Ginny Erich (2:39)

Same church and still writing books. Yeah, yeah.

Max Lucado (2:43)

I've got one dud in two weeks, in fact.

Ginny Erich (2:47)

What's that one about?

Max Lucado (2:48)

That one? Oh, my goodness. Look at this. The first announcement. Because this won't come out for a year and a half, but it's called the Only One. What can we say about Christ that cannot be said about anyone else? He's the only one. So I'm finishing up the first draft of that. That's due in two weeks.

Ginny Erich (3:07)

It's interesting, Max, that there is this endless amount of topics that you could talk about. You know, you would think as a writer, I've got a couple books, and I'm like, I'm kind of plumb out of ideas, but we serve an endless God. And so if you're tapped into that, you know, there's always another thing to write about and to encourage people, you say you write books. I thought this was an interesting statement. You write books for people who don't read books. And I really think it's important for people to read books. Can you talk about that?

Max Lucado (3:36)

Well, yeah. You know, I think as an author, you begin to pick up on the audience that resonates with your books. The people who seem to appreciate my books are people who are very busy. It's not that they don't want to read, as they don't have much time to read. You're, you know, they're a mom, a busy father, somebody with a lot of responsibilities. And. And it could be that they're not. Book. What's a good word? They're not inclined to. To books. Maybe they prefer to do things with their hands and take on physical projects. And so they don't do a lot of reading. And I just found through the years that more often than not, people will say to me, I don't read many books, but when I do, I like yours. And I'll say, well, why? And they'll say, well, you use a lot of stories or you don't get too complicated. And I take that as a. As a compliment. I want to present the material in accessible formats. And so I like that. And so it came clear to me that really my best audience is not the academic audience. It's the. Just the regular folk who want to read on occasion.

Ginny Erich (4:55)

And it really. I mean, these books have been so influential in our own home. My husband, I think, is listening to one right now he was telling me, listening to one about, well, he said something about how your dog is always happy with the food in the bowl three times a day and you know, just like being a little bit more positive and grateful and that type of thing. So tame your thoughts. Here's what you talk about. One time you tried to count how many thoughts you had in a day and it was too hard to keep up with. So you actually did find out the number that we think 70,000 thoughts a day and a good majority of them are negative and we're dealing with a mental health crisis. And you really do also focus in on young, the younger generation. So you talk about Gen z, about how 42% of high school students, 42% experience persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness. And obviously you say adults don't fare much better. It's one in five who are struggling with anxiety and depression. But really this Gen Z and then obviously younger Gen Alpha we don't I guess totally know about yet. Can you talk about what you've seen over the years as a pastor dealing with all sorts of different generations of people? What do you see that's going on especially with our young people today in terms of their, you call it stinking thinking.

Max Lucado (6:06)

Well, it's a tough time to be a young person and I don't even. We could spend a whole episodes just talking about the influence of AI and what that's going to have upon our thoughts. But moving that off to the side, social media makes it really difficult for a young person to calm their minds down. You know, as, as a. Yeah, I'm 70. I know I look 80, but I'm 70. And when, when I was a kid, I came home at the end of the day, I just turned off the world. I left school, finished my homework and I just unplugged and I might read a nice book or I might watch some goofy show on television with my family. Young people today find it very, very difficult to unplug, to turn off there. Somebody is always wanting to say something to them and it's not always positive. And there is this addiction that we have to turn to mental stimulation that comes through social media that really takes its toll and it sends these messages into our minds that are not positive. The statistic that you cited that I quoted, four out of five of our thoughts are either negative or self critical. That's a stunning thought. Just as long as we're talking about thoughts. You mean four out of five thoughts or you know, I'm saying to myself like, oh my Goodness, I don't look good or they don't like me, or. It's going to be s. It's. It's going to be a hard day. We beat ourselves up a lot, and our young people have that challenge, plus the social media challenge to deal with. And so it's a. It's an important time. Now, let me just quickly add. We're. We're beginning. Even since this book was released, we're seeing some renewal, spiritual renewal on campuses that. That is just in the last six months. That's. And that leaves us optimistic and encouraged that the Lord is doing a special work among young people because they desperately need it. And so I'm. I've got. I've got a little more optimism than I've had in a while.

Ginny Erich (8:21)

And the book is filled with optimism because you talk about how you can change your mind. So if there are 70,000. Okay, I have a negative thought in my mind because I'm pretty sure I have something in my hair. But the camera is flipped around so that when you hold a book up, you can see it the right way. So I'm like, there's no way I would.

Max Lucado (8:39)

I don't see anything. I don't. I don't see anything. I don't know. Maybe it's. It's a bumblebee. A bumblebee.

Ginny Erich (8:47)

How was your podcast with Max Lucado? I had something in my hair the entire time.

Max Lucado (8:51)

Okay.

Ginny Erich (8:52)

But the numbers are staggering. If we have 70,000 thoughts that run through our mind a day, and 80% of them, four out of five are negative, that's 56,000 negative thoughts that we have a day. But you give a lot of hope. You say you can change your mind, you can change your personality, you can change your attitude for the better. Can you talk about the hope that's there? Because if so many are struggling, there is a. For many of us, you know, and some might need more professional help, but for a lot, there is a way out.

