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RPF0399-Thanksgiving_Greetings


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00:00:00.000 | Good morning, radicals, and happy Thanksgiving Day.
00:00:04.600 | So I'm recording the show here.
00:00:06.360 | It's early on Wednesday morning, the day before the Thanksgiving Day holiday here in the United
00:00:10.300 | States and just have a couple of short comments to share with you that I hope will be encouraging
00:00:17.800 | to you and then we'll leave it at that.
00:00:22.680 | I intended to do a more complex show than this, but my week has been somewhat disrupted.
00:00:30.080 | I was planning to, I had all kinds of plans for this week, but I've spent the last two
00:00:34.520 | days and now going into the third day trying to help a friend of mine break out of prison
00:00:38.440 | and bond out.
00:00:40.640 | I'll tell you that story in just a moment, but it's even impacted my own feelings and
00:00:45.920 | sense of gratitude about life in general.
00:00:53.040 | Being in the middle of working in the prison world for the last two days has made me appreciate
00:00:58.320 | something as simple as my freedom and personal liberty to travel around.
00:01:05.240 | Thanksgiving Day is my favorite holiday.
00:01:07.500 | It's really the only holiday that I celebrate personally and it's always been incredibly
00:01:13.220 | meaningful to me and I like everything about the Thanksgiving Day holiday.
00:01:17.640 | I like the history of it.
00:01:18.800 | I like the tradition.
00:01:20.040 | I like the focus.
00:01:21.040 | You know, to sit down and be grateful to God for all of the good things that we have and
00:01:27.400 | all of the trials and the challenges that we have is just an incredible opportunity.
00:01:33.480 | Like most holidays, that Thanksgiving celebration should be a continual thing and I seek to
00:01:41.640 | maintain that – this is going to sound so cliche – that attitude of gratitude, that
00:01:47.720 | appreciation for the good things of life on an ongoing basis.
00:01:51.360 | It's so easy to be jaded at all of the good things that we enjoy.
00:01:56.520 | It's so easy to look around and to despise the comfort that all of you listening to my
00:02:03.680 | voice enjoy.
00:02:04.760 | Just the fact of having a full belly and a comfortable bed to sleep in, these things
00:02:09.440 | are tremendous and yet when's the last time that you and I appreciated them?
00:02:15.160 | It's probably been a little while.
00:02:18.440 | My encouragement to you is if you have many things and you're overflowing with thankfulness
00:02:25.800 | and gratitude, that's great.
00:02:29.400 | I'm happy.
00:02:30.400 | I think that's how it should be.
00:02:32.680 | But perhaps some of you listening to this right now aren't feeling that particular
00:02:39.360 | sensation.
00:02:40.360 | You aren't feeling that particular attitude.
00:02:44.320 | Perhaps you're passing through a very challenging time and I guess the primary thing that I
00:02:50.880 | want to share with you is that I understand that and I want to encourage you that even
00:02:55.920 | in the middle of a challenging time, I want to encourage you to embrace it.
00:03:03.160 | In many ways, for me, that's been the context of my last year really.
00:03:10.120 | 2016, as I've reflected on the progress that I've made, has been in some ways – and
00:03:15.760 | please hear me, I'm not complaining, just simply trying to share with you – but in
00:03:21.280 | some ways, 2016 has been a very disappointing year for me.
00:03:24.720 | Many things have gone well but many of the things that I set out with a clear intention
00:03:28.200 | of accomplishing this year have been complete failures.
00:03:32.680 | That has hurt my self-confidence.
00:03:35.040 | That's hurt my recognition or my confidence in my business ability.
00:03:42.000 | It's been challenging, very, very challenging.
00:03:46.780 | These things will pass and you sit back and challenges are not something that is unique
00:03:52.320 | to me.
00:03:53.320 | I've faced challenges in different areas.
00:03:55.880 | But it's just been a fresh challenge.
00:04:03.000 | And so that's been the context of my life over the last year.
00:04:07.760 | And I'm working on it.
00:04:08.760 | I'm making changes.
