A self-driving car was destroyed in the middle of San Francisco's Chinatown streets during a Lunar New Year celebration. But what really happened? You know, this is not a traditional New Year celebration. What's going on? It says video captures Google self-driving robotaxi being set on fire in SF Chinatown. Let's just run the clip. New at 11, today's Lunar New Year celebrations took a dangerous and destructive turn in San Francisco's Chinatown tonight. A Waymo car was graffited and set on fire by a mob of people on Jackson Street near Grant Avenue at about nine o'clock. Waymo tells us nobody was inside the vehicle at the time and the fire started after a window was broken and a firework thrown inside. Firefighters quickly extinguished those flames. The car is a total loss as you can see. Police are now investigating.  This was a jaguar. David, talk about, you know, burning some incense for the ancestors. But why don't we just go and burn a car? I think immediately when I saw this video man, I hate to see it in Chinatown, especially when the people who are destroying the car and ultimately setting it on fire are not even Chinese because that's just not something that Chinese people would do. I'm not saying in the video there's not some broccoli hair-cutted teens probably being like, yo, dude, this is lit. This is lit, but they're just recording it. They're not the ones setting the car on fire. Yeah. Yeah. It was probably people who were not there for the Chinatown celebration. Well, they have skateboards, so I'm assuming they might have been skaters. Right. I mean, some of them had skateboards. But anyways, guys, we're going to go through the comments section. Please hit that like button. Check out other episodes of the Hot Pop Boys. Also, check out Smala Sauce sold out right now. But we're going to start pre-orders for the next batch soon. Be ready for it. When you see the clip, it looks like SF is being stereotypical, lawless, post-apocalyptic society, but it gets more complicated once you look at the details. Okay. So, David, I think, first of all, you see people destroying a car in the middle of the street, not good for any reason. But what is the reasoning probably? All right. There's a lot of reasons that the articles talk about. But let me just say one of the unspoken reasons is that people feel like Chinatown is like another world where you can just do whatever you want, whether that's hurt old people or set the cars on fire. That's not that's the unspoken element that you won't see in any of these articles. You know what it is? It's not their neighborhood. Yeah. So you're more willing to cause destruction outside of your neighborhood. It doesn't feel like some other world. You're looking at these crazy neon signs, all these characters you can't read. Sure. Yeah, to them, yes. Yes. And here's the part where it's like, this is the part that all the articles obviously are savvy to Cruz, which is not Waymo. They hit a pedestrian in their self-driving car. Cruz lost his license. So if you guys don't know, San Francisco had multiple driverless taxi services operating, essentially robo taxis. Waymo didn't have that issue, but Waymo did like, you know, bump into a biker and stuff like that. So there's already this feeling of like the old SF versus the new SF. The new SF enter is all the Robo, you know, tech founder moguls that want to like do dystopian futures. And the old SF is like hyper anti establishment V for Vendetta. We want to fight against the matrix. Well, basically the people generally don't like these robo taxis. Well, the old SF. No, well, yeah, just the people like the skateboarders. They don't like it. Right. The skateboarders are more fighting the resistance. Well, because the robo taxis, one of them critically injured a woman did not die, but did critically injured pedestrians. So this Waymo car is on its way to pick up people, but it doesn't understand that it's Chinese New Year, Lunar New Year. The streets of Chinatown are packed. So the car is like stalled out, but trying to move forward. So it's kind of moving through the crowd. Yeah, it's like stopped at the edge of it, but it gets stopped for a while. And then people start to go, you know, and I don't think they're they're celebrating the year of the dragon to be honest, these skater guys, they're just hanging out, maybe enjoying just the litness. Maybe they think the Chinese New Year is not lit enough. So they just started to start breaking the windows, tagging up the car. Eventually, they break open the windows of the Waymo, which is a Jaguar eyepace. Throw the fireworks in there. And I'm just saying that, like, you hate to see it because, but I guess I guess it could have prevented a lot of ways. I'm not asking Chinese people to like stop these people because there are some of the young Chinese are like recording it and they're like thinking it's lit and stuff like