Max Lucado (9:25)

We believe this for several reasons. Number one, we believe it because neuroscience has taught us to use the term neuroplasticity, that our brains are literally shapable. They're not pieces of concrete that can never be altered, but they can physically change. And they do physically change. As we retrain our minds, there are grooves or ruts, furrows, if you will do, which are synapses or thought impulses. Pass. I always brush my teeth with my right hand. I don't have to think about it. Apparently, there's a pretty deep rut that knows exactly what to do when my right hand picks up a toothbrush. But if I were to pick it up with my left hand, I could do it, but it would not be nearly as comfortable because my brain has not been trained to brush with my left hand. Now I can retrain it and give me a certain amount of time and I could be as equally comfortable. I guess you could say I'm a switch hitter when it comes to brushing my teeth. And so the neuroscience tells us that we really can retrain our brains. And as a pastor, spiritually speaking, I really believe that all of God's word reveals that we don't have to be conformed to the world, but we can be transformed by the renewal, renewing of our mind. And that's why Scripture has so much to say about our thoughts.

Ginny Erich (10:59)

I want to read what you wrote. Many of us labor under the delusion that we're permanently stuck with all the different parts of our personalities. That we are hot tempered or we're shy or we're sad, and that these are fixed, immutable traits. We now know that many of the attributes we value most are in fact skills which can be trained the same way you build your body in the gym. So this is a great book for families. We're talking to a lot of families, a lot of parents that listen in. And so especially because Gen Z is really suffering with their mental health, high schoolers and, and then this affects a lot of things like their grades, it affects substance abuse. You talk about how high schoolers who struggle with depression are more than twice as likely to drop out of school and three times more likely to repeat a grade. So a lot of this is affecting a lot of things and it gives you a lot of hope and ways to, to learn and to deal with that. And if you can learn it when you're young, all the better. I would love to talk about optimism because, well, there's a. It's. We're not in the most optimistic of times and especially if 80% of the thoughts are negative. Have you heard of this website? It's called Death Clock.

Max Lucado (12:05)

I've never heard of it.

Ginny Erich (12:06)

Okay, so it's super interesting, Max. I learned about it from another author. It's called death clock.com and you can go to this website and you fill in a couple inputs and it estimates your date of death.

Max Lucado (12:17)

So oh my goodness.

Ginny Erich (12:18)

It's interesting because you know that there's the verse that says teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom. And so it just gives A little bit of perspective. But this is what's super interesting, Max. There's only a couple inputs. So you're going to put in your age, you put in your bmi, you put in if you smoke or drink. And then in your country and your gender. So those are the things you input. And the only other thing you input is what is your outlook on life. And there's four options. Are you pessimistic, are you optimistic, are you suicidal or are you neutral? Four options. So if I put in all my inputs and I say I'm optimistic, it tells me I'm going to live till I'm 96. If I put in all my inputs and put that I'm negative, it tells me I'm going to live till I'm 75.

Max Lucado (13:06)

Get out of here.

Ginny Erich (13:08)

21 year difference based on outlook.

Max Lucado (13:12)

Wow.

Ginny Erich (13:14)

Based on outlook. So you talk about this joy and positivity and that as a Christ follower those two things should go hand in hand. You could talk about how joy is a skill. Joy is a big topic in the Bible. Joy is contagious. Can you encourage those listening? You say a gl. This is a quote from somebody else. But a gloomy Christian is a contradiction in terms. We should not have to put joyful in front of Christian. God wants his children to be joy filled.

Max Lucado (13:42)

He does, doesn't he? Yeah, I, I'm fascinated by. I made a note to check out death clock.

Ginny Erich (13:49)

It's interesting.

Max Lucado (13:50)

It's. It'd be good to know how much longer I have, you know, so, so in the book what I tried to do is, is equip people with tools because all of us do want more joy. All of us do want less greed. All of us do want more peace and less anxiety. We all want that. We just don't quite know how to get there. That we where none of us are surprised when somebody says you have 70,000 thoughts. Some of us might be surprised that four out of five of them are critical. But a lot of people say no, I, I get that. But, but we need tools. And so the, the heart of the book is equipping the reader with these three tools. One is picky thinking, another is called ufo and I can unpack that. And then, and then the third is uproot and replant. And all of all three of these tools can be used throughout the day in a variety of settings. And the result is a more joy filled life, a more optimistic life. And it begins by managing the thoughts that come our way.

Ginny Erich (14:58)

You had a sentence in here that I thought was a good reminder. You say, my grandson has a PhD in joy. He is six months old. And I had some girlfriends over the other day. You know, these moms come over and then their kids came over and we, you know, you're talking about kind of heavy things, finances and marriage and raising kids and health concerns. We're, and we're homeschooling. You know, everyone's got all these things that they're really mulling over. And one of the moms had a one year old, you know, just walking and she was the most joy filled. I mean, she, you know, she's got no concerns. So happy, happy to play with whatever you put in front of her. You put in front of her a gourd. She likes it, you know, she's gonna play with it. All the different textures, you know, you put in front of her a little ball, she's gonna, you know, try and kick around the room. And it was remarkable to think about. Kids are so joy filled. You know, the Bible talks about, you know, approaching the kingdom of heaven as a child and. Yeah, in the, the beauty in that. Can you talk about considering, I guess, emulating what a child already is.