00:04:09.960 | But it's easy to look at challenges.
00:04:12.040 | It's easy to look at problems and to despise them and to say, "Well, everything will
00:04:15.840 | be great when everything is going great."
00:04:20.040 | And to miss the opportunities and to miss the lessons.
00:04:25.260 | If you feel that way, please consider recognizing and appreciating the challenges that you're
00:04:32.320 | going through.
00:04:35.040 | One of the things that I've learned as I've grown and matured is not to look for things
00:04:39.440 | to be perfect but to embrace the process of growth.
00:04:44.880 | I used to think that, "Well, if only blah, blah, blah, then everything will be great."
00:04:49.800 | Or "When I get blah, blah, blah, everything will be great."
00:04:52.640 | Friends, it's not true.
00:04:56.400 | It's not true.
00:04:58.000 | You never reach a point in time at which, "Oh, everything is fantastic.
00:05:01.320 | I have all the money that I want.
00:05:02.640 | I have perfect marriage.
00:05:03.800 | I have whatever, the perfect body, perfect health."
00:05:07.680 | Life is filled with challenges.
00:05:09.560 | And if you're looking for those moments, what happens is you miss out on the opportunity
00:05:13.220 | of growth all along the way.
00:05:16.600 | Now it sounds, I feel like it sounds a little bit cliche because everyone's always saying,
00:05:21.360 | "Oh, appreciate the opportunity for growth."
00:05:23.360 | But it's true.
00:05:25.000 | Easier said than done but it really is true that in hindsight, if you're going through
00:05:30.640 | a difficult time, in hindsight, you'll look back and you'll appreciate the challenges.
00:05:38.080 | So keep your head up while you're going through the challenges.
00:05:42.880 | If right now you find yourself facing challenges and trials and things that you've never experienced
00:05:52.200 | before, don't try to escape from those things but seek to learn in those circumstances.
00:06:02.160 | This year my family and I have been memorizing the book of James from the Bible.
00:06:06.400 | The book of James is my – personally, my favorite book of the Bible.
00:06:11.200 | My middle name is James so maybe that's always given me a little bit of an affinity
00:06:13.980 | for it.
00:06:15.340 | But the book of James is just eminently practical.
00:06:18.440 | It's a remarkable book and the thing that is just incredible about it is if you study
00:06:27.440 | who James was, James was the half-brother of Jesus.
00:06:31.200 | He's the one who wrote the book and his story is truly remarkable and you study the
00:06:38.040 | history.
00:06:39.040 | So the book of James starts off with a verse that I have constantly encouraged myself with
00:06:46.480 | and it describes this process of gratitude all through the middle of circumstances.
00:06:54.800 | And if you're going to memorize one passage of scripture, this might be a good place to
00:06:58.520 | start but the book of James begins after the greeting.
00:07:01.520 | It says, "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds.
00:07:07.520 | For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.
00:07:14.820 | And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking
00:07:22.240 | in nothing."
00:07:25.440 | That verse has been encouraging to me so many times to recognize that one of the things
00:07:31.600 | to embrace about one major positive aspect of trials and of challenges, and by the way,
00:07:40.400 | I am not complaining.
00:07:41.960 | I have nothing to complain about.
00:07:44.000 | All of the trials and the challenges that I've faced compared to so many things are
00:07:48.480 | absolutely nothing.
00:07:51.320 | But still, they're real to me.
00:07:53.600 | One of the things to embrace through trials is the fact that you can either let the trial
00:07:58.480 | destroy you or you can let the trial strengthen you.
00:08:05.040 | But you've got to choose in that.
00:08:10.960 | And gratitude, choosing to be thankful for a trial, will make a tremendous difference
00:08:17.000 | for you.
00:08:19.840 | I hope that you have many reasons to be grateful.
00:08:22.040 | I have many, many reasons.
00:08:23.600 | I even have new ones.
00:08:24.880 | Let me tell you the story of the prison situation.
00:08:28.240 | I appreciate the ability to come and go as I please and to do the things that I need
00:08:34.840 | to do.