that too. So it's like kind of just a really unfortunate scene all around. Yeah, I just think that even though no humans were hurt in this destruction of this car, still any time you bring that energy to a celebration, it can lead to other things. So it doesn't make Chinatown safer because you burned a car in the middle of the street. Not only that, the emissions from burn metal are incredibly toxic. Yeah. And it causes a mess. People got to come through. There's that reputation. Oh, a car just got burned here. Everybody has to go clean it up. So obviously I'm against this. I do understand why people don't like these Robo taxis. Right. Because they rushed the technology, right? I don't. Maybe the technology got adopted too fast, too quick, right? Yeah. You know, and I think that this is maybe not something that the Robo taxi company saw coming, but this is definitely not good for them. Well, they should learn from it, right? Yes. Avoid Chinatown on Lunar New Year. Yeah. Yeah. And yeah. So I think it's just a lot of people want to set something on fire, though. They want an excuse to destroy something. No, because that's lit to them. And that's the issue, though. That's the issue. Anyways, let's get into the comment section. We must fight against them at Madness, Sarah Connor. People are talking about framing it in terms of these guys are V for Vendetta, Andrew. These are the robots in the Matrix, you know, in Zion where they have to like, you know how Neo like enters the real world and he got to fight. Yeah. I mean, I think when it comes to the self driving cars, I actually think a lot of people are like, you know, hesitant about it. Like I'm not in a rush to jump into one. Right. Like I think it'll be a really long time before they adopt it in New York or a city outside of SF. To be honest, if you know the environment of SF, one side of it, like I said, hyper liberal, like almost anarchist in one side, it's like hyper like pro-protect. So it's kind of a weird convergence. Like I said, of old SF thinking and new SF tech SF, right? Other people were just saying, man, I can't believe it was non Asians. You know what I mean? But then it is true that some of the younger Asians, Andrew, they're enjoying it, trying to get their IG or Snapchat. Yeah, everybody's trying to get an IG moment. Yeah. Somebody was like framing it framing it in terms of like, well, maybe we should do that because they're taking our jobs and destroying humanity. Some people are viewing it through the lens of humans versus robots. Was it a successful protest? I, you know, in a messed up way, I think it does think make Waymo think differently, but it also kind of hurts Chinatown. So I'm, I'm like, about it. Let's just say this. Like I said, I'm not against a convergence of factors that have to come into play because you're not going to feel comfortable doing this in any other place other than Chinatown too. I see a lot of people. I would never want to normalize destruction of property. So I'm against that, but also. Dude, just because this incident didn't hurt anybody, the lack of law and order, it's going to spiral to just leading to more people getting hurt. Yeah, yeah, that's true. Don't deserve to get hurt. It's not about street people on street people. I'm talking about street people on regular law abiding citizens. Is it even illegal? Is anything even illegal in San Francisco anymore? People are just saying, dude, civilization ends when people stop acting civilized, which in America was about four to five years ago. And they're not saying, I'm not saying it's any side. It's everybody. It's crime in the streets. It's theft. It's January 6th insurrection. Is it Andrew has civilization started to end because people are no longer acting civilized. Well, this is what they call civil unrest, right? It's like a lot of an uptick in maybe not necessarily crime on individuals, but just destruction of things. People just generally not following rules. Yeah, people feel like they want to destroy things. And I think that that's not good. It can't be, bro. I'm not saying I can't empathize with some of the reasons and the feelings and the emotions. Of course, there's multiple sides to everything, guys. Somebody said, you know, I think Waymo's actually drive better than most human drivers because they're less aggressive and they're always trying to follow rules and they come to a super full stop at stop signs. It just hasn't gotten the programming to understand holiday behavior yet. Right, right, right. I mean, dude, you think it's just a matter of time. They need to get the computer programmers to update the firmware, right? Put the Lunar New Year pack in there. No, I get that human drivers probably make more mistakes on average. Like the rate of injuries with robo taxis is probably lower actually than the injuries by driver humans. But but is it lower than the injuries caused by