It happened when I was only 16 years old, but it is a moment I will never forget. It is a moment that seems like it happened to me just yesterday. Just a few weeks before the moment of which I speak, I, as a 16-year-old, had received the priced treasure every 16-year-old young man wants, and that is a driver's license. And I remember one Saturday evening, my cousin called me. We lived in Eugene, Oregon, and he called me, and he said, tomorrow morning, Sunday morning, I'm going to drive up to Hood River, Oregon, about 150 miles away from where we lived and listen to our uncle preach. My uncle was a pastor in Hood River, Oregon, and so my cousin said, would you like to go with me? And I said, oh, that would be awesome. And so I remember waiting at my house, and early on a very cold Sunday morning, he pulled up in his car, and he asked me a question. He said, would you like to drive? And asking a 16-year-old who just got his driver's license if he wanted to drive, it's like asking my wife if she wants chocolate ice cream. And I said, of course. And so we began driving north on Interstate 5, and we were having a wonderful time just talking together. And we were just south of Portland, Oregon. I was in the far left lane of four lanes headed north on the Interstate 5, and we just went down under an overpass when suddenly, unexpectedly, and without warning, the nose of the car hit a patch of black ice and dove into the center concrete divider. The impact spun the car around. And here, as a 16-year-old inexperienced driver, the car's sliding backwards, and I'm looking into four lanes of oncoming traffic. I didn't have time to think, and even if I wouldn't have known what to do, it was just instinct in that moment as I was looking at those cars coming at me. I cried out, Jesus, help me. Jesus, help me. And all of a sudden, the car whirled around, moved over to the side of the freeway, slowed down, and came to a stop. And I assure you it wasn't because I was a good driver. It was a miracle God had rescued me. And I learned in that moment what I've seen so many times in my life. I learned in that moment what so many of you in this room know, and that is that God's help is only a prayer way, that no matter who you are and no matter where you are and no matter what is going on in your life, if you cry out to God, our God is a God who hears and answers prayer. And this is why God's people have so loved Psalm 107, because it is a Psalm all about the power of prayer. It is a Psalm all about how God answers prayer. Now this Psalm was written at the very end of the Old Testament era. The Jews had gone into captivity and then been released from captivity. They went back to the land of Israel and they rebuilt their temple. And this Psalm was written as they reflect back across all of the Old Testament. And they called to mind how many times God heard them when they cried out to him, how many times God rescued and delivered them. And in this Psalm, there's a key phrase. It is the phrase, then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble and he delivered them from out of their distresses. Not once, not twice, not three times, but four times. And that's this Psalm. You find that phrase repeated. Look in Psalm 107 in verse 6. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble and he delivered them out of their distresses. Verse 13. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble and he saved them or delivered them out of their distresses. Look at verse 19. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble and he saved them or delivered them out of their distresses. Verse 28. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble and he brings them out, he delivers them, he saves them out of their distresses. Four times you find that phrase because in this Psalm, you find four different locations where God answered prayer. Four different situations in which God's people found themselves and he answered their prayer. As we're going to see in verse 4 to 7, all of a sudden as it were, you are transported out into the middle of a wilderness and there you see some fainting travelers. They're lost in the desert. They need food and water and when they cry out to the Lord he hears them and answers their prayer. Then all of a sudden you're transported from that wilderness into a dungeon. There you find captives who are bound and they need to be set free and they cry out to the Lord. He answers their prayer and he brings them out of that captivity and then all of a sudden you're transported from the dungeon into a hospital and there you find a sick patient on a deathbed about ready to die and that person cries out to the Lord and God hears their cry and heals them and then all of a sudden you're transported out into the middle of the ocean in a terrible, horrible storm and a group of sailors cry out to the Lord and the Lord hears their cry and delivers them and it shows whether you're lost in the desert whether you are locked in a dungeon whether you were lying on a deathbed or whether you're laboring out in the deep God answers prayer and maybe you're here tonight and you feel like you're in a wilderness and you need God to provide if that's you, this psalm is for you maybe you feel like you're in a dungeon of sorts and you need God to bring freedom to your life listen psalm 107 is for you maybe you're a person who has sickness in your life or you know someone who has sickness in their life and they need healing listen psalm 107 is for you maybe you're in a storm you feel like you're in a raging, the worst storm of your life if that's true, psalm 107 is for you because it's a psalm all about how God answers prayer notice how this great psalm begins it begins with an introduction in verses 1-3 the psalmist writes, oh give thanks to the Lord for he is good God is good all the time and all the time God is good God is gooder than good and how do you know that he is gooder than good well for his mercy endures forever in lamentation chapter 3 verse 23 the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases his mercy never comes to an end it is new every morning it is God's faithfulness day after day after day after day after day after day after day the mercy of the Lord is new the loving kindness of God is new the steadfast love of the Lord is new oh give thanks to the Lord for he is good for his mercy endures forever let the redeemed of the Lord say so whom he has redeemed from the hand of the enemy and gathered out of the lands from the east and the west and from the north and from the south notice verse 2 let the redeemed of the Lord say so now the word redeemed often in the Bible is used of making a payment to buy someone out of slavery but the word ga'al herein he remains much more than that it means literally let the rescued of the Lord say so let the delivered of the Lord say so let anyone who's saved by God in any kind of way say so oh I like this let the redeemed of the Lord say so not think so, not feel so but say so if God has answered your prayer if God has rescued you if God has delivered you then say so I remember when I was a boy growing up in church on Sunday nights as a part of the worship time they used to have what they called testimony time testimony time and what would happen is one after another we used to do this in the early days of Calvary and one after another somebody would raise your hand and stand and say you know what I was out of a job I prayed and God gave me a job someone would say you know in my marriage I thought we were headed for divorce but we prayed and God brought us back together praise the Lord another person would say I had a prodigal son that was wandering out in the world and we prayed and God answered that prayer testimony time let the redeemed of the Lord say so let us open our mouth and tell about how God has answered prayer how God has rescued us how God has delivered us and then the Psalm describes different situations different circumstances in which you might find yourself and when you cry out to God he answers your prayer let the redeemed of the Lord say so then all of a sudden you're transported out into the middle of wilderness and at verses 4 to 9 you see how God answers prayer verse 4 they wandered in the wilderness in a desolate way they found no city to dwell in hungry and thirsty their soul fainted in them then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble and he delivered them out of their distress as he led them forth by the right way that they may go to a city for a dwelling place oh that men would give thanks to the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men verse 9, 4, he satisfies the longing soul and he fills the hungry soul with goodness listen, when you need provision in your crowd to God he will hear and answer your prayer now the Old Testament saints when they were reading verse 4 to 9 they couldn't help think of what happened when they as the people were out in the wilderness you remember they went out of the land of Egypt and they began to walk throughout the wilderness and it is believed there were some three million of them and they had no food and they had no water what to do look to the Lord and God brought water out of the rock God brought bread down from heaven and they learned that when you look to the Lord he can provide for your needs New Testament believers when they read this portion of Psalm 107 they couldn't help but think of Jesus feeding the 5,000 the Bible says there were 5,000 men but with women and children some 20,000 people and it says they all ate and were filled they were totally stuffed they were totally filled because Jesus provided for their needs and dear ones if God provided for his people in the Old Testament and if Jesus provided in that kind of way in the New Testament then God can provide for you and for me in Philippians 4 in verse 19 the Bible says and my God will supply all of your needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus I like how David said in Psalm 37 verse 25 he said I've never seen the righteous forsaken and I've never seen their seed begging bread God's people over and over and over and every day and every time and every place when they've been in need and they cry out to the Lord he provides for their need no one saw that more than a great man of God in the 1800s named George Mueller George Mueller lived in London and he founded orphanages for thousands and thousands of orphans and he walked by faith he never told anyone of his needs whenever there was a need he would just pray and God would answer prayer he wrote a great biography I love the title of the biography it's called a million and a half answers to prayer a million and a half answers to prayer and in that biography he tells about what happened one morning they woke up and there was no food in the cupboards there was not even a crumb that was there and one of the little orphans said Mr. Mueller what is for breakfast this morning and he said well let's put out the plates and we'll see what the Lord will provide so we sat the children down and he began to pray Lord we thank you you've never seen the righteous forsaken or there's seed begging bread and as he's praying all of a sudden there was a knock at the door he opened the door it was the baker from down