Max Lucado (16:00)

The innocence of a child can be so contagious and instructive. Watching the way they have absolute trust in their parents, really, the way they love other kids, even they do get into squabbles. When they get into squabbles, they make up and move on. There's. There's so much that we can learn from, from watching a child. I think one of the most important things as parents that we can do in helping our children find joy is teaching them that just because they have a thought, they don't have to think it. We're not long in this world until we do begin having less joy and more anxiety and teaching our children to practice picky thinking. I can recall, I have three daughters. They're all grown now. They all have kids now, but when they were young, I, I want to say like first and second grade year, there was one of my daughters. It just seemed like she was battling anxiety that was superior to her age. I don't know where it came from, but she just would see the worst in every situation. And so we would teach her as a youngster to literally put her hand by the side of her head and pretend she's yanking that thought out and then throw it in the trash. And I would say, honey, now it. The second you begin having that thought, you reach up and grab it. And there were several times I would just see her in the house and she'd be pulling not her hair, but pulling a thought out and, and she moved on. It didn't plague her. It was something that, that we taught her early in her life, that I helped, that I think helped her as she moved on in her life. Now, we grown ups need that. Just day before yesterday at church, I'm a pastor. A dear lady who's got to be in her 70s said, Max, I just live with the spirit of guilt. Just guilt. And I said, why? She said, well, things I did years and years ago, I said, well, we're going to deal with that. And I gave her a couple of scriptures. And I said, whenever you have those ankles, guil, guilty thoughts, you pull them out and you replace them with these scriptures. There's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And so learning to practice picky thinking, I think is the first step toward joy.

Ginny Erich (18:22)

I like how you talk in the book, how this is wartime language, you know, when it says to take your thoughts captive. And you could think about, you know, if you think about especially more so little boys, like when the little boys play together. We've got a couple sons and then we've got friends. Our sons are in their teens now, but we've got friends that have younger kids. And like, that's what they want to do. They want to grab each other and like, you know, pretend to put their hands behind their back or tie them up to the pole or, you know, they're taking captive. It is an active thing that, you know, when kids play, that they're doing. And so to have that active symbol of taking those thoughts captive and then like, you talk about replacing them with something else. You guys, the holidays are almost here and you know what that means. People to feed, guests to host. And a whole lot of cozy moments ahead. I've been getting our home ready with Wayfair, and it's amazing how just a few updates make everything feel warm and welcoming again. I grabbed a beautiful new dining bench so everyone has a seat at the table, swapped in flannel sheets for the guest room, and found the cutest Christmas wreath, all from Wayfair's Black Friday sale. Everything shipped fast, the prices were unreal, and it made me actually excited to host this year. Wayfair really is the place to shop for all things home, from sofas to spatulas, rugs to refrigerators. And during their Black Friday event, you can save up to 70% off. Plus they have styles you won't see anywhere else. So Your space actually feels like you. And if you haven't heard, Wayfair now has a loyalty program where you earn 5% back, get free shipping, and have access to member only sales. It's totally worth joining, so don't wait. These early deals are already happening. Head to Wayfair.com now to shop Wayfair's Black Friday deals for up to 70% off. That's W-A-Y-F-A-I-R.com sale ends December 7th. When I think back on my own childhood, I remember the freedom of the neighborhood. Hours spent riding bikes with friends until the streetlights came on. That's what childhood should feel like. Movement, laughter, and connection. And that's exactly what our friends at Womb Bikes are helping families rediscover. Womb makes the lightest, smartest and safest bikes on the market. Perfectly designed for kids, not just shrunken down adult bikes. And every detail matters. The balance. The brakes, the handlebars, the way the frame fits their growing bodies. You don't just learn to ride with boom. You learn to love the ride. In our own family, we've seen that magic firsthand. Our daughter received a Womb Explorer 6 in that stunning magnetic blue. And from the moment we opened the box, we could feel the difference. The packaging was intuitive, the setup was simple, and within a short period of time, she was riding down the driveway with the biggest smile on her face. When kids have a Womb bike, they want to be outside. And that's the heartbeat of what we do. Helping families reclaim time, connection and joy through real world play. So this holiday season, don't just give a gift. Give them adventure, give them confidence, give them outside. Check out all the holiday deals now@womb.com. that's W-O-O-M.com. you had this really good story in here. So many good stories. But one, I never heard of that. In December of 1914, the Edison Laboratory, Thomas Edison's laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey, went up in flames. Now, I never heard of this. And you talk about how it was $2 million of equipment. So in 1914, that's a lot. That's a lot today. So $2 million of equipment goes up in flames. Thomas Edison, it's his life's work. It's his research document. And you talk about how he responds, how he responds in front of his children, in front of his wife. And this is, you know, in, in this whole part about how what we do is contagious and can really branch out and affect other people. Can you talk about how he reacted to that.

Max Lucado (22:04)

Yeah. You're testing my memory now because.

Ginny Erich (22:06)

Okay, okay.

Max Lucado (22:07)

But I think. No, well, it's not that old. It's just that I.

Ginny Erich (22:12)

Well, it's like you write it 18 months ago.

Max Lucado (22:14)

That's exactly how it works.

Ginny Erich (22:15)

And you already have a new one coming, so I'm. Do you want me to read it?

Max Lucado (22:18)

Yeah, please do.

Ginny Erich (22:20)

Okay, here's what he says. And you also give another example of a man who lost his manuscript and it got. Oh yeah, by the maid, you know. So you're giving these responses. I have a woman I really respect. Her name's Sharon Lovejoy and she writes all of these gardening books and especially gardening books like for grandparents and gardening with kids. She has one called Root Shoots, Buckets and Boots. And she does all of the illustrations and they're these like tiny illustrations. They're gorgeous. And she sent them in one time like a whole. Like she said, I mean, a pack for a whole book. It was like in the mail back when nothing was digital and it got lost.

Max Lucado (22:55)

Oh no.

Ginny Erich (22:56)

Every drawing.

Max Lucado (22:57)

Oh, no.

Ginny Erich (22:58)

The whole packet in the mail. So you have these situations sometimes where I'm going to tell you what page it's on. Page 101.