00:08:35.840 | The last couple of days, I have been trying to help a friend of mine get out of prison.
00:08:40.600 | My friend is an illegal alien and he was arrested by immigration a few weeks ago.
00:08:47.200 | So his court date was Monday morning, when he first before the judge to have a bond hearing.
00:08:52.280 | And the hope was that he'd have a bond hearing and that the judge would set a reasonable
00:08:56.600 | bond so he could bond out of prison.
00:08:58.680 | And that was the plan.
00:09:00.960 | So Monday morning, 8 a.m. court down in Miami at the immigration prison down in Miami.
00:09:06.080 | So I drove down very early on Monday morning and everything seemed like it would probably
00:09:10.840 | happen where he could bond out.
00:09:14.720 | He was not arrested in conjunction with any crimes.
00:09:17.240 | He didn't have any other, which is usually in the United States, usually illegal aliens
00:09:23.560 | are not particularly bothered unless they're arrested in conjunction with some sort of
00:09:28.800 | other crime.
00:09:29.800 | Now, we'll see.
00:09:32.280 | President-elect Trump has promised to be much harsher on illegal immigration.
00:09:36.920 | So we'll see what happens in the coming months.
00:09:38.600 | But generally, it's not you don't generally get arrested just because you are an illegal
00:09:44.040 | immigrant.
00:09:45.040 | But that happened to my friend.
00:09:46.120 | He wasn't arrested simply because he was an illegal immigrant.
00:09:49.200 | So he is an illegal immigrant.
00:09:51.920 | So he was arrested and in prison.
00:09:54.860 | And so I went down to his court date and it was really remarkable to be there in immigration
00:10:00.920 | court.
00:10:01.920 | I've been in court before, both as a potential jurist and also a potential member of a jury
00:10:10.360 | and also fighting a traffic ticket I was given one time and some other things like that.
00:10:17.360 | And I don't spend a lot of time in that world.
00:10:19.960 | And so it's always remarkable for me.
00:10:21.920 | But this is my first time in immigration court and kind of seeing there puts another face
00:10:27.040 | on it.
00:10:28.040 | I know a lot of illegal immigrants here in the United States because I speak Spanish
00:10:33.380 | and that opens up a lot of connection and relationship with a lot of illegal aliens
00:10:41.960 | who are of Hispanic background.
00:10:44.280 | But that was my first time in court and seeing kind of just the lives that are hanging on
00:10:48.600 | the balance of a judge's ruling sobered me.
00:10:54.360 | It really sobered me and made me just recognize how valuable something like your personal
00:11:01.520 | liberty to travel as you wish and to come and go and to engage in business as you wish
00:11:06.760 | can be.
00:11:08.240 | My friend was active in business and you get thrown into prison and all of a sudden your
00:11:13.600 | whole business is disrupted.
00:11:15.320 | You can't access your email to be able to contact your customers.
00:11:18.160 | You can't access your phone.
00:11:19.680 | You can make a few phone calls but when you make a phone call, it says blah, blah, blah.
00:11:22.800 | Joshua Sheets calling from the such and such penitentiary.
00:11:26.280 | It's a little bit challenging.
00:11:29.680 | And so prison in many ways stops your life.
00:11:35.720 | It really does.
00:11:36.720 | It's one of the reasons why I'm generally opposed to prison for most crimes.
00:11:42.240 | I think it's a wrong-headed system.
00:11:47.520 | The best system is a system of restitution, not a system of imprisonment.
00:11:52.960 | Imprisonment is in many ways just simply a modern form of slavery and in many crimes
00:11:57.760 | it's an injustice.
00:11:59.880 | I believe the just approach is to use the biblical pattern of restitution rather than
00:12:05.680 | imprisonment and that's freshly driven home by trying to help my friend.
00:12:10.960 | So the story is that on Monday, I planned to go down there and I figured I'd be done
00:12:15.440 | by noon.
00:12:16.800 | Court date was – court time was 8 AM.
00:12:18.880 | He'd bond out.