professional drivers? If you take all drivers in general, which are just people who are drunk out on a Friday night driving their own car or reckless in every every aspect of their life, but like of taxis. What's the rate of crashing and hurting people? I'm curious about that. Yeah. Well, even in that cruise situation where that lady got dragged 20 feet, she was running her red on the pedestrian sign. But then they're accusing the cruise car. And I'm not saying right or wrong. The cruise car didn't stop quick enough because it dragged her. Yeah. Yeah, anyway, like I said, you know, she could have died. Honestly, if she died, they should not reinstate cruise because cruises with GM waymos with Google. And you trust General Motors more. You trust Google more technologically. Does does General Motors even got good tech in their cars in 2024? I doubt it. Ultimately, Andrew, what's going on? Like a car gets set on fire. Chinese New Year. Yeah. What the heck? Yeah, just it's not good. Yeah. That's my whole thing. I'm saying, listen, guys, I don't know. Hey, you know what? Both cannot be good. Both are true. Self-driving cars, not that great. Destroying cars in the middle of the street. Bad. Both bad. Do you think that Chinatowns could do a better job self-regulating? Because it's true that they weren't able to, like, I guess stop the people from destroying the car. But also Chinatowns are not like that. I mean, to get involved with destructive people as long as they're not attacking people, I mean, I see a lot of Chinese people just not being involved in that. Or not wanting to get involved. But anyways, guys, you let me know in the comments down below what you think. It's just another bad SF story classic. It almost feels like a meme now. Oh, SF is this way. The human versus robots elements and the V-Viver Vendetta elements. Yeah. This was not human on human, thankfully. It was human on computer. Anyway, guys, let us know what you think in the comments section below. Until next time, we're the Hop Hop Boys. We out. Peace.


In our e-lecture, the phoneme 1, we define the phoneme physically as an abstract head term of a family whose members, the alophones, satisfied two central criteria. They must be phonetically similar and they occur in complementary distribution. Functionally, the phoneme can be defined as the smallest linguistic unit capable of distinguishing meaning. Thus, there must be some sort of discovery procedure for phonemes. So, we will first look at this discovery procedure and we'll then use two examples to extend our physical view by the phenomenon of free variation. Now, let's look at the discovery procedures first. The most well-known method of phoneme discovery is the method of setting up minimal pairs. That is, words whose sound structure is identical except that they differ in one speech sound. Normally, minimal pairs are thus very short words. For example, the two words over here represented by these phonemes ban versus pan. Let us illustrate this discovery procedure, the minimal pair procedure using the word Paul as an example. As you can see, Paul has been described narrowly here with the diacritic superscript H to signal aspiration. And the final alveolar lateral which is velarized. Now, let's look at some possibilities. Well, the left column over here wants us to define minimal pairs by replacing the initial element. So, let's take the following words. Paul may be tall, mall. So, you see the use of different phones in this initial position immediately changes the meaning of the words. Paul is something different, tall and mall. But what about this one here, where we say Paul. So, I'm just dropping the aspiration component, Paul versus Paul. Well, you would say this sounds a little bit strange but you can understand me. So, we have all the blue variants as distinctive phonemes whereas the green one doesn't change the meaning. So, the aspirated bilabial plosive and the non-aspirated ones must be members of the same phoneme. Let's play the same game with the internal vowel. So, here are some variants. For example, peel would be one or a diphthong here, pale. Maybe if you wish in British English, pearl. Well, and then, well, let's use Paul again but this time we raise the vowel slightly and instead of saying Paul we would say Paul. Paul versus Paul. Paul, Paul, not pale but pole. So, a slight raising of the vowel. Well, this wouldn't change the meaning really. We would sound a little bit awkward and we would run into difficulties with the contrastive word pole instead of hall. So, we have to be careful but nevertheless I would say the raising of the or to or would not change the meaning. And finally, let's take the last segment. So, here we would have something like pause for example or in British English without a post-vocalic R we would get something like pork. We could get something like port again without a post-vocalic R. And