God loves government and he Lo he loves us he loves our cities too God loves cities and he has this strategy for economic development in your city in my city and he has a strategy for public safety for homelessness in our cities he cares about those people that are wandering on the streets that don't have a place to to lay their head at night he cares about the mentally ill he cares about our our infrastructure just our Wildfire mitigation all those things that we in a community need the Lord has a solution for that and
so we need our people to go in and love this city well we have as much we have as much influence as we have love MH if we don't have love we don't really have a lot of [Music] [Applause] [Music] influence [Music] welcome to cultural Catalyst where we teach you how to be fully live C- labor with God and change the world and I'm your host Chris valon and today I have my very good friend Julie winter I'm so glad to be here Chris thank you to say Dr Julie winter but you're actually a physician's
assistant I'm a nurse practitioner a nurse practitioner oh wow all these years and I still get it wrong you still get it wrong you know when I when I introduce you normally you don't even correct me I just let it go I think I've introduced you as a scientist a doctor everything probably except for a veterinarian but anyway you you've been my friend for a long time thank you so much for being on the show oh it's a privilege uh you know I want to tell the story uh we you and I um you you've
been my doctor for a while and I went through a very hard time 15 years ago I was laying on the couch for six months depressed I remember and you called me every single day I've told this story many times but not in your presence that I know of at least I didn't know you were in the room if you were and you called me every single day for six months and I was pretty desperate and uh I just want to say publicly thank you because I I've never got to publicly thank you for that
well thank you thank you Chris it was an honor and it was um it was just a season that you were in and uh I'm a longtime friend your caregiver but also on the board and I was just going to go with you through the through that uh Valley of the shadow of the death make sure you didn't stay there and you know it's a little humorous now but if you've ever talked to somebody who's depressed it is not a fun conversation and our conversations were probably 30 seconds to a minute long like how are
you doing terrible feeling better than yesterday no it's like and it's hard to talk to somebody when that's you know that's that's the conversation every week but you really saved my life and the last couple of months of that time on the couch I was I was really contemplating not living and uh you kept reminding me like this isn't forever this is going to happen right you're going to get well you know and just thank you for that yeah you're welcome it was an honor it's hard to talk to people who are in pain isn't
it you deal with them every day it it is it's uh something that you just have to go in and embrace it's just kind of like stepping into the deep water or going into the ocean you just embrace it and you go in with people and be with them where they are this is not our subject today but I I just feel prompted to say this like it if you have people that are your friends or loved ones and they're in pain I I I want to say you you don't have to fix them they
just have to know you're with them and I think that it's probably one of the things you learn in medicine right you can't fix everybody but you can give them hope you can be there for them and I think most people run from pain pain I think it's pretty natural for us to run from pain especially when you you don't know what to say you don't know what to do and you don't have a cure yeah and and I just you know in my life I learned so much uh from that incident with you I
had about three people call me most of them call me two or three times a week call me every day and I I think uh what I learned from that for my own team when they're sick they they always get a text message a call or something from me because I learned how important it is to stay close to people I don't have to have answer right right I don't I don't have to have a cure that's not my responsibility but I can be I can say I'm with you and makes a hug difference yeah
we can all do that we don't have to offer the solution most of the time people just want to be heard they want to be loved they want to know you care and uh that you're with them yeah and you know so we're going to shift subjects because that that really wasn't our plan subject but I I did want to say that just really thank you for that um okay so you're in medicine I am and uh and you're also on city council you were our mayor um lots of hats a whole lot of people
different hat am I going to put on today how the heck did you get from you know from medicine a nurse practitioner to how did you even connect the dots to like what the heck are you doing in in in city council and you know and what got you there and you know I know your story so this is a loaded question like how did what you're doing in medicine how is it helping you I I don't I don't think people would connect these dots actually in city council and let's talk about that that that's
was a good starter I got a bunch of questions on that absolutely so some of this is your fault so I'll just W J with the I don't know how don't how you connect the dots either but somehow you you had a you had a straight line but I came to reading my my husband and I moved to reading in 1989 when our boys were just babies wow and we came up here I had just was a new graduate from the NP program at UCLA and and so started my uh started practice uh here and