00:12:19.880 | It would take him an hour, hour and a half to process him out.
00:12:22.080 | This is what I was expecting based upon research and I'd get him out of there by noon.
00:12:27.480 | Well, remarkable story.
00:12:30.800 | Getting him out by noon turned into a – has now turned into two entire days of me driving
00:12:36.600 | to Miami and sitting there and waiting, trying to get him out.
00:12:39.840 | I've since found out and learned after much pressing that the problem is actually a computer
00:12:44.720 | system.
00:12:45.920 | The bond was paid for him a couple hours, hour and two after he got out of court and
00:12:50.760 | the judge issued the bond order and everything worked out.
00:12:54.160 | So – but the problem is that they were having a computer system and the computer system
00:12:58.560 | would not accept the appropriate payment of the bond.
00:13:02.560 | The computer system wouldn't acknowledge the bond as being paid and so because of that,
00:13:08.120 | they can't let him out.
00:13:11.600 | Everyone knows that the bond has been paid.
00:13:13.040 | All of the guards know that he should be released.
00:13:15.880 | Everyone knows that the system is working fine except the computer doesn't know.
00:13:20.120 | Because the computer doesn't know, they can't or won't process him out so that
00:13:24.720 | he can be out.
00:13:27.280 | So now my friend has spent an extra two nights in jail and hopefully we'll be able to get
00:13:32.200 | him out today.
00:13:33.360 | My intelligence is that at this point in time, the computer system is not working but evidently
00:13:37.960 | it was a national problem all across the United States with the immigrant – immigration
00:13:42.320 | prison system.
00:13:45.680 | Humans worry about that world that we live in where computers control our lives and the
00:13:49.760 | humans lose control over the machines.
00:13:51.560 | In many ways, we're already there.
00:13:53.920 | All the humans say, "Yes, he should be out."
00:13:56.440 | Judge says that the – I don't know what the name for it.
00:14:02.440 | All the cops, the prison people know that it should be – everything is legally in
00:14:07.000 | order but the computer system.
00:14:08.880 | So the IT people, everything is waiting on the IT people and now the brunt of it is that
00:14:12.880 | my – I've lost two and a half days of work that I had planned.
00:14:16.680 | It was unnecessary – should have been unnecessary and my friend has spent two extra nights in
00:14:20.680 | prison.
00:14:21.760 | So be careful what systems you put computers in control of.
00:14:25.000 | But you have many things to be thankful for.
00:14:26.840 | One of the simplest ones, if you're out of prison right now, just be thankful for that
00:14:30.560 | because that will disrupt your life.
00:14:33.440 | If you are out of prison and you are in a country where you have opportunity and you're
00:14:40.400 | out in fear of your life, my friend, this particular friend, he is from Venezuela and
00:14:46.200 | the situation that his family is in in Venezuela, Venezuela seems to be rapidly heading toward
00:14:51.120 | a civil war, just a challenge in every situation, in every circumstance.
00:14:56.520 | So time will tell what ends up happening.
00:14:59.400 | But you and I have many things to be thankful for.
00:15:02.720 | If you're in the middle of trials, if you're in the middle of challenges, if your situation
00:15:06.800 | is like mine, we reflect back on 2016 and you're disappointed with perhaps things
00:15:11.760 | that you had hoped to accomplish that you didn't accomplish, it's OK to be disappointed.
00:15:21.120 | But don't think that that's a reason not to be thankful, not to be grateful for the
00:15:26.720 | many good things.
00:15:28.040 | Because although I'm disappointed in some of the progress that I've made, I have nothing,
00:15:33.840 | absolutely nothing to complain about.
00:15:38.080 | And as I start making lists of things that I'm grateful for, I have nothing to complain
00:15:46.320 | about.
00:15:47.320 | I should hardly even be disappointed.
00:15:51.640 | The list of things to be grateful for is so, so massive compared to the list of things
00:15:58.640 | to be disappointed about.
00:16:00.320 | So I encourage you, if you're outside the United States, look up a little bit in the
00:16:03.720 | history of the US-American tradition of Thanksgiving.