the street the baker said do you know what Mr. Mueller God woke me up at three o'clock this morning and told me that your orphans were going to need bread today so I baked a bunch of extra bread here's this bread for the orphans oh thank you he said he took the bread and they began to put it on the plates of all of the orphans when the last piece of bread was put on the plate all of a sudden there was another knock at the door and Mr. Mueller opened the door and there was the milkman and the milkman said you know what he said my cart broke down right across the street here from your orphanage he said all of my milk is going to spoil and go bad would you like to have all of my milk and those little orphans learned that our God is a God who answers prayer maybe you feel like you're in a wilderness and you need God to provide for your need his help is only a prayer away but you're in a wilderness then all of a sudden the psalm transports you to a dungeon and there you find captives that are bound they need deliverance they need to be set free in verse 10 to verse 16 those who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death bound in afflictions and irons because they rebelled against the words of God and they despised the counsel of the most high therefore he brought down their heart with labor they fell down and there was none to help but then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble and he saved them out of their distresses he brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death he broke their chains in pieces oh that men would give thanks to the Lord for his goodness his wonderful works that the children of men why for he has broken the gates of bronze and he has cut the bars into God answers the prayer of the person who needs to be set free now the Old Testament saints as they're reading this portion of Psalm 107 they couldn't help but think of what happened when they went into captivity the Babylonians came and led them away by chains and put them in dungeons and put them in prisons and put them under slave labor but they cried out to the Lord and the Lord brought them out of that bondage as the New Testament believers were reading this portion perhaps they thought of the demoniac of Godera you remember the story in Mark chapter 5 Jesus and the disciples they crossed the sea of Galilee to that northeast corner that region called Godera and when they come ashore there's a man that comes running out possessed with demons and Jesus said what is your name and he said Legion for we are many Legion was 6,000 Roman soldiers I take the Bible literally I see no good reason to believe that that man was possessed with 6,000 demons that's a person who was bound and yet Jesus set that person free to show that whom the sun sets free is free indeed and there is no person that is beyond the reach of God there's no person that is so bound and in such darkness there is no prodigal that is too far there is no son or daughter that's too addicted to drugs or alcohol or pornography that Jesus Christ cannot set that person free God answers the prayers of his people for freedom and for deliverance I like a great hymn by Charles Wesley called Amazing Love I especially like the third verse of that hymn the third verse I love these words he writes long my imprisoned spirit lay fast bound in sin and nature's night thine eye diffused a quickening ray I woke the dungeon redeemed with light my chains fell off my heart was free I rose went forth and followed thee Amazing Love how can it be that thou my God should die for me baby you're struggling with some sort of addiction or bondage in your life maybe you know someone in your life who is in a very dark place I tell you what God's help is only a prayer away for you or for that person no matter how deep and dark the situation God is there and will answer your prayer I believe everyone should read a book written by Corey Timboom called The Hiding Place when Billy Graham read that book he made a movie about it it was so impacted by it tells the story of the Tim Boone family during the days of the Nazis who were trying to exterminate the Jews the Tim Boone family they lived in Holland and because they believed the Jews were God's people in the living quarters above their watchmaking shop they carved a hole in the wall and made a hiding place to smuggle the Jews out eventually the Gestapo found out and they were all arrested and sent to prison camps and Corey and her sister Betsy a notorious prison camp called Ravensbrook the conditions there and the things that happened there were so horrible they are beyond describing but I like the part of the book in the movie so much when Betsy looks at Corey and she says we're gonna get out of here we're gonna get out of here and then she says this and when we do we're gonna go all around the world and we're gonna tell people that there is no pit where our God is not deeper still there is no pit so deep where our God is not deeper still and God answered their prayer Betsy got out by going to heaven and Corey got out and began to tell everybody there is no pit so deep that our God is not deeper still I tell you God answers the prayer in the wilderness God answers the prayer in the dungeon then all of a sudden you're transported from the dungeon to a hospital and there you see sick people lying on their deathbed no hope for them but they pray they cry out to the Lord in verse 17 to verse 22 fools because of their transgression and because of their iniquities were afflicted their soul abhorred all manner of food and they drew near gates of death and they cried out to the Lord in their trouble and he saved them out of their distresses he said his word and he healed them and he delivered them from their destructions oh the man would give thanks to the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of man let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving and declare his works with rejoicing you see in verse 18 they were so sick they drew near to the gates of death but they cried out to the Lord in verse 20 he sent his word and he healed them God answers prayer when people are sick and near death and can heal them now the Old Testament saints when they're reading this portion of the psalm they couldn't help but think of King Hezekiah in 2 Kings chapter 20 the Bible tells us that he got sick really sick and Isaiah the prophet came to him and said the Lord has told me that you're going to die and Isaiah walked out the door and the Bible says that Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and he began to pray oh Lord please don't let me die please touch me Lord please heal me Lord please answer my cry Isaiah is walking across the palace and all of a sudden the Lord speaks to him and says turn around and go back in there and tell him he's going to be healed and God answered the prayer of Hezekiah New Testament believers as they were reading this portion of psalm 107 they couldn't help but think of how Jesus healed the centurion servant and remember there's a centurion that came to Jesus one day and he said my servant is so sick he's about to die and Jesus said well I'd be glad to come and pray for him and that centurion had such faith he said you don't need to come to my house just say the word just say the word and Jesus I haven't found such great faith go your way he's healed and with just the word of Jesus Jesus touched him healed him the Bible says in Exodus 15 and 26 God says I am the Lord who healed it I am Jehovah Rafa when Jesus was on this earth he healed so many people of so many different illnesses and situations and this Bible says in Hebrews 13 and verse 8 that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday today and forever and I've seen it happen I remember years ago when Rolrius was diagnosed with leukemia and we prayed and three days later God healed him I remember when my wife's grandmother we called her granny when she was diagnosed with cancer we didn't feel it was her time and so we began to pray and she was reading her Bible one day she was reading Psalm 118 and her eyes fell on verse 17 you will live and not die and declare the wonderful works of God you will live and not die and declare the wonderful works of God and the Lord touched granny and healed her and later she got perfect healing like with Pastor Chuck we prayed that the Lord would heal him and God says I'm going to give him the perfect healing and Jesus still heals people today if you're sick, if you know someone who's sick God's help in that situation is only a prayer but you're transported to a wilderness and then a dungeon and then a hospital all of a sudden verse 23 to 32 you're out in the middle of the ocean and there is a terrible, horrible storm verse 23 those who go down into the sea to the sea and ships who do business on great waters they see the works of the Lord and His wonders in the deep for He commands and raises the stormy wind which lifts up the waves of the sea they mount up to the heavens they go down to the depths their soul melts because of trouble they reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man and are at their wits and you can see it do you feel like you're there?  I have so many times Lord, I don't know what to do I'm in the middle of such a horrible storm I've never seen anything like it I've never been through anything like this before God and I don't know what to do I ask this person they didn't know what to do I ask that person they didn't know what to do God I even googled it and I still don't know what to do what do you do when you're at wits end? oh the next verse then they cry out to the Lord in their distresses and he brings them out of their distresses he calms this storm when the slaves are still then they are glad because they are quiet and so he guides them to their desired haven oh that men would give thanks to the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works of the children of men let them exalt him also in the assembly of the people and praise him in the company of the elders oh I like this when you were in the worst storm God's help us only a prayer away only a prayer away God's people in the Old Testament saints when they read this portion of the song they couldn't help but think of Job everything was going so well in his life such a godly wonderful man and then in one day in one day it all changed and he entered the worst storm you could ever imagine he didn't understand what was going on in his life he talked about being at your wits end and yet the Lord brought him out of it and made his end even greater than his beginning oh God answers prayer New Testament believers as they're reading this portion of Psalm 107 they couldn't help but think of Jesus on the sea of Galilee remember they're out in the middle of the sea of Galilee Jesus is asleep in the back of the boat all of a sudden this terrible storm comes up out of nowhere and the disciples are freaking out and they wake Jesus up help us help us Jesus speaks to the winds in the waves the Bible says immediately immediately it went calm there was no sloshing around it went flat immediately and Jesus can do that in your life in my life when we find ourselves in terrible stormy situations if we call out to God in prayer I like Psalm 37 in verse 19 the