I've been in several different settings here in reading and family practice my husband was offered a job at Mercy Medical Center we started attending Bethel Church when it was over on belli Lane um before bill so yeah I know you were not you were after the Earl days though right I was after the Earl but before Bill and so uh and then we you know moved into the building that we're we're in now and Bill of course came in 95 and you came a few years after that so we have been friends that whole time
I've served on the bethl Elder board for quite some time and so I just I felt I mean I have a have fulfilling Medical Practice I have a pretty huge patient panel yeah you do but also I keep you busy myself super excited about and I still wake up with it with this this thought that Bill Johnson throughout to us early 2000 more than 20 years ago what does it look like to have a city transformed by the kingdom of God and that follow-up statement I believe that city is reading and that seed began to
grow in my heart as you know and I began to think about that and chew on that because as a as being trained in medicine I'm trained to look at root problems not just symptoms of a disease but what's actually causing the disease so looking at our city and thinking well why do we have why do we struggle economically why do we have high divorce rates why do we have high domestic violence rates crime the things that scor all our Aces scores what what does it look like to have a city transformed and I begin
to dream about that what how if the church was the church and was was Salt and Light in our community um what would it look like to have a city transformed and I probably began to you could probably remember I began to agitate that for that strategy on the sitting on the on our Beth Elder board so what are we doing as a church what's our strategy how are we going to make the city better and you know thinking of the different areas of influence how can we be a catalyst how do we how do
we be a catalyst and so there so so in a board meeting um you probably remember this well I think it was 2010 2011 I was agitating for something I don't even remember what it was and you turned around and looked at me and kind of pointed your finger at me in front of God and the whole board said you're going to run you're going to be on the city council you're supposed to be the mayor and so that was which I didn't connect the dots I'll say that right there I didn't see you didn't
like that word very well not happy I was mad yeah like really mad hey don't kill the mailman you were you very gra delivered the letter baby I didn't write it you did within a month I had received that same prophetic word from uh my youngest son and from my father neither of one who had ever brought up government in me running for governor being involved in government at all but they each had a word from the Lord for me so I'd received three words within just you know 30 days or so so I knew
what God was talking to me about it but I was stubborn and didn't want to listen didn't want to even talk to God about it so I didn't I about you are still so I yeah I just set that aside for about a year but it um it caused a separation between the Holy Spirit and myself him not wanting to talk to the Lord about it so a good point so I began yeah so I that that really grieved me I knew I was being disobedient the Lord was gracious but I was being disobedient so
one morning I just repented and said well Lord I'll all these people want me to run for city council they tell me this they tell me that but I don't think I should and these are all the reasons I shouldn't and all the Lord asked me was well if I asked you would you do it and well I mean how do you say no to that if I asked you would do it you say no yeah exactly Jonah about that there's a whale of a problem right there I was smart enough not to run to
the ocean yeah exactly boat want don't want to even get in the bathtub after that exactly so that began that that moment of repentance and I felt the Lord say I'm on this trust me and so I said yes Lord I'll do it and I felt like I kind of had jumped off a cliff and I had that sensation of falling that of that what did I do I'd wake up with that every morning and it wasn't like actually physical sensation yeah that sensation like you're just going over the edge of a roller coaster and
you're falling like kind of anxiety maybe or yeah it was like it was a like a night it was a nightmare like did I say that did I say that yesterday yes I did say that yesterday I am G to run and if I and I'm the type of person if I'm going to do it I'm going to do it I'm going to do it well so that you know obviously created quite a bit of pressure for me so I began that whole process and the Lord I did tell the Lord I'll do this but
you have to you have to make a way for me I required two things you have to to make way and and you um and you have to show me how to do it and so and I'll Trust the timing to you and so that was 2010 2011 or so and so it took me a while I did leadership writing I interviewed probably over a 100 Business Leaders I actually created a survey of what were the key this is your style I want to point out something right here before you like run off okay okay
sorry no no no I just want to point out because there's a lot of people listening and they're like hey I'm in some other practice I do something else for a living and you know and it's and it's like the Lord called me to whatever right now we're talking about you and city council but it could be whatever and it's like what do I do exactly what do I do and I'd like to point out that for instance when Daniel was called to serve Nebuchadnezzar he had to learn the history of Babylon he had to
