Okay, so I've been doing a lot of late night walks recently and just been doing a lot of thinking and processing and praying and, I don't know, just self-reflection, you know, and I just thought maybe I could record some of my thoughts and share them. Maybe there's someone out there that they might resonate with and, uh, maybe it just creates a dialogue or just helps us all start to start maybe thinking about. Some things. So anyway, this is one of my walks I did recently. Um, and you'll hear some cars in the background. It's dark, it's late at night. I'm walking around outside. Uh, so forgive sort of the, the audio quality, but um, it's just something that's been on my mind thinking about fruit and, uh, and, well, I won't say more anyway. This is Love Breaks bad. My name is Sean, also Brooks, and uh, I'm happy you're here. So here we go. Here's my first evening stroll thoughts with Sean. Also Brooks jesus said. The way that they're gonna know that you know me is how you love. You're gonna be known by your love. So I don't know. I've just been thinking and praying a lot the last several weeks, and I think the thing I've been chewing on, and the reminder for myself is follow the fruit. Follow the fruit. You know, like Jesus says, you'll know a tree. It's, I mean, Jesus says, science says, everybody says we know what type of tree by looking at the fruit, right? By by. Whether that's needles or leafs or actual fruit and berries and apples, whatever it is, you look at what comes out of. What is outflowing of a tree? That thing that's outflowing will tell you what that tree is. So I'm saying out loud to myself, follow the fruit and it breaks my heart because I, as much as I. As much as I can't stand church churchy people, I love them and I love the church. I'm from that though. They are my people. They literally are my people, and I think they frustrate me the most because it is my own family. But it breaks my heart when I see the fruit. From the people who think they're following Jesus, like the words are right, the songs are right. The music's freaking great. It's all dialed in. I haven't believed there's sincerity behind it, but it's misplaced. It's misplaced. I look at. The people who claim so loudly to know and to follow and to love Jesus. And I look at the fruit. I just take the test that Jesus said. I take the scientific little test and I just look at that tree and I, I take it in for a minute or two. I watch it for a few days, a few weeks. Take a look at the history of the last years, two years and, and what's the fruit? What are we seeing, what's coming out of there? Well, let me, let me think about this. The Bible says when it's describing the fruit of the spirit, meaning life in God, life in and with and around God looks like this. That's the fruit of the spirit. The spirit is God, and it says the fruit of that spirit of God's eternal spirit is. Love. Love joy. Love joy. Peace, love, joy. Peace, patience, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control. That's the fruit of people who know Jesus, people who follow Jesus, people who are connected to the vine as Jesus calls it. You can tell. I mean, look, there's a whole just thought about that. That's a whole. Another story, but it's like the same metaphor of the fruit and the tree. Jesus says, I am the vine. You are the branches. Hard for me. Obviously, you can't do anything. You're not gonna live this God life. You're not gonna live this kingdom life. You're not gonna have this connection to really knowing the great mystery of God, of knowing how much you don't really even know. Anyway, that's a side tangent. I'm thinking about the fruit again. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. I just don't see it from the people who say they know Jesus. I don't see it. I am not saying everywhere, but I'm saying a lot. I'm saying most, and it breaks my heart for them and it breaks my heart for everybody. Everybody on the outside looking at them and feeling the hate and thinking somehow that connects to to God and somehow. I don't know, representative of the universe. I think deep down we know it's not, but it's just sad. It's just sad to see I, so I look at the fruit of the people who say they know Jesus, and I'll tell you what I do see. That first list in case I didn't specify was what I don't see. That's what's in the Bible. That's what the Bible said it should look like, but it's not what I'm seeing. And again, I'm not partial. If I'm partial at all. I'm partial to the home team. I grew up in church, deeply religious. I was trained in it. I served as a pastor. I'm teaching people in it, so trust me. I know. I know how it is. I know how it is. Anyway, I think about the fruit that I do see and it's anger. I think that's top of the list. Easy. Just this