Psalmist there writes many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivers them out of them all one of my favorite verses in the Bible is Psalm 50 and verse 15 here's what God says call on me in the day of trouble and I will deliver you and you will glorify me call on me in the day of trouble and I will deliver you and you will glorify me and God answers prayer when you're in the middle of a storm God can answer prayer in the wilderness God can answer prayer in the dungeon God can answer prayer in the hospital God can answer prayer in the middle of a stormy ocean God can turn absolutely any situation around that's the point of verse 33 to 42 read quickly of what he says there it's amazing you see how quickly God can just turn something around verse 33 that's what happened to the people in the Old Testament it went into captivity and their land was turned into a wilderness but then in a moment then in a moment verse 35 he also blesses them and they multiply greatly and he does not let their cattle decrease when they are diminished and brought low through oppression affliction and sorrow he pours contempt on princes and he causes them to wander in the wilderness where there is no way yet he sets the poor on high far from affliction in a moment he can turn it around and he makes their families like a flock the righteous see it and rejoice and all iniquity stops its mouth God can turn any situation no matter what that situation is it may not be a wilderness it may not be a dungeon it may not be a hospital it may not be a stormy sea but he can take any situation and turn it around in a moment and the psalm ends with these beautiful words verse 43 whoever is wise whoever is wise will observe these things and they will understand the loving kindness of the Lord are you a wise person? whoever is a wise person will observe these things what things? well when you are in the wilderness God will answer your prayer when you are in the dungeon God will answer your prayer God will answer your prayer when you are in the middle of a storm God will answer your prayer in any circumstance or situation God will answer your prayer because our God is a God who answers prayer whoever is wise will read the psalm over and over and over again and cry out to the Lord and whatever trouble there in whatever situation there in whoever is wise will observe these things will realize that no matter who you are and that no matter where you are if you cry out to God he will hear he will answer your prayer there is no more dramatic powerful unforgettable illustration of this that I know of than the true story of a lady named Janelle McMillan her story is told in a great book written by Jim Symbola the pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle in New York a great book called Breakthrough Prayer Janelle McMillan writes the morning of September 11th 2001 began for me like many others I got to work a little after 8 a.m. and rode the elevator up to the 64th floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center where I worked I was making small talk with a co-worker when I heard a loud explosion I had no idea that American Airlines Flight 11 had just slammed into the building a few moments later I was swaying and rocking oh my God I said this building is going down knowing we had to leave we headed to stairway B and as we ran it down together we kept counting the stairs 63, 62, 61, 60, 59, 58 and as we were going down the stairs we could see the firefighters going up the stairs when we reached the 13th floor all of a sudden the whole building just went boom everything went black the building started to collapse 110 floors were coming down on top of us falling concrete and debris smashed me down onto my knees in my eyes and mouth filled with grit and dust it was surreal like a horrible dream there is nothing we could do and nowhere we could go we were being buried alive and the sound of it was deafening then as suddenly as it started it stopped and things got quiet really quiet my mind started racing I thought of my husband my children and my family how I would never see them again so there all alone in the dark buried under all that rubble I began to pray oh god help me please let me live please let them find me the minutes seemed like hours and the hours seemed like days but then I heard the sound of rescue workers above me crying out help me finally someone yelled back hello hello is someone in there I said yes my name is Janelle help me by now I could see a bit of daylight coming through a crack so I stuck my hand up through it can you see my hand I shouted someone grabbed a hold of it Janelle I've got you you're gonna be alright oh thank you lord I prayed it had been 27 hours since the towers collapsed and I Janelle McMillan was the last survivor to be pulled out of the wreckage that had once been the world trade center towers I spent weeks in the hospital recovering the doctor said I'd never walk again but I do have a living proof that God's help is only a prayer way that wherever you are and whoever you are if you cry out to God he will hear and answer your prayer


So as I told you guys before we were talking about civilization 5, Scott and I played a 100 turns or so of a Civ game on the way back from anime Boston. We're going to continue that game hopefully on the way to PAX East. Scott does not realize how utterly utterly fucked he is in that game and it'll be fun to show you what's going on there. But in the interim the Civ 5 bug has bitten both me and Scott. So while I'm playing several online games with a giant multiplayer robot here, one of them, and actually Scott started this game so I'm fostering this newfound enthusiasm for Civ. This is just me and Scott again, the two of us, and no AI civilizations on a little Pangea map, two player, we're just playing it by mail and I figured I'd take you through the state of my empire because some interesting things are just about to go on. So 1v1 Civ 5 is an odd kind of game for a lot of reasons. And one of those, one of the big things that there aren't any other Civs, so diplomacy literally doesn't matter at all. Like I might as well declare war on whoever whenever I want because the only who is Scott. To a lot of things otherwise don't matter, like city-state relations aren't super important because aren't that many of them. I guess you could use them to get a diplomatic victory, but I don't think the game could possibly go on that long if it doesn't be shocked. So I thought I'd take you through the state of my empire, so Thebes, here's doing fine. I'm actually building a city, I got a settler who's going to come out soon, and I'm doing this way earlier than I normally do in a Civ game that's going about this way because I know the map's pretty small, I know Scott's right around here somewhere, you can't be too much further because I saw one of his scouts, and I need to settle and build up my industrial base quicker than him. These barbarians actually gave me some problems early in the game, so they came down, and actually my scout ran away, I lost a bunch of stuff up here, and I've got to slowly claw that back. But the campaign against the barbarians has gone very well, and as you can see we're about to have a final victory in one more turn. Or even now. Nice. Ooh, so now Urr would be more friendly to Lord May. I've been maximizing production, you can see right now my citizens here, I've got pretty good spread, I don't know why that's locked in. Oh, I know why that's locked in. So I assumed that Scott was going to rush the Great Library, which he did just build last turn, because in the previous game I rushed the Great Library and he seems to think that that is the primary reason why I'm winning, so I kind of let him have that even though I was Egypt, and instead all I did is build a monument, which I always do, I pretty much always push culture pretty heavy pretty early. And I built a shrine, because I assumed that he was going to ignore religion, at least in the immediate term, and I would like to get one of the religious bonuses early to push my sieve to get more science. Now I did just discover iron working, and sure enough there's some iron hanging out here, so that's good news. So let's look at the tech tree. If I want to beat Scott, I might as well start a war relatively quick, just to disrupt his plans. It's a Pangea, so the sailing stuff actually is not going to be super useful. Pretty sure he is now going toward mathematics, if he doesn't have it already. That is far too much science, so I think in the short term I'm actually going to go up here to writing and then push into this stuff, because I believe I have enough military to hold him at bay, he's also terrible at military in this game. So let's see, on a tiny map, I'm going to be able to build maybe four cities, so small empire stuff is going on. So for some context, I went oner right away, wanted to go after the barbarians, farm them a little bit, and two, I expect there to be a war, and I do want to have a great general for that war. And I'm pretty much going to fill this tier out, at least I'm going to be at here, because I want to get the extra culture, and here so I can upgrade warriors to swordsmen in the foreseeable future. I actually really want to get over to aesthetics and rationalism, probably going to skip liberty, which is odd, usually I take liberty in a normal game, take care of all my baseline stuff, Scott's guys are around here somewhere, and I'm slowly pushing up to look here, and this guy's going to circle back around to escort the settler, because I found League Victoria, this is pretty much the perfect place to build a city, barbarian camp that I just noticed hiding in there, nonwithstanding, little bones. So I'm pretty much in this game, going to move this guy back across here, move the settler up this way, and if I had to guess, I'd like to reveal more of this, I might send my warrior around to look, I might build the new city here, I'd like it to be on the hill, and if it's on the hill, I'll also be next to League Victoria, so I'll get the plus six food right away.  Might be good stuff down here, with the dyes and the oasis and everything, but this is the spot that I do not want Scott to get to city, and I don't want to have to raise a city, or have a war over a city like that so early in the game, so let's see, I've got some cotton hanging out, I don't have any of the other things that are resource bound, I won't have enough cities for this to necessarily be super useful. I probably want something that'll grow me quickly, don't have gems or pearls, now I've got, I could start, I could build this quickly, which will give me a bonus to building wonders, I also am Egypt, where I have a bonus to building wonders, so maybe I'll take this and just go apeshit on the wonders in the next few turns, and build all the old wonders as fast as I can. Other good option is just to grow faster, because I have an excess of happiness here, I think growing faster is actually going to be more important than the wonders, now this is actually in a small empire also not too bad, that would actually give me a little culture boost right away, I think I'm going to go with a 10% faster growth rate, that's going to actually help me a lot here in particular.