learn the language of Babylon he had to learn the government of Babylon the the culture of Babylon and and so you you I mean I watched this process with you you gave yourself to learning I know you were going to City Council meetings after a while was you were talking to people who had done it before people who were still doing it people who you know who understood the problems of the city and you were doing like what a good doctor would do who's trying to solve a patient's issue who maybe has been to many
doctors and hasn't been able to solve the issue you were diving into how does this work yep and you didn't just run run one day right and that that I I think that was a couple year process it it took me I well I didn't run I I was elected in 2016 so I started my Camp yeah it was a four it was a fouryear process and I think that's an important for people who are listening and you get a prophetic word for something you need to you need to lean into that like I I'm
not sure if was you who said this but you know God isn't responsible for fulfilling your prophetic word there's a part of it that you do that you step up and do and that whole principle of the horse is prepared for battle but Victory Belongs to the Lord when we get that prophe word we can't just say well God's going to make iten you usually have to prepare a you have to get a and it so I would say that because I see metor who say we have horses try not to get horses right exactly
so so I threw myself into it and approached it like I would any medical problem I did try to do evidence-based what what works in it City I went up to on my own dime went up to bend and had interviewed with some of their their key city leaders and and talking to people about how did they turn their economy around evaluated cities that had had turned themselves from a economy that was based sort of on which we had been on resource extraction and then services and then how do they how do they pivot and
become successful so as Lumber kind of went away goes away right yeah right so then what do you do as a city and B that happened with Bend as well the was an identity thing too right it was an identity you attract a certain kind of person yes you know you you attract the logger you you attract that kind of person you know we're not saying good or bad we're just talking about the kind of person you right and those people create the culture yes so when that goes away yes those people slowly go away
right and you're left with the vacuum not just of jobs but identity right right exactly and and if you looked at I mean the EDC our um Local Economic Development Corporation has lots of data you look at jobs that have the most economic out output yeah that would be manufacturing Advanced ma manufacturing a lot of the it the it sector those kinds of and and then you know it kind of works down the scale so the hospitality service industry tends to be on a lower scale or retail tends to be on the lower economic profit
but uh someone in not not high paying jobs not not yeah and they just that that turnaround money they don't necessarily employ people but people you know that come in that are in Tech or Advanced manufacturing their job produce brings in so much outside money into the community you you get way more turnover of your dollar or generation of dollars so begin to look at what could what could that look like and begin to pray about that and asking the Lord where do I go what what what direction do you want me to take and
the Lord directed me to Nehemiah yeah so I spent a long time there weeks in Nehemiah and there's just such such a fabulous story of someone who who wasn't a king who wasn't in the church he wasn't a prophet but he comes he comes in and and restores the city and he does it pretty quick yeah and and rebuilds walls and Gates and he's also not a contractor exactly which is which is a crazy story right 14 years the walls are tore down yeah they try to rebuild him for 72 years and what they can't
do in 72 years he does in 52 days in 52 days yeah less than two months and he does it he doesn't bring in the Army Corps of Engineers to do it right he does it with the very people who who tried for 72 years and who asle had a lot of the resources there they had broken down walls they had stuff they just didn't know how he didn't they didn't have vision and I was really struck I when I approached Nehemiah I I told the Lord I said okay help me to see this as
if Nehemiah is in my time I I nehemiah's coming to reading and so help me look at reading like Nehemiah looked at Jerusalem and so I just put myself on that journey of looking at readings and and Nehemiah went and investig the gates surveyed all the walls he surveyed all the walls he name he had names for them y I got I got hung up on the names I was like why did why why are we talking about the names of walls or Gates and so then I felt like the Lord say well ask me
what the walls of ring are what are the gate what are the walls that are broken down that and there were you know there were quite a few and but I asked the Lord I said okay give me give me the the give me the top three or four that I'm supposed to focus on because there's so so much a need in the city what am I supposed to do what am I supposed to be the Catalyst for and the lord gave me a strategy that that is still my strategy today sometimes it gets tweaked
it changes but the core strategy has been there yeah I I I love it and then he also gets helps from the Kings yes yes and so he he brings in some resources he didn't have but he uses the same people Y and what's interesting here and this I think this relates to you as you know you're in the medical field as a doctor and it it's like okay you you you have some you have you have this you're bringing this mentality you work with sick people all the time it's a mentality like you work