anger, like it's in the voice and it's on the face. It's like a. It's not even like a mat. It's not even a frustration. It's like a seething anger. It's like, hmm, that's not pretty. It's not pretty. And on the flip side of that, as maybe as heavy but more hidden perhaps, is the fiercest. You can just sense the fear, the control, the the, the fear of losing control. The fear of their tribe went out, winning the, the fear of, I don't know, the fear of their neighbor. I also see a total lack of compassion. Just a total lack of any sort of, I don't, I'm not even saying Christian, compassionate human compassion for other humans. Just the arrogance which we speak, the lack of dignity that we, that we see is just sad. And I see hate, literally as far as you can get from what God calls us to. I see hate. Where every emotion, every act, every phrase, every lack of compassion, every judgment, every, every mean thing that can be done or thought or said about somebody is justified because you're the right team. You're the right, you're God's team. Guess what? If you don't love people, you're not God's team. That's basic that. That's it. I mean, again, the Bible's super clear on that too. It says, if you don't love people, I believe this in First John somewhere. If you don't love people, I like how the message Bible puts it. You don't. Know the first thing about God, literally if you don't love, but you say, you know God. I mean, it just doesn't add up. A 2-year-old, I tell, I mean, come on. That's obvious, right? That's obvious. It's like saying. It's like telling me to believe you've been to Hawaii. You just spent a week in Hawaii for an amazing vacation, but you don't know what a beach is. It's like, wait, come on bro. That doesn't add up. God is love God. Is love. So it makes sense that if you don't love people, if you're not even trying to see people, if you don't have compassion for people, if your heart doesn't ache and break for people, oh man, you're not following Jesus. Come on. That's not. That's not even a bold thing to say, is it? I mean, that's like I said, a a baby would know that. How was Hawaii? Oh, it was great. Oh, yeah. How were the beaches? What do you mean beaches? Huh? Something just logically makes me think you weren't in Hawaii. That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm thinking. And it breaks my heart. Breaks my heart to see it because we're supposed to be the love. I see so much judgment, so much judgment. It's so filled in dripping with ego. Everybody else is wrong. Every other group is missing the mark. Everyone else. It is going to hell except you and your group. And every group feels like that about every other group, even the Christian groups. Come on guys. I mean, you gotta see what I'm saying here. You gotta pay attention. It's not that, it's not that hidden. So anyway, this is what I'm saying. I'm not here to put guilt on anybody. I'm not here to condemn. That's not what this story's about. There's not, there's none of that. That's, that's, that's the kindergarten stuff. We're not here for that. We're here for freedom. What I want to do is I wanna invite you to, as I said at the beginning. Of this little evening stroll. Follow the fruit. Follow the fruit. Just pay attention. Literally, just pay attention to what you're hearing and what you're seeing and what you're feeling. Pay attention to the faces on TV and the faces of our leaders face will say a lot. Listen to the words, don't brush it off. Don't just brush it off as, oh, that's, that's just politics. Oh, that's just, that's just how he talks. Don't do that. Please. We owe it to ourselves to pay more attention. Just listen to the tone of the words again. The Bible says, out of the abundance, the fullness of the heart. Language flows out within our heart, comes out our mouth. It just will. It will in some form if you pay attention. That's all I'm asking. Just pay attention. If you pay attention, I'd just be interested to. To hear what you notice, and that should just make us ask mm-hmm. If this isn't the tree, I thought it was, what type of tree is this? What's, what is this fruit coming off? Because if it doesn't look like Jesus, it's not the right tree. Right? We can agree on that and we know the things Jesus cared about. He's talking about it nonstop. It. It's not politics, it's not pride of country, it's not patriotism. It's not rising to the top. It's not being the best. It's about becoming less. Right? A scene of opening our eyes to see, to see the beauty that God is. To see the image of Christ in everybody, to see that there are people made in God's image and to have compassion. That's what it means to be a Christian. That's what it means to be a follower of Jesus. Is when you love people. So look at the fruit you, you heard the first list. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. I know that because I had that plaque hanging in my kitchen my whole life. This little wooden carve plaque that came from like some 1980s craft fair. Some old guy probably chiseled it in there. But yeah, I remember. I remember that plaque. I remember memorizing it, having to memorize it. But yeah, it stuck in there. So grateful for that. Super grateful for that foundation of even knowing what to be taught, to be taught about what life around God looks like. Look for these things. That's basically what that plaque was saying in my house. Hey. Look for these things where you see these things. God is, God is happening. Love is love is happening when you see these. So just look. Look on your team, your church, your political party, your group. Just look around. Pay attention to the fruit. Just follow the fruit. That's all I'm asking. Just pay attention. It's not a lift. I'm not asking for, you know, Bible studies, hail Mary's. I'm not asking to write sentences. I'm not even asking you to feel bad about anything. I was just asking you for a few days, maybe for the rest of this week. Just pay attention. Pay attention to the podcast, the news, the radio, the Reddit form, the Twitter post, the reel, the gram, the TikTok. Pay attention to what you're hearing and follow the fruit. That's all I'm asking. Just line it up like, you know, put it in a little category. I wanna put fruit that looks like. Jesus in this box, and I am gonna put fruit that doesn't look like Jesus in this box and just see, I mean, watch for four or five days, three days, whatever works for you. And then just see which box has more. Are they equal? Is it all balanced out? Is it out of proportion? One way I know what I'm seeing. I'm seeing one empty box and I'm seeing one box overflowing, and it's not the right boxes. I'm on a hill, by the way. That's why I'm breathing hard. Anyway, that's what I've been thinking about. Follow the fruit. And it's a good way for our own lives, right? Like not just big picture, but even if you're just thinking about your own self, how do I grow that? Maybe that's my team. Yeah, but what about me? I, I, to me, I apply it all the fruit of your day, bro. How's your attitude? How's your tone been today? How's your attention? Are you here? Are you present? Are you in the room? Are you somewhere else? How's your work been today? How's love for what you're doing? Also known as being present right here, right now. How's that been today? How's the noticing been today? Right. Just the noticing every day something little, something tiny, something interesting. Of course there's a big stuff, sunsets and moons, and. Fall least and you know, waterfalls, but there's that. Heck yeah. Yes to all that, but there's little stuff every day all over. How's your noticing? That's what I can run through me, like follow the fruit for my own day, my own week. Right. It's a good way not to condemn myself. There's no condemnation. Jesus is taking care of or done. We're done. We're done. We're not getting into all that right now anyway. But here's the thing, it's not about condemning, it's about score keeping even. It's just noticing, right? It's paying attention to ourselves. It's a good barometer. Like, am I outflowing love? Or am am, am I sucking in ego, right? Am I projecting or protecting, or defending, or. Excluding, or that's what the ego does. That's not what God's spirit does, right? One is all about fear, and the other is all about love. I mean, they're, they're polar opposites. So that's one thing I think you will not be confused. I'll just say this, I'm almost home, so I'm gonna wrap this up, but I will say this, if you do pay attention for a few days, I'm not gonna even tell you what you're gonna see. I, I will tell you this though, I don't think it will be confusing. I don't think it will be hard to measure. I don't think it'll be close to a tie, if you know what I mean. It will be clear. It'll be clear. So just pay attention to that. Pay attention to that. And then I guess maybe we could follow up on the next walk of like, okay, you know, like maybe I did notice my tribe, my team, my group, my church. Is, uh, yeah, the, the stuff didn't, it felt strong in one way or the other. Right? I'm not gonna tip the scales for you, you decide, but if you do notice that it's maybe in a direction you'd not prefer, or you say to yourself that, that doesn't look right or that doesn't match this, we'll talk about that more. But if you notice that, I wanna talk about also like what do you do then what are next steps at that point? What are some things we can think about if we find ourselves there? So anyway, thanks for chatting. Thanks for walking, and uh, I'll catch you on the next, the next trip.