Max Lucado (23:05)

Okay. Yeah. That wouldn't. That wouldn't happen today. Right. I mean, we can't lose a manuscript. But there was a time in which it could happen and it did happen, and what a disastrous situation that would be.

Ginny Erich (23:19)

Yes. So there's one in the book and then the Edison. And he says this. There is great value in disaster. All our mistakes are burned up. Thank God we can start anew.

Max Lucado (23:32)

That is a great story, isn't it? I need to resurface that one. Yeah. Edison. Edison just chose to be. Be joyful in spite of the circumstances. And the other illustration right here on the same page is Thomas Carlyle. He's the one who wrote the French Revolution. And he did live in a time in which if a manuscript got burned up, it wasn't in someone's computer. And he literally had to rewrite that book from memory or start over. And yet he did. So he realized that he could do so one step at a time. And so it's not so much the problems that come into our world as it is our response to those problems that drives our lives. Nobody gets through life scot free. Nobody does. Everybody's going to face something. As I was writing this book, I don't know what page the story would be. My sister called me and was surprised to hear her and call came out of the blue. She said, Max, Fred was killed in a car accident this morning. Fred, her husband, my sister Joan is 13 years older than I am and she and Fred had a wonderful marriage. But I have watched her. Even yesterday she texted me, she said, today, I'm choosing to be happy. I still missing, but I'm choosing to be happy. Listen to that determination. You know, rather than to give in to the, to the sorrow and let the sorrow dominate her life, she's, she's just choosing her thoughts. She's practicing those picky thinking tools, putting them to use and, and, and I think it was. She's going to be fine because she knows how to do that.

Ginny Erich (25:17)

I love what you said. You say, I have watched her. And that's what I was kind of trying to, I was kind of trying to find the word, but I didn't find it. It didn't work out. But that people are watching. And so when the Edison's laboratory burns up or when Carlisle's manuscript ends up in a fire on accident, which you're like, how could that actually happen?

Max Lucado (25:35)

I'm sure it really looked like a.

Ginny Erich (25:36)

Manuscript, you know, just a mistake. But people are watching. And you say it would be folly to think life can be lived with no setbacks. But it would be equally folly to assume those step backs can steal our joy problems have no more power over us than we allow them to have. Remember, joy is more than a good mood. It is a deep seated confidence in God's presence, power and promises. And you can do the same. So just a lot of, you know, encouragement there. Encouragement to be a, to be joyful and like you talk about. There's a lot of instructions on how to do it in the book. The book's called Tame your thoughts. I'd love to talk about the uproot and replant just because this is a podcast of families that are trying to get their kids off screens and outside. And so God gives all sorts of nature references in scripture and it's tricky to understand them sometimes if you're not outside. So if you're weeding, you, you know, you give a story about weeding and if, if you're outside, if you're doing things like gardening. So we had one year, we have pigs, Max, and we only did it once because I had read in a book that if you do it right, they won't smell. And I was like, no, these smell really bad. I think we're doing it right. But they still smell. And pigs are actually really smart. So they are able to like, lift the fence off its hinges and then they would get out.

Max Lucado (26:59)

So these huge pigs.

Ginny Erich (27:01)

And we live, like, we've got a little bit of property behind our house, but we're kind of on this main road. So then someone comes knocking on the door, like, your pigs are in the street.

Max Lucado (27:08)

Oh, no.

Ginny Erich (27:10)

So when we do these pigs and pigs uproot. That's how God made them. And they got that snout in the front, and that's what they do. They're constantly digging up. So they dug up this whole area that they were living in. And the next year it was filled with weeds. I mean, weeds as tall as you are. You know, just 6ft weeds. I mean, you couldn't even walk through where they had been. And so it was a. It's a powerful imagery that in nature, actually, there's really usually no bare soil. The weeds come, or whatever you plant comes, but there's no bare soil.

Max Lucado (27:40)

That's interesting.

Ginny Erich (27:41)

Yeah, there's a. There's a gardening documentary called Back to Eden all about that. And so it talks about how if you like mulch and. And you use soil covering, it actually really helps your plants grow better. And it's. It's copying God's design, God's creation. So you talk about this concept of, okay, first of all, you have to uproot, but then you also have to put other things in, otherwise you're exp. You're exposed. And there's a possibility that weeds are going to come. So can you talk about, as a parent, if there's a parent listening, what are some ways to help our kids know what to replant?

Max Lucado (28:19)

Yeah. Yeah. So. So as we're teaching our kids to pull the thoughts out, right. Like I was teaching my daughter to yank out those critical or negative thought. That's a wonderful step. That's uprooting. But replanting is very essential because it's. It's not enough just to pull the thought out. You've got to replant it with truth. You've got to replant it with what. What God intended for us to have. You know, okay, for example, let's say that. I'm saying, okay, today, I'm not going to worry. That's a wonderful decision to make, by the way. I'm not going to. I'm not going to worry. But how am I not going to worry if a person just goes through the day saying, I'm going to worry, not going to worry. Don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. That's one Thing, it's something else entirely to turn my thoughts toward the source of strength, the source of peace, and. And meditate on beautiful scriptures. So we uproot. I'm not going to worry. But we replant with my peace I give to you. Jesus said, not as the world gives, but my peace I give to you. You know, you could take that little statement and meditate it throughout the day when you're driving to work, when you're preparing your coffee, when you're getting ready for school, just say, you know, God's peace. God wants to give me his peace and meditate and let that take root and that hope will bear fruit in our lives. So we do. We uproot, we pull the weed out, but we sow a good seed. And we sow the seed from scripture because it's going to bear fruit.