All right, I think we're a little bit, okay, Tom officially started. Hello everyone, this is my topic. Ukraine's cultural deployment month, three different years. But first let's get acquainted. Some of you may know me, I'm Renvoi, first of all. Some of you may know me as Global Sysop. Some of you may know me as a member of Umbudsk Commission. But out of many hats I wear. One of the most challenging, but at the same time, one of the most interesting positions was a manager at Wikimedia Ukraine, an affiliate of foundation. And Ukraine is a country I've come from. So this small session is going to be about the tale, about the biggest international editing contest we've organized and that might have changed the world, slightly in the better place. So it all started in 2021. In the midst of the global pandemic, we, as Wikimedia Ukraine, thought about trying to replicate the success that we had with our photo contests. So everyone knows about Wikilev Earth, Wikilev monuments, but we wanted to replicate something like that in the more of an insculopedia style. So we've partnered with Ukrainian Institute, our governmental organization responsible for several cultural projects that are related for a broad audience. And we thought that it would be a very nice idea to create a project that would cover all Wikipedias and basically afford editors to write about Ukraine's cultural affairs and famous people. Because culture is essentially what leads us together, what makes us all human beings and what unites us. So, yeah, 2021 was quite successful. We got almost, yeah, 800 articles, Wikipedias articles written, 700 Wikidata items, and we thought, yeah, all right, this idea works. It's quite good. We got great response from community. So we thought, yeah, why not to replicate it for the next year? So, yeah, 2022 came. Now, I coded the year of ambivalence for some reasons, but I will get to it. So a little bit of a side track. So one of the most popular resources you can use to promote your campaign is by creating a Wikimedia banner. So that's what, yeah, we have a central notice admin in the room. So, yeah, by creating the banner, you can promote your campaign, any campaign. So it could be photo contest, it could be editing contest, anything. Of course, after approval. So the second edition of campaign was starting at 17th of February and ending in 17th of March. But even prior to that, I thought, well, why not to put the banner campaign, start the banner campaign exactly at 24th of February 2022? Because I thought, yeah, it's in the middle of the contest. So it should be fine. But when you are preparing for your contest, something that you don't realize and you never consider is when something like this happens. And, yeah, when in the morning, in February, yeah, 24th, I woke up and this is the first site I saw, this is something you cannot prepare for any day. Yeah, so, but despite this, and despite the start of the more exactly the same day, contest continued. And we've got some great response. We've got almost 4,000 articles written in 60 languages. Some of the greatest support we had ever. And this was one of the most successful years of campaigns, I guess, for the half of the year, we've been the only cultural project left in Ukraine, like ever in the whole country. It was the only project. So, yeah, it's, think about, it's crazy. And I call it the year of ambivalence because, yeah, we got this great support, this great success from the community writing about other country, about other culture. But the purpose of that and the starting point of that was why the people wrote was quite horrible. It's war that started. But we've been moving along. 2023 came. So we've started a little bit to shaken up things a bit. We, and started to, first of all, we've developed this special list of articles trained to fill certain gaps about certain cultural aspects in different Wikipedia's. So I've personally got through all Wikipedia's and tried to understand which of them have lacked which articles about what cultural aspects of Ukrainian culture and what people are missing. So, yeah, and tried to steer community writing about the most important topics, not just about everything just for the sake of writing. Yeah, and also small Wiki support. We've developed a list of articles, especially for small Wiki's. So they could just write about the most important articles. And a shout out to Wikimedia Malaysia for organizing the meeting, a flight meeting just down the road in Kuala Lumpur. So, yeah, just to support our contest. That's so great. Yes. So I won't try to pretty much bore you with a lot of statistics. But these are the two great numbers I want to share. First is the articles created. It's 6,000 articles created during the span of three years. And it may not seem like too much because, yeah, English Wikipedia has like a thousand times more articles. But for us, it's a great, great purpose. And to get such language in 89 language editions to me is like a little bit of language nerd. That's like a huge amount. Just huge. 27% of Wikipedia's now have like more articles about most distinguished Ukrainian cultural things, people about the best films, about the best literature, about the best works of art. That's so great, I think. And, yeah, essentially, this is why I called it the contest that changed the world a little bit because in midst of such hard times, such harsh actions and military actions, that's something that essentially, yeah, inspires us and keeps us going, I think. Because, yeah, essentially culture is, as I said, something that really unites us in a way. Now, at the end of each campaign, we also send out the questionnaire. If you participated, you've definitely received an email from me asking to fill it out. And one of the questions that we ask is why? Why would you... What's the motivation? Why would you write articles about a completely different country, about a completely different culture in your Wikipedia? So we've got a response from the many responses, of course. But I will leave you with this quote. This is the quote from a participant from Japan that wrote something like this. I just wanted to show the solidarity for brave Ukrainian citizens fighting for their autonomy, although I know our Wikipedia activities are powerless. Tyrants, however, have always been afraid of pen. Thanks so much.