what about this one? If we take the palatalized variant and instead of saying Paul we're saying Paul. Well, the meaning wouldn't change but we would sound awkward. So, in other words, the green ones are variants of one phoneme whereas here we have different phonemes. So, this is how the procedure of setting up minimal pairs works. It is a suitable method of phoneme discovery. Once we have found the phonemes within a language we can define the actual variants that is their alophones. Let's take another example. Here it is. It looks a little bit strange but what I want to do is I want to focus on the bilabel plosives in this example. Well, let's first of all look at the actual realizations. The bilabel plosive in Paul is aspirated. Paul. The bilabel plosive in stop is incomplete. It involves a sort of absence of closure. So, we do not say stop but stop. And this little diacritic here is responsible or denotes the lack of aspiration, the incomplete plosion. Well, and the internal one in spoke is neither incomplete nor aspirated. Well, if you don't believe me that this is an unaspirated per, listen to the following example which I took from the glossary of the virtual linguistics campus. Now here we have several words with a very similar phonemic structure. They start with an alveolar, voiceless alveolar fricative sir and then a plosive follows. Now by gradually cutting off the initial fricative portion in these words, in a word like spin for example, you would see that the second phoneme loses its identity. What is normally regarded as a voiceless aspirated plosive consonant seems to become unaspirated. If not voiced, the more portions of the S are cut off. Well, let's listen. Spin, spin, spin, spin, spin, spin. Let's stop here and now close your eyes and listen. Spin, spin. Well, you see aspiration is gone. So it's no longer a true voiceless plosive. Okay, let's return to our example. So we have three possible variants of a bilabial plosive. Let's move them down a little bit. They are phonetically similar. They're all bilabial plosives. Well, and they are distributed complementarily. So the first one occurs before vowels as in Paul. The second one occurs after this phoneme after an alveolar fricative, a voiceless alveolar fricative. And the final one occurs before a morph boundary. Well, this is a typical example of a phoneme where we have three alophones. Well, and the symbol chosen for this phoneme is of course the standard Roman character. Let us now look at another example where we focus on the realization of orthographic R. That R is a phoneme in present day English can quickly be shown. In our sentence, Ron carried a present. You can contrast Ron with Don or with gone and immediately you get different meanings. So the R must be a phoneme in its own right or take present in which case you could contrast it with a pleasant. Okay, so the R must be a phoneme. Now let's look at possible variants. Well, in the first case, we have an alveolar approximate in Ron. We also have an alveolar approximate in carried and we have a slightly devoiced alveolar approximate in present. Well, the contexts can be quickly defined. The devoiced variant occurs after p as in present, t as in trick or k as in crack. Whereas these two can be found in any other position. Well, that's not the end of the story because especially in British English there is a variant. In Ron, we would always say Ron, we would use the alveolar approximate but between vowels. Here in this context, we could optionally use the alveolar flap as in carry. So we could say Ron carried a present. This phenomenon is referred to as free variation. Free variation is normally bound to particular contexts. But sometimes free variation may not just be a contextual variant, a distributional variant, but it's also a matter of social or dialectal variation. For example, the use of R and interestingly it seems to be the R that is especially affected by this phenomenon of free variation across languages. Here are some examples. Well, this is the cognate comparison component in the language index of the virtual linguistics campus. Now, you can select a number of words which we have recorded. Let's take the word for three because that contains an R in many languages. And let's now first of all move down to German. So here is an example from Franconian. Drei, clearly an alveolar trill. Let's now compare that with a speaker from Berlin. Drei, where the speaker clearly uses the uveolar trill. And just a few kilometers further down. Drei. Another speaker uses the voiced velafricative. And if you go down south and select a speaker from southern Germany, you get the alveolar flap. Let's now play the same game with Italian. In Italian, you would normally have the alveolar trill as a standard variant. However, there are speakers who simply don't use it. Let's compare two speakers from Brescia. Drei. Clearly an