00:16:09.460 | Make a list of things that you're grateful for and spend some time with your family just
00:16:13.080 | appreciating and enjoying those things.
00:16:15.000 | If you're in the United States, embrace this holiday and just count your blessings.
00:16:21.760 | Thank God for all of the many blessings that you have in your life.
00:16:27.680 | We are truly, truly blessed.
00:16:32.160 | And my just personal note of two things.
00:16:34.800 | My personal note of thanks is to you, the listening audience.
00:16:39.760 | Radical Personal Finance has grown tremendously this past year.
00:16:46.240 | It's extremely humbling to me.
00:16:50.180 | It's such a responsibility that I feel very deeply to seek to share with you information
00:16:55.520 | that's helpful and that's accurate.
00:16:58.000 | It's been an incredible challenge for me to learn new skills.
00:17:01.820 | But I just want to thank you for choosing to listen to my show.
00:17:08.560 | One of the most valuable things that you have is your time and your attention.
00:17:13.000 | Truly in many ways, that's what your life is made of.
00:17:17.720 | It's made of, in some ways, time and attention.
00:17:21.840 | And that's what you give me.
00:17:25.060 | I do my absolute best to take that seriously and to seek to give you the best that I'm
00:17:29.960 | able to give you.
00:17:31.600 | And I just thank you for choosing to make this show and my message a part of your life.
00:17:39.280 | And I hope that it has been helpful to you.
00:17:42.880 | My goal is to serve you, to serve you as effectively as I'm able to.
00:17:48.720 | And so I thank you for listening to the show.
00:17:50.880 | I also thank so many of you who are so kind towards me to support me.
00:17:56.120 | I thank you for those of you who write me emails and share your thoughts and your ideas
00:18:07.440 | and your opinions, your agreements and your dissent.
00:18:10.360 | I appreciate each and every one of you who does that.
00:18:13.440 | One thing I'm extremely proud of and grateful for is the tone and the tenor of the radical
00:18:20.820 | personal finance community.
00:18:24.440 | Many of you write emails to me talking about something that I said.
00:18:30.360 | And the vast majority of you are kind and respectful and thoughtful.
00:18:37.000 | There are always a few people who are emotionally charged and upset.
00:18:43.440 | And you can't blame people.
00:18:44.600 | Oftentimes, people have not been taught how to disagree with somebody in a calm and thoughtful
00:18:50.160 | way.
00:18:51.160 | And so they bring that, the tone and the rancor of society that's basically taught this, tear
00:18:56.880 | each other apart and yell at each other society that we have.
00:19:00.560 | And they bring that to other places.
00:19:03.120 | But I think many of those people have been filtered out.
00:19:06.040 | And the vast majority of you are so incredibly kind and so gracious and thoughtful in the
00:19:13.240 | things that you write me.
00:19:14.240 | I just wanted to compliment you on that.
00:19:17.120 | It's been a goal of mine when I started the show to create an environment where people
00:19:21.960 | of diverse opinions and strongly held convictions could discuss those opinions and convictions
00:19:31.800 | in a thoughtful and reasonable way.
00:19:34.120 | And I'm very proud of the progress we've made.
00:19:37.640 | And you, the listening audience, have contributed to that hugely.
00:19:42.240 | So thank you for that.
00:19:44.240 | Thank you to those of you, again, who write me emails.
00:19:47.080 | I am extremely backlogged on communication.
00:19:49.360 | We'll get to the major reason why in just a moment.
00:19:53.920 | Also thank you to every one of you who chooses voluntarily to support the show financially.
00:19:59.080 | That is a tremendous honor.
00:20:01.800 | And in many ways, one of my major disappointments for this year has just been that I haven't
00:20:05.600 | felt like I've delivered on some of the things that I've wanted to deliver on.
00:20:10.520 | Not asking for sympathy, working on it.
00:20:13.040 | Fixing, doing my very best.
00:20:14.880 | Just feels like I'm constantly apologizing for the things that I haven't been able to
00:20:18.120 | do, but I'm working on it.