Hello, bodies of flesh and consciousness that will one day only be bodies of flesh. My name is Edgy Chappy, and today it's time to bring out your dead, because I'm going to be going over every spell in the Necromancy School of Magic and rating them on Edgy's Edgy Meter. Keep in mind, as always, that given that I am a prolific YouTuber of incredible renown, I carry a big sword and wear a black trench coat.  But with that out of the way, let's begin. I think this might be a medical condition. So, Necromancy is the school of voodoo and spooky scary skeletons. It's the taboo style of magic that is equally likely to bring the ire of your party members, as well as a free ticket to the guillotine at the Knights of the Realm, find out. Of course, that's not going to stop you neck fetishists from pulling your bones out from deep below and charging them at people, so let's get right into the spells, starting with CANTRIPS! SHILLTOUCH! Very good if you're fighting people with healers, the healers themselves, or the people who never managed to find a healer, spare the dying. This spell is made useless by its short range and abundance of healing kits, or literally any healing ability, told the dead. This spell does a whole lot of damage, but remember that you have to ignore a lot of the advantage-disadvantage mechanics because it's a saver-suck spell. FIRST LEVEL! Cause fear.  There is nothing stopping you from casting this on multiple people at once, so it's an okay buffer to put on your friends just before you start a fight. Inflict wounds. That's a lot of first level damage. My only gripe is that it's a touch spell, so keep one of those on you if the bad guy gets too grabby. RAVE SICKNESS. Decent damage, but unfortunately it takes two separate roles if you want them to get down with the sickness. SECOND LEVEL! Have you ever wanted to cripple a caster? Here you go. GENTLE REPOSSE. It seems like it might be useful, but I have never once had a reason to use this anti-necromancy necromancy spell. Seriously? Only use this as a ritual. RAVE AND FEBELMENT. Sure, it's now dealing half damage, but you know what's better? All the other spells that can help preventing it hitting it all. THIRD LEVEL! ANIMATE DEAD. This is the quintessential corpse party spell. Just be prepared to commit a lot of spell slots to this. Also realize how long it takes to individually summon all these things, so be prepared to get prepared. CURSE. Superverse tile and can be useful to disable any kind of dickbag. FAME DEATH. Once again, I've never needed this spell, and the only reason to have it on your spell list is as a ritual. LIFE TRANSFERENCE. A third level spell that heals for essentially 8d8 health? Sure, the damage taken hurts, but who wants to live forever? REVIVIFY. PLEASE. Take this. You never know when you're gonna need it until it's the only thing that can save you.  SPEAK WITH DEAD. The only time I ever wanted to use this spell was to make a Hamilton reference. SHOULD WE HONOR A TREETY KING LUI'S HEAD? VAMPERIC TOUCH. The reason with this spell is that it's a melee attack that really banks on concentration to get its money worth.  FORTH LEVEL. Like, decent damage, but the plant thing is pretty damn rare, although when it does come up, it's almost guaranteed 64 damage. SHADOW OF MOIL. I just don't put much stock in spells that require concentration, yet put you in situations where you're likely to get hit. FIFTH LEVEL. CONTAGION. As long as you know they're weak as stat, this spell can cripple anybody. Plus, it is guaranteed for at least 3 turns, plus the best effect is slimy doom. Since giving people disadvantage on consaves with the spell that forces consaves is just mean. DANCE MAKOB.  Plus, its name sounds like dance macabre, so you could use it to summon backup dancers at parties. ENERATION. You remember that crappy vampiric touch spell?  NEGATIVE ENERGY FLOOD. This spell is just mean. This means didn't ask for this life. Nobody asks for this. RAISE DEAD. I don't know who you're trying to revive that hasn't been dead for 10 days, but they can wait the extra day for you to prepare this spell as a clear. SIXTH LEVEL. CIRCLE OF DEATH. 500 gold for a spell that does the same amount of damage as a basic fireball? WHAT? CREATE UNDEAD. It'll start costing quite a lot to maintain this upkeep, but it is a fun summoner's trick. EYEBITE. I'm giving it a pass because you can keep recasting without burning spell slots, meaning you can knock out all your enemies one wisdom save at a time. HARM. Good unhealable damage right there. Use it on bosses to annoy your DM. MAGIC JAR. This spell is absolutely evil. No way around it. Even despite the obvious dangers of attempting it, I'm giving this a 3 because of the serious roleplay value that would have to go into it. SOUL CAGE. By the time that you can cast the spell, the 100 gold shouldn't be a problem. And all the benefits make this spell amazing. Just make peace with how evil you have to be to use someone's soul as a battery. SEVENS LEVEL. FINGER OF DEATH. And this is the spell that can give you your own personal zombie army. As long as you finger people nearing death that have disadvantage on Khan, you will never fail. RESURRECTION. And this is the spell that you use when you've got all the money in the world and death doesn't matter. EIGHTH LEVEL. ABYDAL ZEAM'S HORRID WILTING. It's a big ball of damage with a super long range. Neat. CLONE. 3,000 gold for an extra life. NINTH LEVEL. ASTRAL PROJECTION. There are other, less expensive ways to get into the astral realm. I expected better from you, Mr. 9th level spell. TRUE RESURRECTION. When all else fails, this spell won't. Buuuut, that'll about do it. I hope you enjoyed this video, leave a like and comment if you did, subscribe if you want to be a cool dude, and maybe support me on Patreon so that I can slowly make my entire life evolve around D&D. Also, if you want to stay up to date on all of your Dabby news, I keep a link to my Discord and Twitter in the description below. But yeah, Dabby out.


The Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa hara ala wa sallam in a hadith reported by Imam al-Hakim in his mustadrak. He said, If I was the first night of Ramadan, I would be the first night of Ramadan. When the first night of Ramadan comes, the demonic forces and the rebellious jinn, they are restrained. They are placed in shackles.  Wa lam yuftaah minhabab and not a single gate is left open. Wa tuftaahoo abwaabu jiran and the gates of heaven are flung open. Wa lam yuflaq minhabab and not a single gate is closed. Wa nadaa munadin ya baghiyal khayr aqbil and then an angel calls out, an angel calls out saying, O seeker of good, approach. Wa ya baghiyashar aqsir and O seeker of evil, shrink back. Wa lilahi uftaqaa'u minhabab and then God, He sets free who He has assigned number of people who will set free from the hellfire when that first night begins of Ramadan. We all know that the month is very close and we've heard this hadith or at least an adoration of this report before and every single year as we gather as the month of Ramadan approaches. There are many benefits that come from a reflection on this particular hadith first and foremost is that this hadith is reinforcing the fact that there is a heaven and there's a hell. It reinforces the fact that there are beings that exist beyond our ability to see with our eyes. We call them angels, we call them jinn, demonic forces, angelic forces. It teaches us that certain times as well of the year, more blessed than other times, it reminds us of God's forgiveness and the opportunities afforded us constantly and especially in this blessed month for us to reform our behavior. But it also reminds us of the reality of God's punishment when we choose not to reform our behavior. The month of Ramadan is called, among other things, of many things, Shahr-u-Sabah, the month of patience, the month of temperance, the month of restraint. And the fast of Ramadan is not only an opportunity or a time for us to commemorate and to celebrate the revelation of the Quran, the revelation of the book of Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala. But the month of Ramadan, also, it reinforces the importance of fasting as a tool of spiritual formation. In the Quran, Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, when he speaks of fasting, he says, كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الْصِيَامِ كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمْ Fasting has been ordained for you as it was ordained for those who came before you. The verse doesn't say the fast of Ramadan was ordained for you in the way that it was ordained for others before you, but fasting itself, during Ramadan or outside of Ramadan, that fasting has been ordained for humanity. Every tradition, every dispensation revealed by Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, fasting has been a part of it. And it is said that fasting is one half of patience. Fasting is one half of subhanu. And patience is one half of iman, is one half of faith. The stomach itself, according to Imam Abu Hamla Ghazadi, and so many other ethicists, is the root or the spring source of all devices. And he tries to demonstrate this, not necessarily, he tries to, he actually does, he demonstrates this. And he shows us this, you know what? When we reflect upon the stomach, and once the stomach is full, that the stomach agitates sexual desire. And then the human being seeks to gratify not only his appetite for food and drink, but also for intercourse. And then once a person is gratified, the person wants to experience that gratification again. And so they seek out different avenues to access that experience once again. So they seek wealth, they seek property. And they learn that if I have wealth and actually get the things that I want, and then once they have wealth, they say, okay, is there an easier way for me to achieve wealth, or achieve access to these sources or these sources of gratification? So they discover that fame, fortune, status is an easy way to gain property and gain wealth, and you can get those fundamental things. But once you get there, what happens is that there are always those around you who see you, people envy you, people they want what you desire. And when they want for you, what you desire, maybe they'll pray that God takes it away from you, even if they don't get it themselves. Or maybe they say, you know what, I'm gonna take it from you. So in other words, all this from the stomach. We are people, we are species, especially in these times that we eat too much and we drink too much, we talk too much, we consume too much, we waste too much. And so Ramadan, when we think of fasting, we have to think about these other benefits as well that the benefit or the blessing of hunger itself, we voluntarily make ourselves hungry in these days, as we know. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, He has given the human being three fundamental powers, or at least this is the way our ethicists, they speak about it. We have the rational, intellectual powers. We've given us the power of appetite and the, we call it Qubat Al Ghadabiyah, irasability, that these things are the sources for our behavior. They are where, from which we act from those fundamental sources. And one of the great scholars of Islamic history, although controversial among many, Ibn Arabi, Mahyedin Ibn Arabi, he said that there are fundamental, fundamentally four types of knowledge that the human being acquires through virtue, that ultimately through the practice of virtue becoming a better person, because this is really what fasting as a tool of spiritual formation, it does, it helps you become a better person. It's not only about you doing good things, it is about you wanting to do good things, even when you don't have the opportunity to do so. This is where we want to be. We don't only want to say, okay, well somebody asked me for five bucks, I gave him $5. Alhamdulillah, I feel good about myself. And that person thinks I'm a generous person, but I may have simply done it for some ulterior motive. I may have done it begrudgingly, right? I really didn't want to, but I gave it anyway, right? I didn't want someone to say I was stingy, but we want to transcend that, to transform to a different type of person, to a different type of creature. Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala put us here over all the other creatures that He placed on this earth. As Imam Raqab As-Bahani says that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala put the human being here for three fundamental reasons. One is for Imara, it's for to cultivate the earth, to construct and build on the earth, to construct and cultivate it, the land, et cetera. The second is for Ibadah, it's for the worship of God. And the third reason is for Khilafa, that is to manage and to preserve what is here. There's the three reasons. And in the process, Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala, after choosing us for this, He gave us the tools that we needed to fulfill these obligations or these tasks or to realize the purposes from which we were created. In other words, God believes in you. God believes in us that we have this capacity. Otherwise, you would not have given us the responsibility. But we won't be able to fulfill that responsibility if we don't embrace His guidance. And so the Quran tells us fast Ramadan. The prophet, Salaam, he fasted outside of Ramadan. His companions, they fast outside of the month of Ramadan. Fasting itself is a tool of spiritual formation that when you're able to restrain and withhold and to abstain from the things that your body needs, it teaches us what you can abstain from. The other thing that your body or your spirit or your soul also does not need.  It teaches us so many different lessons about God, about how God, He deals with us and what He expects of us. But it also teaches us about ourselves. It teaches us about the world, the nature of the world. It teaches us about Satan, about Shaitan and the different ways that He approaches the human being and tries to attack and to undermine our efforts. And so before concluding this first half, right, I wanted to mention four fundamental exercises which are connected with what we call temperance or suburb and fasting itself is a tool of temperance. And these were things mentioned by Ibn Arabi in one book or one Risara that he wrote called Hilgit al-Abdal, the adornment of the substitutes. And so fundamentally, he said one of those things is silence. Silence is an important spiritual practice. Silence not only of our tongues, but to try to silence our hearts from thinking about anything related to anything other than God. Now, of course, there's an enormous challenge, especially in the social world, that we have so many distractions, so many distractions. But silence is a path towards that. And in the process of practicing silence, you gain greater knowledge of Allah, the second exercise he mentions is what is called al-Uzla, al-Uzla, seclusion. Seclusion can happen physically. In other words, sometimes you have to take a break from people. Sometimes the people you know, you have to take a break from them. You take a break from social media. You take a break from anything that makes you feel that you're addicted. Take a break from your telephone. Sometimes it may be good for you to put your phone, leave it home. Go out for an hour or two.  Sit to look, go somewhere where it's quiet. You can hear the sounds of the birds and other things, the water and the wind blowing. Take, withdraw, al-Uzla, is a path towards achieving temperance. So it can happen physically, in other words, and also in your heart. Take a break in your heart to include yourself from the thoughts that are unrelated to God. And of course that's the high station. It's not easy to do that, but reflect upon God's names. You know, reflect upon why God is called al-Kareem, the generous one. Why he's called al-Ghani, the independent, the one who is rich and free of all needs. Why is it Hayy, the living one? And in what ways has God manifested his names in my life? So silence and then al-Uzla, isolation or seclusion. Thirdly, he said azur, hunger. And so hunger is already, we're on that path in Ramadan. We've already taken that step of physically letting go of food and drink and things related to our chronal passions. And then in the last of them he mentions what is called asahara, vigilance. And vigilance in a sense that, and vigilance also we can translate it as sleeplessness. We, a loss of sleep. So it can physically you lose sleep to pray in the middle of the night when everyone's asleep. But also you're vigilant about your relationship with your creator at all times. In other words, try to get those bad thoughts away. Try to keep your distance from things that are harmful for you. And while you involve in these things, especially when you are secluding yourself from people, your intention shouldn't be that, although it's a good intention in a sense that they say, I'm protecting myself from the evil of others.  That should be your intention. But at any rate, while in the process of fasting, we might want to add to this spiritual practice and this month and then beyond the month, insha'Allah, the introduction of other things like the practice of silence, of seclusion, of hunger and of vigilance. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that He grant us the grace and the mercy to fulfill such tasks. I'll call it, Alhamdulillah. As mentioned before, brothers and sisters, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has given the human being ultimate task on this planet. Although we have failed miserably as we can see, we never give up hope. There will always remain among humanity those who seek to do the right thing, those who seek to live for the reasons they have been creating, to cultivate the earth, to worship their Creator, and to preserve nature as it is. And he's given tools like the Fast of Ramadan, but he's also given us the five pillars among the other things. And so they're not only things that we expected to fulfill as Muslims, that we supposed to pray five times a day of the Fast of Ramadan, or pay our zakat, or hajj, but they're material and spiritual benefits to each one of them. There are many benefits to each one of them. If we just reflect upon the Salat itself, the Quran tells us that it prevents indecency and wrong. Or another way you can translate this is to say it brings an end to indecency and wrong, the Salat itself. And this is something which can be witnessed, or the truth of this can be witnessed immediately.  God is forgiving you at this moment. But we also teach them that it's your duty to pray five times a day. That person may be a regular drinker, but they find out, you know, when you can't be drunk when you pray right away, at least for that moment, even if they pray, they drink later on, but at that moment, they have to make sure that they're not drunk. They learn that you also have to be in a state of major ritual purity, and major ritual impurity, it results from intercourse, for instance.  