with sick people your job is to get the sick person actually well and and so you come in with that diagnostic kind of mind and you're like okay our City's sick right so the same kind of mindset I the walls I I have tests I take tests my my patients I give the my patients these uh these test to to see you know what are the outcomes of these tests and how can I treat this disease right and I saw you face reading with the very similar with a very similar approach and I see Nehemiah
the same kind of thing he's diagnosing the problem like what's wrong what's actually wrong and why are these walls broke down but he also brings some outside help yeah in that he's he's bringing some resources and you you did that too you started bringing resources connecting a lot of it is just con is connecting resources yeah yep yeah it's um it it's one of the things that the Lord really impressed on on me and you and I talked about this quite a bit and we had quite a bit of conversation about vision for reading what
is reading supposed to be and the the Lord showed me that was one of the primary walls that had been broken down the city didn't know what what their purpose was there was no identity and if you if you don't know who you are then then you know for lack of vision people perish that's what the word says and so our people were perishing because they didn't know who they were were they they didn't know what they should be and so I began to speak that I began to speak about a vibrant prosperous city that
was good for families that appreciated its natural resources that was a safe City so I began speaking into that and trying to give the people vision of what we could become and I still do that today yeah yeah I I was just looking uh yesterday we had a prayer meeting we have a prayer meeting for our city and our our government every week just uh an hour and a half long and and I I remembered that I had made some proclamations myself like what does what you in this area of identity and I I wrote
some phrases down like reading uh the place where dreams come true yes you know reading the uh the the doorway of Hope to California yeah you know and reading the healthiest city in America yeah like we just begin to like Proclaim these core values over reading and then ask ourselves like how do you create ecosystems cuz the challenge is right we we have so of these long conversations like when you have Timber and you have you know gold mining uh mineral mining there it's not just it's not just guys cutting down trees like there's a
whole ecosystem like there's a mill right there are truck drivers there are saw sawman right like like you it takes all of this to have an ecosystem right and when all that goes away right and you don't have that what are you yeah yeah and and how do you create so talk to us about you know we talked so much about well technology like and all of that and like how are you helping to create ecosystems with this new sense of identity around Revelation around Beauty around right well I I I it comes back to
that beautiful biblical principle of of stewarding your talents what did God give you what did God give our city y so we are surrounded by natural Bea Beauty we have this river that runs through the middle you can do almost any sort of outdoor activity you can think or dream of in Reading within an hour of reading yeah um if it's not within the city itself we also have this amazing resource of people many of whom who come because of bethl they come from all over the world here well people are are that's a that's
a talent people in many many cities are looking for talented people to come to their city so people come with their dreams with their with Resources with maybe a different perspective because they were from a different city a different nation and they have started businesses here so we have really worked on focusing on what do we have how do we grow what we have as opposed to people would tell me well we can't do such and such here because we don't have such or we can't do this because we don't have this and I said
well what do we have let's let's just be faithful with maybe we only have three talents but let's multiply those and so that's what we've done so we have focused a lot on parks and trails and you probably see me advocate for that you have you have been a great partner with with our students setting up that whole system of our students going in and cleaning up our parks and trails and having a huge value for expansion of that because talented young people who who we want to attract here for skilled labor want to come
to a place where they can raise a family that has a wonderful outdoor lifestyle and we are an outdoor lifestyle type City so that's one of the things that we've done we have focused on downtown you know our downtown was really just dilapidated really dilapidated it was empty it was vacant it was um not a little ghost townish it it was and it and you know we was Mr I I think it's James or John Gardner said you know we are continually faced with a series of great opportunities that are brilliantly disguises insoluble problems so
so often what looks like a big problem like downtown became this incredible opportunity and so what and I pushed on that so working with the private sector which that you talk about that three-legged stool you know you have business and then you you absolutely have to have government because government was heavily involved in all the all of the infrastructure and the streets and property line changes and all deeds and then and then you had the non the nonprofit or the yeah nonprofit sector like K2 that contributed money so you had this these three three different