Ginny Erich (29:57)

It's such a good reminder. During COVID I was pretty worried and you know, we have. We've got five kids and I was worried about just, you know, the groceries and feeding them and, you know, all the sort of things that go along with that and what's going to come. And so we would do Psalm 91. In the morning I'll say of the Lord, he is my refuge and my fortress, my God on him I lean and rely, and in him I confidently trust. For surely he will save us, you know, from the snare of the fowler. And it really is. It's so powerful. And then it just gets into them. So to have the replant. I love that idea. And there's so many options of scripture in the book. Tame your thoughts. I want to read. I'm going to read the Matthew one just because. Here we go. We should therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air, which I just love. Max, these are exhortations to. To do, to look. You can't look at the birds of the air. I mean, you can if you've got bird feeders and put some bird feeders up right outside your windows. But go outside. They do not sow or reap or store away in bards. And yet your hot. Your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of much more value than they are? Can any of you by worrying at a single hour to your life? And I just want to pop down to the end because maybe this would be the replant it talks about. Why do you worry about clothes. Look at the lilies of the field once again. You have to go look at them. And then it says this. But seek first. Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness. And all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough troubles of its own.

Max Lucado (31:30)

My goodness, man, I could. You know what? We ought to just read that scripture over and over and over. Yeah. What a. What a powerful statement. The best treatment of anxieties right there. Beautiful. Beautiful.

Ginny Erich (31:45)

Yeah. So the replant and, you know, you could go on a little hunt, like a little treasure hunt through scripture of what could be the replant versus, you know, if we're dealing with this concern or that concern, I think that's fun to look through and find what are the ones that we could say, like you said, you know, about peace and. And you find them and you have them ready because you say, to clean out the old is wonderful, but to usher in the new is essential. The weed is out, the seed is in. And I got to talk to this pastor, Torn Wells, and he said, I thought, gosh, this was such a big statement, Max, and that it's so simple, but he said there's nothing remarkable about a seed. And that's so true. It's so true. Seeds are so boring. They're not colorful, and yet they produce. Do you know it's going to produce a whole plant filled with 15 pumpkins on it or, you know, or purple tomatoes or something like that. The seed, the tomato seed is so small you can hardly see it. So. So when you put that seed in, even though if it feels like maybe you're not really doing much.

Max Lucado (32:50)

And you know what? That's such a great point. And, and the truth is we get to determine what seeds get sown in our own soul.

Ginny Erich (32:59)

That's right.

Max Lucado (33:00)

Oh, there's three S's. Back to. Back to back. What seeds get sown in our own soul? Every day we get to. We get to make that choice. Right? I can wake up and begin to allow negativism or bitterness or anger or racism to sow seeds, or I can take a stand against those and. And. And spend time in the presence of God and receive his love. I just don't think there's any greater seed than the seed that says, God loves you and he knows you and he's coming for you. And so if I, as I receive that, that's going to create a certain type of. Of fruit throughout the day that other people will enjoy as well. Yeah.

Ginny Erich (33:45)

And year over year, you know, week over week over month, year over year, you're planting those, and that's what's growing. You wrote a lot of people have chosen to be less happy than they could be. And then you talk about how there's these studies that say things like fear and anger and frustration and can cause the DNA to tighten up and become shorter, switching off genetic codes. Conversely, the health of those codes was improved by feelings of love, gratitude, and joy. So that's why the death clock shows a 21.

Max Lucado (34:14)

Fascinating difference.

Ginny Erich (34:16)

You say HIV patients who have positive thoughts and feelings. I actually had to read this twice because I started to Type it as 3000 times more resistant to the disease than those whose thoughts are negative. But then I reread it, and it was 300,000 times.

Max Lucado (34:33)

It's a stunning statistic. It is. I had to reread it myself. I had to check the source, because what. What the study said is that people who believed. Who battle hiv, but believed in the. You probably have it open there, but they believe in the presence of a living and loving God, something like that. They acknowledge the presence of a living and loving God, and they have those loving thoughts in their mind are 300,000 times more resistant to the HIV virus than those who would answer negatively. And that's a. It just shows how our thoughts lead to a different future in our lives.

Ginny Erich (35:14)

Yeah. You wrote thoughts. We cannot see them, we cannot buy them. We cannot always predict them, but we cannot deny this about them. They define our lives. They define our lives. So it's a just a wonderful book. My. My son's girlfriend was over yesterday, and she. And I was editing a podcast, and she said, you say wonderful too much. I need to find something better.

Max Lucado (35:39)

Oh, no, that's a. That's a wonderful thing.

Ginny Erich (35:43)

This is great truth from people that are way younger than you. I'm totally changing gears. Talk to us about living on a house. Houseboat.

Max Lucado (35:49)

Oh, my goodness. I did. Yeah. So I came to Faith in My. When I was 20, decided to be a missionary and to get into Brazil. I needed a church to sponsor me, and I found a church in Miami, Florida. I was single at the time. I moved to Miami, and one of the other guys on the staff. There were only three of us, and one of the other guys was also single, and he lived on a boat on the Miami River. And so I thought that was the grandest thing. And I. I went to the bank and I took out a. A car loan for $15,000, and I used that 15,000 not to buy a car, but to buy a boat. And it was a. It was. Didn't have a motor on it. It was a floating barge. And it was a. Needed a lot of work. But I was single. I was 20 or 25 years old. I was in heaven. It was the most fun, I would say, of all the places I've lived, living as a single guy on Miami river, just down the street from the Orange bowl, on a houseboat. That was. That was awesome.