alveolar trill. And from the same town. Drei. A speaker with a variant, the velafricative, the voiced velafricative. Our final example comes from English. Now, my first speaker is someone from West Virginia. Drei. Who clearly uses the standard variant of American English spoken in the United States. The retroflex approximate three. Now, if we compare this speaker with a speaker from Canada from Ontario, then we get something like this. Drei. Clearly, not a retroflex approximate anymore, but an alveolar approximate. Now, the situation is different if we go to India and listen to a speaker from Thane Marashta. Drei. Clearly, apart from the vocalic differences, an alveolar flap. So, these variants then show that free variation may be an effect of different dialects. And also, it may be sometimes an aspect of social class membership where you try to use a particular variant of the realization of this R. As you can find out in social linguistic studies, especially the ones carried out by William Lobov in the 1970s. Well, let us summarize. The phoneme is the smallest linguistic unit that can distinguish the meaning of words or morphs. The phoneme can be defined as a family of speech sounds with an abstract head term. So, here would be the abstract head term. And the symbol used for the abstract head term is normally a Roman character. If we run out of Roman characters, then we take other characters taken from other alphabetic writing systems. The family members, the alophones, should be phonetically similar. They should occur in complementary distribution. And sometimes, and this was illustrated in this e-lecture, they have variants that stand in free variation. These variants may be contextually defined, but they can also be dialectal or social variants.


Measuring the Rising Seas, presented by Science at NASA. Earth is enveloped by a vast ocean that covers about 71% of our planet. Even tiny changes in this body of water can add up to enormous effects on climate and weather. The Jason-3 satellite, launched on January 17, 2016, will allow scientists to continue a 23-year record aimed at studying Earth's ocean to better understand and forecast our climate, months and years into the future. Jason-3 project scientist Joss Willis of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California says, Jason-3 will measure the rising oceans and change the climate for the next five years. Jason-3 is the latest in a series of satellites that accurately measure the height of the ocean surface dating back to the launch of Topax Poseidon in 1992. Next came Jason-1, launched in 2001, and then Jason-2, launched in 2008. Jason-3 will be joining Jason-2 in orbit. For Jason-2 and Jason-3, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, and the European Organization for the Exploration of Meteorological Satellites, or UMETSAT, joined an international partnership with NASA and the French Space Agency, CNES. Willis adds that from one mission to the next, we want to overlap our Jason data and stitch it together to give us a consistent story of how our climate is warming and our oceans are changing. Global sea level rise measured by these satellites is one of the clearest indicators of how humans are changing the climate. This line of data collecting ancestors have all measured sea surface height using a radar altimeter, an instrument similar to weather radars here on Earth. Here's hard works. The satellite emits a pulse of radar waves that travel down toward Earth, bounce off the surface of the water, and return toward space. Once the satellite detects the return signal, the altimeter calculates the round-trip travel time. The longer the round-trip, the lower the waters are below. The height of the water also tells us about how warm the waters may be between the surface and the bottom, because warm water expands and causes a rise in sea surface height. The opposite is true for colder waters. Ocean temperatures are making big news right now as a massive band of warm water builds up and moves from west to east across the equatorial Pacific Ocean. This phenomenon, called El Niño, causes abnormal weather patterns around the globe. Ripple effects could include rainy and cooler weather in the southern United States and a chance to put a dent in California's current drought. A reverse of the El Niño phenomenon, called El Niño, is associated with the drought in the southwest. Willis says, El Niño is here. We have launched Jason III right into the biggest El Niño since the turn of the millennium, and the Jason data will allow us to see whether it goes quietly or slingshots the Pacific into a huge La Niña, like the last big one in 1998. The Topex Poseidon and Jason satellites have a history of measuring climate change and monitoring El Niño. Soon, Jason III could be making history of its own. For updates from the Pacific and around the world, stay tuned to science.nasa.gov.