groups coming together to transform downtown and now downtown is vibrant you have new businesses there it's it's amazing you think of the um Turtle Bay I got very involved even before I was elected with that we had the Turtle Bay Museum which is a beautiful resource but didn't have funding it was it was the city had cut funding during the uh Great Recession so they didn't have enough money to maintain themselves so they proposed taking um that the city sell them a unused partk parking lot to build the the hotel and so that look you
know that looks like a problem Turtle Bay can't support it and the city doesn't have enough money to support it okay so what do we have well we have an unused parking lot let's use that and that turned into the Sheran it's amazing Mosaic and that is a catalyst for that area I mean when you go down to the riverfront that's where people are at they're by the bridge they're by Turtle Bay they're by the Mosaic Civic so those are those are problems and I believe the Lord has what we see is homeless that feels
like an insoluable problem actually there's probably some great opportunities for there we just need to set our mind to that so good and then you you became a part of a board for technology company because yes we were like okay we can bring technology in I know that you that you worked with a with several city council people and outside people as you just pointed out in the three-legged stool idea to bring in F you know uh fast internet into our city because that if you're going to bring technology into the city I mean it
sounds crazy but you have to these are some of the infrastructure things you don't think of until you bring in you bring these companies in and you're you're kind of you're you're kind of showing them around and they're like how fast is your internet yeah like we can't we can't put our we can't put we can't centralized you know IBM is not going to have a centralized office here if they don't have fast internet their their whole world depends on it right you guys are bringing that infrastructure and tech school and yeah we're working on
the the the tech school I I mean when I survey business owners the top the top reasons weren't it was funny because when you talk to the people on the street they'll say they would say well the the main reason reading is INS successful is because of crime well you know our crime was is an issue but if you look across the state reading wasn't particularly worse than any other City same thing with homelessness it feels like that in most cases and better probably if you travel you you would probably see in California that read
is that probably better but when you talk to business owners I surveyed business owners and say what what is your number one what are your your top your top problems and it wasn't Public Safety it was they they couldn't recruit a skilled worker the second problem was lack of regular Air Service all we had when I was elected was the San Francisco flight so you remember I came to you and we talked about how how can we get that La flight we needed the business owner said we need to have regular flight service we need
that La flight to get people in and out because many businesses need to have air service for PE for their business to prosper so that became a whole Outreach that we did that was a great story I don't if you want to tell that story but I mean they had tried for two or three years I mean different more than that 10 10 years yeah yeah well I got involved like three years we had a um I had one of my guys like on regularly on that on that board which was you know on that
team that was trying to open up that LA and and just for people to understand what we're talking about we're not just talking about an airline we're talking about opening up up another area to fish in for for uh economy so you know when you when you have a flight to La you suddenly open up a whole economic area that can feed our you know our small community of rain right right and uh both economically you know with uh with re also people can come here for recreation all of that opens up but without that
flight it is difficult to get here so you know so we we got together you talked to me and I'm like okay well I'm pretty good at negotiating I'm like well let's find the right person at United Airlines because that's the airline that was already here let's make sure we're talking to the right people and let's fly there and let's negotiate a deal and and we we set up uh a prelim preliminary um uh phone call before we got there and we said hey we're ready to come to make a deal so please have the
right people in the room yeah in this costing us a million dollars if I remember correctly yep it what it did mhm and we raised a million dollars bethl gave a significant amount of that so did some business folks in the area and we we got that flight I mean we got that flight within we actually made the deal right there we actually said we're not leaving here until you make a deal with us you remember that I totally remember he's like we don't use the operate like that and I go we didn't fly all
the way here to not get a deal let's do this yeah and they and I remember in your conversation with them they were like well we we would need you to take the million dollar risk mhm said okay if we put up the million dollars will you do the deal and they're like yeah if you put up a million dollars we'll do the deal so we walked out of there with the deal we did we walked out of there with a deal and you were so brilliant Chris because what the city had tried to do