Ginny Erich (36:57)

What an experience. You related it to being anchored. So similar to what we're talking about. It's like if you have those scriptures. We did this thing growing up called Bible quizzing, and I was really good at it. I was just telling somebody the other day, like, I was like, I got a lot of trophy trophies for that. We got to travel around. We're in Michigan. And you would go to other states and you compete against these other teams. You know, I would say it's one of the things I'm most thankful for that my parents did, because, you know, you would. You would maybe memorize the entire book of John or the entire book of Acts, you know, when you got high school level.

Max Lucado (37:32)

Yeah.

Ginny Erich (37:32)

And. And then that's in you. It's just there.

Max Lucado (37:35)

It's just there, isn't it? Yeah.

Ginny Erich (37:38)

Yeah. And so just like how you talk about the houseboats, like, anchored, not going anywhere.

Max Lucado (37:43)

Right. And. No. And. And if you have that word that's, you know, been sown in your heart, then it will surface when. Whenever those. Whenever those problems come. But if you don't have that word that's sown in your heart, what's going to surface is. Is bitterness or anxiety or fear. Let me read a scripture, please, if you don't mind. I know it's in the book, too. I'm opening a Bible here to Colossians 3 and verse 15. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body, you were called to peace and be thankful. And then let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. So you let the wisdom of Christ or the message of Christ dwell in you richly. I. I believe that is to say that it. It bears fruit, it pays dividends. The word of Christ dwells in you richly. And, you know, I talked about my sister. I have a dear friend who, who got. Who's diagnosed with cancer about two weeks ago. And at first it just knocked him off his feet, but he's a Man of great faith. And when I talked to him just, you know, a week ago, he said, you know what? I've got my. Got my scriptures talking to me. I've got my Bible talking to me. I believe I'm in God's hands. You can tell that he has gone to the mat, you know, wrestling with this. This unexpected diagnosis. But because he is a person in whom the word of God dwells richly, he has resources into. To. That he can tap into. And that's a wonderful story you tell about growing up and, and having these scriptures deposited in our lives. I believe by. By nature, our default nature is to choose anxiety, but scripture will allow us to choose peace and stability.

Ginny Erich (39:48)

It reminds me of what you talk about in the book. You talk about ruminate. And it's another. And it's another thing. It's just God, I think, has given an endless amount of examples through his creation of things that we can learn. So I, I heard someone talking about it recently about sheep. Her name is Rebecca Groves, and they're sheep farmers. And so she says when they go on new pasture, they like, just gobble it all up. I mean, did they, like, eat neat, neat, neat? And then for a long time, then they, I guess they're just like throwing it back up in their mouth. That's kind of how it works. And so to dwell on you richly, you talk about this rumination, you know, that if you're ruminating on those things, you meditate day and night on, on the scriptures. It's going to help a lot with your thoughts and your anxieties. So with the houseboat, you say, during my single years, I lived on a houseboat that was docked on the Miami River. The water level would rise and fall with the tide. The boat would rock back and forth with the river traffic. But though the river changed and the boat rocked, we never drifted. The boat was anchored to a concrete wall. Courageously, joyful people have done something similar. They have tethered their hearts to the foundation of God. And so the. What my mom did was, you know, we had. We're supposed to memorize these scriptures for Bible quiz. And she would, you know, this was like in the 90s. So she would tape herself reading, like Acts 2 or something like that. And then in the morning, it was on a cassette. And then in the morning, while we ate breakfast, she would just. Just play it. That's it. That's all we needed, you know, and then we would. We would win all the things. So if you could do something similar in your home, like reading Psalm 91 or reading Matthew, I think it was five. The one, or might be six, the one about word or reading the Colossians verse that you said, you know, take a month and. And just read that one over and over again.

Max Lucado (41:34)

I have several grandchildren, and I was over at one of our daughter's houses a week or so ago, babysitting. And the. The little boy in their home, they have to have two, and then they have one more on the way. The little boy is now 8 and his name is Max, like his grandpa. And he wanted to show me they had changed bedrooms. And so he wanted to show me how he had fixed up his bedroom. And he showed me all of his toys and all the Legos that he's recently built. And what I noticed is what his mom had done, and that is on the bedpost. He sleeps on the top bunk of a bunk bed and he climbs up the ladder and all the way up the ladder on the bedpost are scriptures. Scriptures, just little phrases. God, I'm with you always to the end of the age. Be anxious for nothing by prayer and petition. So I don't know if he's aware of it or not, but his mom is sneaking these verses in, you know, and. And he just thinks that's normal living, that he reads scriptures as he goes up and down the. The ladder, in and out of his bed. But way to go, Jenna, my daughter. Way to go to you, Jenny, for what you're doing. Yeah. And.

Ginny Erich (43:00)

Yeah. And to your mother and dad.

Max Lucado (43:01)

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Ginny Erich (43:03)

I mean, that was a lot of work for them.

Max Lucado (43:04)

It's a lot of work.

Ginny Erich (43:06)

You know, they would drive us to these different places. I'm sure it was expensive, you know, to learn these scriptures. And. And it does. I would say it dwells in me richly because of the foundation that they gave for us as children. And so Jenna's example then is a. There's so many different ways that you can do it. If you have scripture hanging up in your home, you know, if you got it on the refrigerator, on the piece of paper, whatever it is that you do, that's the replant. And it's going to be so helpful for your kids long term. Okay. Talking about building. So you said your grandson's building Legos. You talk about how your dad built homes. He was so handy that he built almost every house you lived in, except for one. And then there was a time, though, when he was building a home and it fell down.