الحمد لله ، كامل الان في عهد الحجر ، والحجر قادر ، وحجر أمامنا ، ومجمعنا ونحن في الحجر العالم ، مرسلت بهذه الشركة ، ونهر هذه المشاركة وكلا أننا نعلم ، هذا يعني أن يجب أن نكمل فعل ذلك ألطا featuring the types of holidays that we attribute to Islam directly that there are two, those are few, some Click-up which ends at Ramadan once Ramadan is complete once we conclude our fast and then the Eid of Abha the Eid of the sacrifice فرصة مُباركة مُبارقة ووهدك للعالمين إندي تأكل الناس يمتل الى مبارقة ويجب ان يقوم بشأنناس مكتب مبارقة ووهدك للعالمين ويجب أن يكون بشكل بلسطة والبقاء إنسانه فيه العيات المقابل تراني هناك خطوة أو مرحلة في مرحلة أبرانية ومن ثلاثة مكانة أمينة فأجل من أجل من هناك أنها سيئة ومدينة وليلاك على الناس يتبقى منفطة أمينة سبية وأعطوا الله أن يقوموا بموارد مدينة المنصبعة يمكنون أن يعملون هذا هذا الشخص يستخدمه الله لأي أصدقائه الله سبحانه وتعالى يسأله لأي شيء هذا ما نعلم في القرآن نعلم ج nostalgia نتبر t نران سماعيد قد يالدع بكالنسان فما يتبرط يوكبك ولذهب يبعو يبعو يوكب يوكب يبعو يبعو يبعو يبعو يبعو يبعو يبعو يبعو يبعو يبعو ينفذون أمام المجموعة الامام بأمر إبراهيمي فمن أمام المجموعة ، يكون هناك سطحة في عام المنظمة أن يكون إبراهيميين تخصيني أمر أمر أمر سطحة إبراهيمي وإبراهيمي يأتي أو يجب أن يجب أن نفعل المدينة من المدينة الآن سأعتقد بأن الكثير من of us would know ولكن أعتقد أنه مهم للتكلم عن ماذا يتكلم عن أبراهيم؟ ماذا يتكلم عن أبراهيم؟ لأننا already know that from whom I said out أنه هو أبراهيم كل أبراهيم المتكلم عن أبراهيم امام التكلم وم الإجتماعين ، يؤذى على مضوط المحمد أن شاء الله وإمكاننا يلتصف اللحظة نعلم عن أبراهيم وأننا نمتح نرى أننا نمتح إن أي أجل من نظر كل حال ينتهي لو أننا نفعم وأننا نفعل سلطة وأننا نفعل جو واقع وعراقا للمحمد وصليت عراق إبراهيم وعراقا لإبراهيم نقوم للمحمد ونسأل الله لديه بسرعة ودعه أزراد للمحمد وأنه يكفي المحمد فقط وضعه إلى محمد المحمد يعني أنه يكفي المحمد وليس يحدث ونعرف أن محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم وخالصه باندوان وما هو المشكلة مع تبادي برهيين? في المحاره الله سبحانه وتعالى فى صفرهين وسوف تبقى ركبه يقوله وإِسَدْتَرَى إِرَا وِرَا الْقُّهُ بِهَيْمَاتِنْ فَأَتَلْ مَمُونِ ومتنة محمد أو أتذكر when your Lord teached Abraham with words and he fulfilled them or with commandments and he fulfilled them قال إني جاعيله كده الناس في الماما. God said to him, I shall make you an executor for all humanity. قال على مضوريتي أبراهيم رسالة will you do the same for my progeny اللهم قال لا ينعب أحدي أبراهيم My covenants does not apply to the wrongdoers and does not apply pride to the tyrants to the oppressors is it to say that yes it will apply to the progeny but not all of them some of them will be oppressors some of them will not act right but others will and so those who fulfill my commanders for the medicare demands as you have them may also benefit from this covenant and so every single messenger that come after the barheem were among these progeny were among these progeny now the scholars they differ about what exactly is meant by these words that Abraham revealed of the kinimax and the kinimax in the Quran there are two types of the words that Allah says in the Quran and we usually translate these words and so some say one type of the kinimax or referred to as the kinimax of Qadiria the ontological words of God that is to say that Allah has decreed that His decision to will certain things is to exist or to allow certain things to exist that these are from Allah's kinimax referred to them as Allah's word because things happen by God by simply Him saying he says be and they become they happen kinimax of Qadiria another type of the kinimax are called a kinimax of Shaheen which we translate as the ontological words of God that is to say these are words that when Allah says He is expecting or prescribing something for this reason in particular humanity so in the Quran Allah says in certain places things like that and the word