So that person gave up drinking or drugs and sexual intercourse at that moment cleans themselves, they prayed.  You should always tell people that regardless of how sinful you are, never stop praying, there's always hope for everyone. Everyone, Allah is the judge.  But we know benefits of fasting, we know benefits of the prayer itself. The Hajj itself teaches many lessons as well. Humility removes this sense of classism. Everyone's wearing the same thing. Everyone, reminder that everyone, when you die, everybody, you get put in the same shroud and that same ground as the poor person. The rich and the poor, the same alike. That all of the the efforts and the hard work of that, the walking back and forth, reminders of our past, reminders of the importance of tradition and of history, all those things come out more reflected upon the Hajj. And we know what zakat does, it reminds us of the duties that we have to the poor, to those who don't have anything. When society breaks down and no one's being charitable, who do you think they're going to come after? They're going to come after the ones who they knew scolded them, who they knew they turned a blind eye to their to their plight, who are very rude and harsh with them. They're going to come to those people. But the people who are generous to them, the people who treated them well, the people who are constantly looking out for their needs, those people, they're not going to come, they're not going to come attack those people. And of course, unless they're just simply insane. But at any rate, there are also these material benefits which are added to the spiritual benefits of the five pillars. So as we go into the blessed month, in sha'Allah, I wanted to leave this message for us to reflect upon this deeply. That is a month where the gates are flung open, the gates of jannah, paradise are flung open, the gates of hell, they are flung shut. And the demonic influences have been reduced significantly. The demonic influences have been reduced. One, because we don't have food or drink in our stomachs. So the influences even from ourselves is reduced. But of course, there's this other realm that we are people who are people of faith and the people who believe in things we can't prove scientifically. That's okay. That's what faith is all about. Even though there are many people today who might really kill us for that, but we cling to our faith. And we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala He keep our feet firm on His path. And we ask Him that He blesses and place light in our hearts, in our eyes, in our ears, above us, below us, and all around us. In sha'Allah. Inna Allah wa mara'ikatahu yusalloon aalana nabi. Ya ayyya ladina aamana usallu wa rahi wa salim us-sahlima. Allahumma a'izzu al-Islamu muslimin. Allahumma a'izzu al-Islamu muslimin. Allahumma a'izzu al-Islamu muslimin. Allahumma habb ilayna iliman. Wa zaynahu fi qlubina wa karrihe ilayna al-kufra wa al-fusuk wa al-hassian. Wa ja'ana minal rashideen. Rabbana taqbal minna inna ka anta wa al-Sameen al-Aleem wa tuba alayna inna ka anta tuwa wa al-Raheem. Allahumma aqfir al-muslimin wa muslimat wa muqbinin wa muqminat al-ahya'in minhum wa al-ammat. Wa aqfir rana Allahumma ma'uhum bifaddika wa i'sanika ya ar-Rahm al-Raheemin. Allahumma zaki anfusina, Allahumma aate anfusina taqwaha wa zakiha anta khayr man zakaha anta waliyuha wa maulaha. Allahumma ʿahsinaa qibyatinaa fi al-ummu li kulliha wa jirnaa man khizji al-dunya wa aza bil-aqira. Rabbana aate anfusina wa tuba al-hassana wa al-aqiratihi al-hassana. Waqinaa aza bil-naar wa ʿaza bil-naar wa ʿaza bil-naar. Wa ṣallilāhummu wa sallim wa barakah al-sigri l-nār Muhammadin wa al-ālihi wa ʿashafih al-akhyaar. Wa ṣallim an-katirā wa ṣabhāna rabbika rabbil ʿazzati ʿamma yisifūn. Wa ṣallāmu ʿalām wa ʿalām wa ʿmussirīn. Wa ʿal-ḥamdu liLlāhi rabbī al-āmin wa ʿakim yusraq.


Hello and good welcome, good welcome. Hello, good morning, good welcome. That's a good start, never edit it, so we're just gonna roll with it. Hello and welcome. Good morning, good afternoon, wherever you are in the world. And welcome to day 95 of the Mindfulness Challenge. I hope you're well, it's the beginning of a new week. And I wanna really today go back to some basics, okay? Go back to understanding the key fundamentals of mindfulness. You know, we've talked before and I think I might have done something and I've done so much content, I can't remember. And we're talking about some of the myths of mindfulness. And some of those myths and mindfulness are things like, but I can't stop my mind. Do I have to meditate for ages? Will this be a quick result? Is a meditation something to do with religion? And all of those questions that pop into our mind, and there's no way in the world, you know, it's quiet in my mind, not to have any thoughts. And all those things we put together. And a lot of it is rolled into one for us to be able to deflect from the ability to really dig deep inside ourselves. Because that worries some of us. And it worries us because we're scared of what we're gonna find. Or again, what we're gonna reveal or what we're gonna go through or what we're gonna live in or any of those scenarios. And a lot of the reason for that is because we worry about failure. We worry about all of the mistakes that we've made. We worry about self-criticism. There's so much wrapped inside you that is strung together, pulled together, molded, whatever terminology you like to use. And we're really worried about being worried. And we really think about, I'm a failure. I'm not good enough. I do a lot of teaching, both in a spirituality style, this, and spiritualism, which is more of a belief system of working with spirit. And whenever I see anything that people really struggle from is self-belief, self-doubt. We talked about yesterday being that beacon of light and being able to accept compliments. Being able to accept somebody paying you something nice. You look beautiful today. What a lovely gesture. But some of us will take that, you look beautiful today and we'll sit down with it and we'll go, did they say I didn't look beautiful yesterday? What about the day before? What did I do the day before? I'm sure I'd done my hair the day before. Did I have a shave? I can't remember. And we put ourselves to this sort of self-analysis because we really get it up about being perfect and it's hard today in many ways. And I'm probably preaching to the converted on some of this is everything's airbrushed. Everything. And for me, life is more about the warts and all and learning from some of the failures and mistakes we've made. And I'm not going to get into a political broadcast but a lot of the stuff with Black Lives Matter at the moment and those things is taking down some of these statues and I agree with them but we shouldn't get rid of them. We should put them in a museum. We should put them somewhere and say we learned from these mistakes. We can't airbrush our history. It is what it is. What we can do is we can use those mistakes of the past to actually build a positive future with unconditional love and unconditional equality. And you see, that's what we do with ourselves. We try and airbrush a lot of our mistakes and failures and traumas and shadows and all we try and airbrush them out of our history and we shouldn't. Just like I don't think we should chuck all of these statues away. We should have them somewhere so people can go and see them to see that some of these things that these people did was wrong. We don't airbrush it. We learn from it. We move forward. We move forward trying to create this inner oneness and the oneness with ourselves. You know, be love and give love is the terminology that I use a lot of. So giving yourself compassion for some of the failures and the mistakes you have really is designed to help you understand that we are an imperfect being. I'll say that again. We are an imperfect being.  It doesn't exist. We can live our best life. We can be our best selves and give ourselves to have the best life we possibly can but it ain't gonna be perfect. Now that might be breaking news to some of you. But the reality is that's where we're at and we've all made mistakes. We've all had failures but we're all sat here today and the opportunity to cultivate self-compassion through loving-kindness, through meditation, through understanding that our failures and mistakes are all part of us. They're part of our scars.  Just finished a 30-minute meditation in the garden. Just a silent focus on my breath of meditation sat in the energy of the beautiful day that's gonna be here. It's gonna be quite sunny and warm today. It was beautiful. Didn't wanna come out, lovely, enjoyed it. Makes me just that little bit more focused and clarity to be able to come and speak to you this morning. So I want you to realize that we can forgive ourselves so I'm gonna say the word failure but who actually says it's a failure, ourselves? You know, where do we benchmark some of this from? Mistakes, yeah, they're probably a little bit more quantifiable but we never make a mistake. If we learn from it, because it was an experience, it's something that we say, wouldn't do that again. There's no way in the world I'm getting burnt twice. And all of those words and terminologies that you use and hear, you know, or point to the fact that let's learn from those. You know, today is the final day when I said on Saturday about making your journal. So all the things that have been good, all the things we're blessed for and even the things that have gone wrong, who says they're going wrong is another matter, but just even picking the good bits out of that and writing it down in a journal. So no matter what happens, we're always looking, trying to look at the positive spin on it. So we're gonna do a meditation now.  