Max Lucado (43:49)

Yeah. This is, I think in the book, I say this is a part Of Lucado lore. It happened in the town we were living in when I was born. So obviously I don't remember this, but I have older siblings and they recall how dad would frame up a house. That's the phrase to use. He would literally build the frame. And he always had a buddy or two who would help him. But we grew up. I grew up in West Texas. I wish I'd grown up in beautiful Michigan. That must have been wonderful. But I grew up in West Texas, and West Texas is flat and windy is flat. And it, it always winds blowing and it's just flat. No protection. And so he had framed up a house and he went off to work. Windstorm blew in. He came by the house at the end of the day and it was completely flat. It was flat. So he mentioned that, of course, his wife, my mom, and then the next morning mentioned it to some friends at work, thinking he's going to need to spend the rest of the weekend or the rest following weekend just putting it back up. But by the time he had gotten home from work, the friends had heard about what happened, and there were probably a dozen or more men at the house getting the structure back up and, and, and actually advancing the work further than. Than where he had had it. And I just use that to say, you know, God's always got helpers. He's always got helpers. Joy is always an option. It's a choice. A despair is an option too. And when you begin to sense there's no solution here, there's no possibility for a positive outcome, you got to take a stand against that thought. You've just got to. Got to take that thought captive. You've got to uproot it and replant it and replant it with scriptures that say, you know, all things work together for good, for those who love him and are called according to his purpose.

Ginny Erich (45:50)

That's right.

Max Lucado (45:51)

So that's a very important practice.

Ginny Erich (45:53)

This is really an impactful story. I want to read just a bit of it. So you say, you know, it collapses. I mean, can you even imagine, like your whole goal is to build a home and it gets blown over? And so you say he stood there for the longest time, hands on hips, staring at the pile of lumber. He had no choice but to go to work for the day. And he mentioned it to some co workers. Later that day, he returned to the construction site, ready to dismantle the fallen frame and start completely over. You can imagine his surprise when he found all these friends and neighbors already at work. They had not only restored the frame, but were also pressing forward with construction. They ended the day three weeks ahead of where my parents would have been had there been no storm. Imagine the difference between the way my father felt that morning and the way he felt that evening. At first glance, the storm brought a burden, but in the end, it brought a blessing. Who is to say the same won't happen to you? Maybe you feel like your world has collapsed, that all your hard work will need to be redone, that it's just you against the world. Can I challenge you to think otherwise? To tame your thoughts? Don't assume the worst. Assume instead that God is up to something good. You are just an answered prayer away from a fresh start. Call out for help.

Max Lucado (47:09)

That's a good word.

Ginny Erich (47:11)

I want to say. That's powerful. But my son's girlfriend also said, I say that too much, too powerful and wonderful. It is such a good word. Who is to say the same won't happen to you? Maybe you feel like your world has collapsed, that all your hard work will need to be redone, that it's just you against the world. Do not assume the worst. Assume instead. This is it, right? This is the uproot and replant. Assume instead that God is up to something good. You are just an answered prayer away from a fresh start. It's powerful. But I need a new word.

Max Lucado (47:46)

Hey, I got. I got an email from a lady who used to attend our church. And this story is not in any book. I'm sure it'll make it there someday. But she was. She told me that there was a. The threat of a hurricane to her coast. She lived, I think, on the west coast of Florida. But regardless, there was a threat of a hurricane. And she remembered that there was a family of squirrels up in a big tree in their front yard. And so she said those squirrels would never survive a hurricane. So she got a ladder and she got a broom and she went out and she started, you know, scaring the squirrels, hoping that they would leave the tree and go to someplace safer. And she said, I know those squirrels were angry at me. By here, I was swinging a broom and disrupting their home. What they didn't know is that I was driving them to safety. She said, max, you probably could use that story sometime. You know, we interpret the actions of the world thinking, oh, God is against me, when really God may be doing things that were. That are leading us to disrupt our world so that we'll survive what's coming next.

Ginny Erich (49:02)

That's right. It's good. I Want to hit one last topic? So you talk about common thought ruts. So you brought up ruts in the beginning, actually. You said about ruts. What did you say about ruts? It's like a medical term. Rut is a medical term. Neuroscientists describe ruts in our brain. They are a result of millions of sensory data firing their way through our gray matter. The result is a furrow. So you talk about common thought ruts. And these are in the book tame your thoughts. People can check it out. It's a great book to read with your family. So you're talking about when you battle anxiety, when you struggle with guilt is in here. When you can't find joy, when you feel overwhelmed, when you are puzzled by pain, when you fear God's rejection. And I just want to talk about this, this last one. When you can't find satisfaction and you have, which is like, this is kind of where we're at, right? It's like so much time on the phone to. So, you know, so much materialism. It's like we're chasing, chasing, chasing, can't find satisfaction. And you talk about this Swedish word that I've not heard before, and I don't know how it's pronounced, but maybe it's lagam. Can you talk about learning to be content or the sort of just enough topic?