along with the EDC all well-intentioned they had tried one Avenue of up the chain of command with United Airlines and it was the Avenue that they only Avenue they had access to so they they would get to a certain level and then but the right people wouldn't be to make the decision weren't in the room and you noosed that right off the bat you said you just don't have the right people in the room and bethl had access to a different chain of command to the top because because bethl uses United Airlines a lot so
it's just so it's just a a brilliant when I think about that Partnership of um government and the and the church how do we nonprofits how do we as Believers you know why it's so important for us to get involved because because of some of those me saying yes to the Lord saying yes I'll serve my City because I want to see a city transformed for my children for my grandchildren for all in perpetuity I want to see our city transformed and so I'm going to pour myself into that and then how do I how
do I then I I connect it you know to to the church and and giving people opportunities a place to get involved and make a difference I think you know one of the beautiful things for people who are watching here you know that you provided is you became a bridge for us because we were already doing some stuff in the city but we we needed that that con that that um you know that conductor that that that uh you know the person who who conducts the symphony like we need to understand what's going on and
we need to bridge between in our case we're the our nonprofit obviously is a is a church and now we have a we don't but there's Advanced reading that we started later on that we are not directly affiliated with but we started that Corporation but uh but we needed we needed someone who could Bridge those two areas and say to the city hey there's resources over here I'm on this board right and you know in our case we have an army right we have 2,000 students in our school Ministry who we do uh City you
know they they have to work in the city every yeah it's been transformational transformational we've got equipment you know we in those days we had some extra money and so you know you were able to because you were on this board and then you became city council you were able to build that bridge it kind of like I I I'm relating it to to Nehemiah yeah who his he serves a king right right and he he ends up you know in Jerusalem kings that are king or exus in another country but that King extends his
favor to these nations around him to give him resources yes and you you in in in your analogy I I see now that you get in city council and you're like I I know these that's right I know these I know where the resources are I know where these resources are and you know obviously bethl is not the only resource you know about right because you're involved in all these other you're involved with the metal community and that that opens the door to all these business people but you're like okay you get in there and
you're like oh we have a problem with homelessness we have a problem with this we have a problem with that uh you know what we have I got an army over here I'm on this board of a church that has an army that would love to see our city transformed and you're able to pull those resources in yeah like Nehemiah did with the Kings yeah it is it's um that's why we have to be Salt and Light and we have to to love our community um I just think it's so you know we often as
the church I think think of government as being dirty or Politics as being dirty but something we should pull out of and not be involved with not realizing that you know God God loves government and he Lo he loves us he loves our cities too God loves cities and he has this strategy for economic development in your city in my city and he has a strategy for public safety for homelessness in our cities he cares about those people that are wandering on the streets that don't have a place to to lay their head at night
he cares about the mentally ill he cares about our our infrastructure just our Wildfire mitigation all those things that we in a community need the Lord has has a solution for that he does and so we need our people to go in and love this city well we have as much we have as much influences we have love if we don't have love we don't really have a lot of influence I think that you know it's real easy to get polarized with with you know for example you maybe you're a a prolifer and you're like
well our mayor or our city council our governor or whatever is like you know is a a you know a pro-choice person and it's like I I let that separate me and I'm like all right and I I begin to throw stones at that and I'm like I'm not saying change your values I am saying you know Nehemiah you know uh especially Daniel Joseph Esther they all love the the Kings even though they obviously did not agree with them and and I think that love love builds bridges yeah yeah and then love you know you
only have as much influence too is they have value for you so when you start loving people you start loving your city council you start loving your Board of Supervisors you start loving some people that you're like it doesn't mean you you agree with their their stances on things that's right but it opens the door for influence and then you can then you can bring Kingdom Solutions because that's correct you're not seen as an enemy that's right but I think that so many times and and I know and I let me add this that was
the biggest challenge we had during covid like it wasn't the challenge some people think thought we were having we weren't having the challenge we were having the challenge of mass or no Mass vaccines or no vaccines open or close we were having those but the greatest challenge we were having is how do we stay connected to the people we've spent 22 years building relationship with who are trying to have a healthy City whether they're doing it right or doing it wrong you know I I think we'll look back 20 years from now we're go oh