And this is, again, this is a guided meditation and it's a bit of a variant on the classic loving kindness practices which we did a lot of at the early stages.  And make sure, as I always say, that you're in a comfortable position. But this one really, I want you to sit upright and get relaxed, but sitting upright and just, we talk about falling awake and settle into your posture and notice how your body feels. The sensation of your feet touching the floor, your bottom touching the cushion of the chair, the weight of your arms and your head. And just for a moment, just be in your body right here, right now. Fully inhabitating it. Living your experiences of yourself. Then allow your attention to move outwards to sounds. What sounds are around you and arising right now? Are there noises outside your window? Do you have a conditioner, a fan, or do you hear the wind just rustling outside or any noise really? What sounds do you hear? And try not to reach out to the sounds, but just let the sounds arrive. The sound waves just enter in your mind and body and let it all come to you and focus on your breathing and the sense of the inhaling and the exhaling. Whether you feel the breath most strongly at your nostrils or perhaps that your chest rises and falls. And we just take a few moments just to rest with our breath and simple and easy. Just notice the absolute wonderment of the peacefulness of being quiet, of resting as you gently breathe.  Something that may have been bothering you lately, something that perhaps you've been criticising yourself for or that's made you feel, I don't know, inadequate in some way. And whatever this trait or action is, try to get in touch with it. Try and get in touch with your feelings about it. And what does it make you feel? Sad, frightened, isolated, inadequate? How have you felt when you thought about this inadequacy? And see if you can locate the sentient sensations of the emotions in your body. Perhaps when you think of this, it brings a tightness to your throat, a heaviness in your heart, tension in your shoulders. And what emotions do you feel when you think about this mistake or inadequacy? And where do these emotions fell to the body? And importantly, just actually allow them to be there. Instead of resisting feeling, let these feelings be natural and they arise when we judge ourselves. Just notice them. What am I feeling? Where are the emotions in my body? And get in touch with how much suffering is caused by our own self-judgment or fears of not being worthy or not being good enough. And realise at this moment that some of our greatest suffering is caused at our own hands. By the belief that somehow we should be perfect. Just follow that lovely breath with your eyes closed and just take your hand or both hands if you prefer and place it gently over your heart in a calm, soft, comforting manner. You might even want to rub a little soothing reassuring circle and see if you can sense your heart right now. See if you can let your heart be moved by how difficult your emotional experience is when you think about this. Think about that, what makes you feel bad about yourself? And in doing so, I just want to repeat some phrases, loving kindness phrases designed to help you feel compassion for the fact that you are, as we all are, in perfect beings. Just think of and take on board these mantras and say to yourself, you try your best, but no one, no one on this planet is perfect. We are all inadequate in some way. We all make mistakes. We all fail. And this is the human experience and it's okay. So repeat these further phrases silently and I'll say a few sets of these and say them aloud and then you can repeat them silently. May I be safe. May I be peaceful. May I be kind to myself. May I accept myself as I am feeling the warmth of your hand on your heart. May I be safe. May I be peaceful. May I be kind to myself. May I accept myself as I am feeling the warmth of my hand on my heart. May I be safe. May I be peaceful. May I be kind to myself. May I accept myself as I am feeling the warmth of my heart, and on my heart. And as you repeat these phrases silently, really trying to get in touch with the intention behind the words, the intention to offer yourself kindness, compassion, and acceptance.  And just refresh the phrases in your mind. May I be safe. May I be peaceful. May I be kind to myself. May I accept myself as I am. May I be safe. May I be peaceful. May I be kind to myself. May I accept myself as I am. And giving yourself the same kindness and support and acceptance, you would give to a good friend who was feeling bad about themselves. May I be safe. May I be peaceful. May I be kind to myself. May I accept myself as I am. Remembering that everyone's in the same boat. Everyone feels inadequate in some way. Everybody makes mistakes. Everybody at some point fails. This is the human condition. This is normal. This is something we all share. And remember, this is okay. May I be safe. May I be peaceful. May I be kind to myself. May I accept myself as I am.  And let's just change the phrases slightly so that we include everyone in our intention for self-compassion. May we all feel safe. May we all be peaceful. May we be kind to ourselves. May we accept ourselves just the way we are. May we be safe. May we be peaceful. May we be kind to ourselves. May we accept ourselves just the way we are. And just gently repeating the phrase silently. May I be safe. May we be peaceful. May we be kind to ourselves. And may we accept ourselves just the way we are. Now I'd like you to think of something that's been causing you suffering. That you don't necessarily blame yourself for. Maybe you have a loved one who is not well at the moment or something's gone wrong in your life just due to external circumstances. Something that's very hard to bear. Something that's been quite difficult to deal with. And also give yourself compassion for this source of suffering. Your suffering comes from two main sources. From ourselves not as being as we want. And from our lives not being as we want.  Repeat the following phrases. May I be safe. May I be peaceful. May I be kind to myself. May I accept my life as it is. This is the way things are. May I be safe. May I be peaceful. May I be kind to myself. May I accept my life as it is. And by repeating these phrases silently to yourself Soothing and comforting yourself with the difficulties of living the human life. Really feeling you, your caring concern, your tenderness of love for yourself. And we all struggle like so many others. But we say may I be safe. May I be peaceful. May I be kind to myself. May I accept my life as it is. Again put your hand on your heart of it's been there for a long time. Really feel your hand on your heart. And while we've been focusing on comforting ourselves for painful feelings for suffering now see if you can feel what the compassionate self feels like. Maybe your heart now is tingling or just feel warm, vibrant in some way. And notice the good qualities of an open heart that's filled with compassion. The beautiful feelings of tenderness, care, concern, and kindness. Notice in the joy of compassion of connectedness, of open-heartedness. This is also the part of a human experience. And thank yourself for being a good supportive friend. May we all be well and safe. May we all be happy and free. And acceptance and loving kindness and compassion for ourselves unlocks the happiness and freedom from within and our open warm and loving heart. Take a deep breath in and breathe out. And when you're ready, wiggle your fingers and come back into the room. I don't think there's any more to say. It's a lovely meditation and it pretty much says everything we need to say. There is no such thing as perfect and accept that we're all going to make mistakes, we're all going to have things that don't work. But let's not beat ourselves up over it every single time. Let's hold ourselves with that loving kindness. God bless you on day 95. Tomorrow's day 96. It's definitely a period in our lives which we will look back on and reflect how we could have done things better. What could we have done? But that's progress. That's not beating yourself up. Understand where we could have done something better. We could have maybe been healthier. We could have done whatever we wanted to do during this period. But just remember, we're the lucky ones. We have the ability to close our eyes and focus on our breath. There are thousands and thousands of people who have passed and no longer have that. And think of all of those thousands of people, millions of people who have been left behind and who have lost loved ones through this very difficult period. And it undermines the fact that life isn't perfect and life can be difficult and life can seem cruel. But just always have that loving kindness and support and open-heartedness and connectedness and compassion for yourself to allow you to move forward and to allow your journey to continue in the beautiful, imperfect way it is. And as I say a million times, the ability to bathe in the sea of uncertainty. And what about bathing in the sea of imperfection? It's a great one again, isn't it? Let's try and bathe in those seas today. Be loved and give love. Good morning, Julian. I love you. Have a lovely day. Take care. And make this Monday a bit special because it's the day where you are going to truly love yourself. Be loved and give love. Take care. Bye-bye.