of God has been prophesied that I shall indeed fill up hell with the jinn and mankind altogether this is what we call the ontological words of God but in other places Allah سبحانه وتعالى will say things such as but and the words of your Lord have been perfected in truth and in justice that Allah سبحانه وتعالى He speaks in truth and He denies the truth and He prescribes and forgives that He is being just as well and so what were these words that the great man has fulfilled in different levels some of them say that it was a reference to the rights of Hajj and Manasseh the rights of the Hajj itself making Allah سبحانه وتعالى walking between Safa and Marat 70 times going to Nidam and so many Marats doing Tawaf with your father slaughtering the Ram among other things something this is what is a reference so the great man did that he fulfilled it and Allah سبحانه وتعالى because of that He said in Nidam I am going to make it a leader make it an Imam specifically for other people for all the men other than say rather know the Kenyamans are reference to Fahad that there are such a cleanliness that God has prescribed for Abraham that he fulfilled some of them relate to the head and others other parts of the body so the reference that in my name was he was told to make illusions that he should win his nose and he should brush his teeth regularly that he should turn his mustache especially the part over the lips so that when he eats that the hair doesn't go to your mouth but there are other things too that he said that he should shave his pubic hairs right do things like this which relate to general cleanliness and God took it he should circumcise himself that Allah سبحانه وتعالى gave him these things he fulfilled them and he doesn't make Allah سبحانه وتعالى he says in Nidam he recommended that's what he meant I shall make you an example for all humanity a third opinion is that the Kenyamans are reference to at Islam in general submissive surrender of the signs of the future and so these signs are about 30 different signs and they pertain to certain actions which are connected with the description of the believers in the Quran so for instance in Quran in Surat At-Toba also about in Barah and one verse الله سبحانه وتعالى he says تاة يدون العالي دون العالي دون الساك يدون الساك يدون الساك يدون الآن يدون المعروف والناهون والحفظون يدون في بلده then he said one attack is done those who repent so one of his characteristics one of his characteristics of Barahin when he was one repentant he returned to God when he thought he did something wrong and he returned to الله سبحانه وتعالى his missionaries العالي دون he was a devotee he was a worshiper of God he served his Lord which is another characteristic العالي دون he craved his Lord he showed him gratitude that he was a sack of food but a sack of food was some interpreted as being among those who taxed it regularly عالي دون those who buy the body what sad you do those who prostrate to God and I don't even know about my own those who enjoyed it were ناهون ونهونك those who did wrong were حفظون and those who keep or keep they guard the boundaries of God they guard the boundaries of God but meaning they don't tax the boundaries of Allah سبحانه وتعالى and when we read the Qur'an and this is a side note that if you really want to know what answers to this song are non-religional of those which are are eligible then all you have to do is when you find all of the injunctions listed if there's a verse that comes after it and says those are the limits of God so that's how to do it to do that transgression then that's one clear sign for those who are non-religional in the Qur'an so I think we should leave some of the characteristics of Islam and then in short المؤمنون حب افتح المؤمنون that the believers have succeeded الذين هم في صواته يخافعون those who are