Max Lucado (50:07)

Well, sweet. Sweden and Finland, those Scandinavian countries always score so high on the happiness index, right? And. And I've been curious, wonder why that is. And one possible answer is advanced by a sociologist, and he said that Sweden's culture is a culture that says I have enough. And they have that phrase, look on I have enough. What's the weather like? It's enough, it's enough. How's your work? It's enough, it's enough. In other words, it's not great, but it's not terrible. It's right. It's. It's sufficient for the day. And I believe that's a very godly attitude. You know, I have enough. I'm. I'm at peace with what I have. Maybe I could use a little bit more. But I'm trusting a hand of a sovereign God to oversee me, so I'm not constantly craving for more. One of the interesting things about, about materialism is that it operates off a dopamine in the brain. Whenever you buy something, a dopamine is released and it's an addictive thing. That's why even though I have a perfectly good car, if I drive past a car lot, I'll catch Myself looking, think, oh, I'd love to drive that. What, what, what is beginning to happen is that addiction to dopamine is wanting to. The, the dopamine secretion is wanting to pump some happy juice into my life. And unless I manage that, I, I could, I could make poor financial decisions, I could find myself in debt, I could misuse money. And, and so it's not so much that stuff is bad, it's the addiction to buying stuff that can get us into trouble. And learning to the lagom theory that, that I have enough is really an important step.

Ginny Erich (52:03)

Yeah. And there's a scripture for it. You know, there's probably a lot of them, but the Philippians one is a good one where Paul says, I think it's Paul. And you'll be able to correct it because you're a pastor. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret. That's cool language, you know. Everybody wants to know the secret, don't they? Tell me the secret. I learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I just mixed a couple versions of the Bible there.

Max Lucado (52:36)

I think that's okay. That's okay.

Ginny Erich (52:39)

That was the one that was in my mind. All right, Max, before we end this here, could you tell us about. You got the new book coming called Only One. Ah, I'm excited to know about it. So when that comes available for pre order, people can check that out. Obviously you have so many books. I've got, got a four sitting right here. Tame your thoughts. One God, one plan, one life. A student devotional. So we've used that with our kids. We also have God is with you every day, which is a 365 day devotional talking about replanting every morning. You can be planting these seeds in your life, these devotionals. I also have Anxious for nothing, finding calm in a chaotic world. Beyond your books though, you've got your own podcast. Tell us about the Encouraging Word podcast.

Max Lucado (53:18)

Yeah, I've got a podcast, Encouraging word. A person can get a message per week by subscribing. And I hope, I hope that's encouraging to them. I hope it is an encouraging word. We have a YouTube channel as well called Fresh Hope in which we're trying to capture quality messages. As many as I can until my death clock clicks in. I'm very vigilant about these, hoping to record, you know, Hundreds of messages and do so in a qualitative way, quality way. But those are up and running. People can, can listen and watch these 10 and 15 minute messages to encourage them. And that, that's called Fresh hope. So Max, locado.com is where you can go just to find out everything.

Ginny Erich (54:09)

What is Upwards?

Max Lucado (54:11)

Well, upwards is the name of a 60 second broadcast that a person can receive on a daily, either by email or, or, yeah, all, all by email. And they can either read it or listen to it. So they can either just download it or, or do the audible version. Upwards, that's, that's the old name. When I first got into ministry, we had a radio program called Upwards.

Ginny Erich (54:39)

And it's all the replanting, all of it. It's all seeds. It's all seeds. And a seed is not impressive, but in time it grows into something remarkable. Our favorite thing that we grew this year was called glass gem corn. And when you go get it, and our youngest daughter's nine, so and I've told this story before, but we went to go get, get it and harvest it. And you know, the stalk, the core, a piece of corn is this big and the stalk is probably, and I don't even know if that's the right word, what the corn grows on. It's called a corn stock. Yeah, it's like 12ft. I mean it's so tall. From this tiny seed. While the glass gem corn, our daughters, you know, she's nine, she, she peels the corn and it's the colors of the corn are blue and purple and green and yellow. It's the prettiest, it's the prettiest colors you've ever seen. And she said, who painted that? You know, God painted that. She's like, how did that color get in there? There's nothing too remarkable about a seed, but when you plant it and you give it time and you water it and you come back to it. So upwards or the daily Devotionals, you know, reading these to your kids, you don't know, you don't know what a remarkable, what remarkable harvest will come of that all throughout their lives. So I so appreciate all that you put out in the world. This is a pinch me moment. I told everyone, people are like, who's coming? On your podcast? Nobody ever knows anyone's names, but everybody knew yours. I was like, oh, Max Lucado. So I definitely told that one to a lot of people. We always end our show with the same question. A favorite memory from your childhood that was outside.

Max Lucado (56:17)

It would be, this is Very unique to West Texas. It would be riding a sand surfboard on the sand hills. We built them with my dad's help. Obviously, he was a great carpenter. We take a. It looks a bit like a surfboard you would use on the ocean waves, but not quite as long. And you have Formica on the bottom, and you put a strip of carpet on the top and then a piece of thin wood, like plywood, and you wax it down, and you go up to the top of a sand hill, and you can just ride forever, either sitting or standing. That's very unique to West Texas because most places don't have sandhills big enough to do that. And it's really fun and very inexpensive.

Ginny Erich (57:06)

I never heard of that. In Michigan, we call it sledding.

Max Lucado (57:10)

Yeah, it's the same idea. Wow.

Ginny Erich (57:15)

Oh, so fun. And it's such good exercise for kids to go up it. It's like large muscle movement to, like, drag it back up to the top. So it's just so good for their development.

Max Lucado (57:24)

Terrific workout. Yeah.

Ginny Erich (57:26)

You know how God Made His World to be so engaging for kids and help them with their development. Max, huge congrats on this newest book, Tame youe Thoughts. I'm super excited about Only One. Thank you for being here.

Max Lucado (57:36)

Well, you're a treat. A lot of energy and joy. Thank you for letting me be a part of your. Of your podcast.