuisine looks like now because you have now had something better.
Speaker 1 00:17:25 And this is the key to first, the first key to exposure is recognizing that things have time. But you can ha but you must have an ending before you have new beginnings. Let me say that again. You have to have an ending before you start a new beginning. Exposure intuitively and naturally makes your current experience irrelevant once you have a new one. That's just the process of it. And we, and this is the thing y'all, many of us don't like to do it because we don't like change. There's a cost that comes with it. People feel uncomfortable when there's change. They're no longer understanding what it, they want to know what's in it for them. They have been comfortable in their spot for as long as they have. They know what's coming. They know where to go, they know what the route is. They know when traffic's coming to get bad. They just know and are so tied to knowing and having control of the environment and the circumstance that they're actually missing out on some amazing things. Why? Because they refuse to expose themselves to something new. Therefore making them a beginner instead of making them the expert. It's really sad that some of us, and if you look in your own life, the areas that we are probably the weakest in are the areas that we haven't had the most exposure in. And as once you've, once you've experienced it, you can't unexperience that. I just like pizza cuz I'm a ninja turtle at heart. Like, once you, once I've had a good pizza, it's really hard to go back to something like,
Speaker 1 00:19:14 You know, Papa Johns not hating, I just had better pizza. Even though they like better pizzas, better ingredients, I'm like Papa Johns. I dunno if that's the slogan still, if it is, I don't, I can't tell you the last time I had a Papa John's pizza. But see, the thing is, I used to have Papa John's all the time because Papa John's was right by my house. We're back home in Dayton where I'm from. So I I at one point that was the thing. But again, once you've had something different, once you've had better, you can't unlearn that. And many people don't want to pay the cost of unlearning what they're familiar with, and therefore their environment looks the same. The people around them look the same because they just simply didn't want to make a necessary ending to create a brand new and fresh beginning. You know, uh, we are gonna have to do a part two to this one, but, uh, keep it locked here. But as you're going through your week, when, whenever you're listening to this podcast, take the time to examine your life in the areas that are, that are stagnant and ask yourself,
Speaker 1 00:20:28 Why haven't I leveled up in this space an area in my life? Is it because I'm comfortable? Is it because I like the familiar? Is it because I can control the scenario and the circumstances so I don't have to question I know what to do? Or are you fearful of the new uncertain about what those outcomes may be? Things a good exercise to take a look at. But again, what, we'll, we'll get back to this part two of the power of Exposure. Uh, keep it locked here and catch you in the next one.