yeah we didn't do that right or we should have done that differently but we're in the midst of it we're trying to protect our relationship with our city right we weren't just trying to protect our relationship with our congregation yeah and that became very complicated ated and of course people are throwing stones at us all the time like why aren't you opened or why didn't you do this or why didn't you do that it's like if we were just doing our congregation we would have acted very differently yeah but that's not what we were doing
I think it all comes back it comes back again to love for God so loved the world he gave his only son and you know how do you love your city well how how do you love your city well and Jesus said you know greater love hath no man than he that lays down his life for his brother so how do I lay my life down I don't have to agree with you your politics or your view on something but I can what can we work on together you love the city too I love the
city how do we how do we bridge and make this a place where you know families can prosper and you're not an enemy because you view the vaccine differently no no you're not an enemy because you view the mask wearing the mask differently right like like I I I don't want to I don't want to separate my world into bad people and good people right right because as you just just point out Jesus lied for the world yeah he died for the world so we end up with an us and them mentality and you know
all the things we're talking about here are they all happen through relationship yeah yeah you don't walk in the city go relationship hey we'll like to clean up your parks for you and they go there you go you got some tractors you know it doesn't work like that you know compassion empathy listening understanding um you know we we we don't we don't have to come to agreements but we should come to understanding right and we should honor each other like that's the way you view that your journey took you to that place you're a doctor
during the co season so you were seeing people really really sick many of them dying so that puts you in this really strong perspective of hey this is what needs to happen right and you have people on the other side of that and you know you're just trying to navigate okay how do we yeah how do we walk together it was a challenging time of trying to keep our love on you just try keep our trying to keep our love on and and that and we are that is a a demonic entity that we Face
where we want to pull away there's that sort of that religious or political spirit that is affecting our you know affecting our society and affects the church as well and we want we we tend to want to be tribal we tend to want to be in a camp and feel surround oursel with people that agree with us but that's not the real world and that's not the Jesus didn't act like that like Jesus went into into all the places he he spoke to the rich he spoke to the poor you know he spoke to people
who were very religious he spoke to the prostitute he loved really well yeah so much so that I mean the whole world was turned upside down by him and they invited him to his parties even though he they did even though he was the only guy at the party who never sinned what if we were known for that like what if we were known in the church as being that oh man I want to have I want to have them involved I want them at the table they have the best ideas they're so loving they're
so great gracious they're so kind they don't judge they they have they actually have the it's those values because the kingdom values Prosper everywhere those are the Val the values of Heaven work in any society honor love Integrity you know fiscal responsibility you know stewardship all those kinds of things work I had this vision of people putting on glasses of all of us putting on glasses and it was it was like they were divided in the middle and it said bad people good people wrong people right people then I saw us taking those off and
and I saw those like this is how we sort like we actually we we don't even have to consciously sort it's just like this is how the world sorts and uh those are the wrong people oh you have a relationship with the wrong people you must be a wrong person too and then I saw these rosecolor glasses came on and I'm like oh this is the way the Lord sees the world yeah with rosecolor wow I love that rosecolor glasses yeah so yeah he doesn't see the Democrat the Republican the liberal the I mean he
he sees people he loves right in various forms and condition with Heaven yeah so man I I could go on and on we're get excited here if she keeps this dialogue going she do this again in another month but thank you so much for serving reading I so appreciate you as obviously my friend but also as our city council of course you know the Lord wants you to run again which you you are not so you can your prayers bring your prayers bring your prayers Julie thinks she's done after two terms I don't know about
that so you have to really speak to her and um yeah just talk to the Lord very strongly about that no a serious yeah I know you are I'm just being funny but thank you so much for serving God bless you God bless you get involved in your city love people start with prayer uh you know the Lord Ser served thousands he fed thousands with a little boy's lunch at your a little bit matters you are a catalyst you're a catalyst to a culture just bring what you have and do it with love and you'll
see a change and transformation in your city God bless you have a wonderful [Music] day