00:20:19.600 | But thank you to those of you who've stuck with me through this growth process as I'm
00:20:24.120 | learning new things, as I'm growing, as I'm learning business skills, as I'm trying to
00:20:28.560 | shore up the areas that are weak, as I'm trying to recognize those areas of my character and
00:20:33.760 | personality that don't work and change those things.
00:20:38.400 | I'm just incredibly grateful to you.
00:20:42.440 | I am incredibly grateful.
00:20:44.160 | And I guess I'll close just with this.
00:20:48.720 | I was going to do this as a separate episode on the topic and I will more in the future,
00:20:52.400 | but if you've made it to this point, my wife and I are also extremely thankful and you
00:20:57.400 | can rejoice with us that we are expecting another baby.
00:21:01.000 | So we're very excited next year, about the early to middle of next year, there should
00:21:06.020 | be the birth of a third child into our family.
00:21:09.080 | And so we are rejoicing tremendously in that.
00:21:12.260 | It's also been one of the major challenges over the last few months.
00:21:17.800 | We're out of the first trimester at this point in time, but the first trimester is often
00:21:21.240 | the most challenging part, at least for me, it's one of the most challenging part of a
00:21:27.280 | pregnancy.
00:21:28.920 | And the reason is just simply because my wife during the first trimester and many women
00:21:34.260 | who during the first trimester, that's when they need a lot of the most physical help
00:21:39.320 | when my wife is not feeling well.
00:21:40.880 | And so it's been a challenge to know how to do that and means that I end up doing basically
00:21:48.880 | the vast majority of the cooking, a lot of the work, the physical work in the house that
00:21:53.080 | my wife is too weak to be able to do and also with children and things like that.
00:21:58.200 | And so that's been challenging over the last few months, a good challenge, but a challenge
00:22:02.920 | nonetheless.
00:22:03.920 | Thankfully, we're out of the first trimester.
00:22:05.920 | So the next few months I'm very excited about, I've got a lot of work to do here even before
00:22:09.200 | the third child is born because the two, for those of you who aren't parents, the two very
00:22:14.000 | difficult phases of children can be the first trimester and then the period immediately
00:22:24.800 | following the birth of the baby.
00:22:28.160 | Both of our previous two babies have been incredibly just like sick and colicky and
00:22:32.480 | whatnot for the first few months.
00:22:34.040 | So mentally my wife and I have to prepare for that.
00:22:38.640 | Hopefully this one will be different, but regardless we're prepared for that either
00:22:42.920 | way.
00:22:44.000 | So the next few months are very crucial for me in terms of especially my business work
00:22:47.560 | that now my wife is stronger so I have more time to be able to do some of the things that
00:22:51.520 | I need to do and I'm incredibly grateful.
00:22:54.240 | So rejoice with us.
00:22:55.440 | That is one thing that we are very, very thankful for is that we now have a third child and
00:23:01.040 | rejoice with us as we transition into the next year.
00:23:05.120 | Those are the comments that I have to share.
00:23:09.600 | I'll be out the rest of the week as we travel here and again this week was very mixed up
00:23:14.240 | with helping my friend.
00:23:16.160 | But again, if you want a reason to be thankful, try to help a friend get out of prison.
00:23:21.280 | That'll help you to be thankful.
00:23:25.040 | Working with this friend who's been in prison, I haven't had a lot of friends who've been
00:23:27.360 | in prison, some of you have, but it's definitely made me appreciate how challenging it is for
00:23:33.600 | people who are in prison.
00:23:35.320 | So if you know somebody, maybe just one idea, consider going and number one, serving their
00:23:40.720 | family, helping their family during this period of time or go and visit your friends who are
00:23:45.520 | in prison and encourage them.
00:23:47.760 | It's very, very difficult in there and perhaps that might be one area of service that you
00:23:54.680 | can do to serve somebody who is in a more difficult place than you are.
00:24:00.080 | Happy Thanksgiving.
00:24:01.080 | I will be back with you next week after the Thanksgiving holiday.
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