humble in their prayers that the Qur'an was humble in his prayer he said that the Qur'an he should pray four arka'as per day that was in Sharia four people in his prayer per day and when he did he was khas'a that he was a humble and focused in his prayer الذين هم في صواته يخافعون الذين هم على لضمه يخافعون those who turn aside from empty conversation that they hear people speaking useless talk he turn away he just walk away from them الذين هم في صواته يخافعون الذين هم على لضمه يخافعون الذين هم على لضمه يخافعون الذين هم على لضمه يخافعون الذين هم على لضمه يخافعون هم على لضمه يخافعون الذين يتمنونوا من أبناء كبيراً ومن أي أحد منهم يحملون خطئة فالأخبار، المشاركة يستطيع لذا يترك في المشاركة يجب أن تكون في مشاركة نوعية يجب أن تجد التصريقات ونجد جميعاً المسلمين ومسلمات ومأمبناء أجل منهم امام المشاركات وصاديه صاديه وصاديه حد الشرطة والتفكير والذي يجب عليها من كل هذه التصريقات إبراهيم عيسة أسام يجب عليهم في شخص أسام وصاعدة صدر إبراهيم إن إبراهيم كان أمة القادة بإلهي حليفة وما كان ملاوتو يكين شاكنا بيعقونك إشتراقوا وحجاكنا إلى خلاص المستقين أن إبراهيم كان أمة إبراهيم was a nation قادة إبراهيم a devout nation to God حليفة and he was an individual who naturally cried away from my dollars he cried away from my dollars so this is why he cried and the stories in the Quran about إبراهيم he looked at the sword and he saw it disappear and he was saying that this is my lord and it's a theory that says that it can't be my lord and then he saw the moon and he said this is my lord and he said if my lord does not guide me then I will be amongst those who are amongst and once he saw the sun he said this is my lord this is the greatest of all of them and once it said as well this is the greatest in the directing of the one who originated the heavens and earth حليفة so this إبراهيم was a حليف ما كان إبراهيم يجاب البيئة ما كان حليفة المسلمة ما كان من المسريقين that إبراهيم was a Jew not a Christian rather he was a حليف and he was not a solidary حليف and he was a teacher about إبراهيم but then a final opinion on this issue what does it mean what are these words that إبراهيم fulfilled and of course it's possible to say that إبراهيم fulfilled all of these things that إبراهيم he fulfilled the rights of the Hajj إبراهيم that إبراهيم that إبراهيم was a factorized by all of these things described in the Quran in the Quran in the Quran he was described by all of these things but also it is said that the words will be some amendments that he was expected to carry out related to one when الله سبحانه وتعالى told him to leave his people after they attempted to kill him it was also when إبراهيم he still after he defeated with the tyrant of his time إبراهيم and he output it in and exposed himself to being killed from himself it also was with regard to إبراهيم's endurance in the face of being cast into the fire by his people was included in his father because of destroying and breaking their idols it also was beat down but it also was something related to when God had told him to to to entertain guests when they came to this home so it was an obligation for him to do so he entertained them as in the story when the angels came when they came to destroy the the came to they passed by إبراهيم's house prior to that إبراهيم didn't entertain them as if they were human guests and also most importantly related to إبراهيم being texted with his son and one, once his son had reached an age where he could go and help him be with his father and walk with his father he said to them إبراهيم إبراهيم إبراهيم والربنان خارجالِ النايةolarياتي احمد الله هل غروقه ب excell أن يسيده تعرفامهم لأنه وج陷أنهم فائد في المكان لكن هذه 해야 خطر ان편 many of us have already left while some of us will be leaving very soon وضع slowsian بشكل جيد ، فلن نتحدث عن هذا النهار ، وفقاً ، سنغطيه في التصميم للتساعدة من المشاهدات التي تحدث عنها ، وما يجب أن نقول ، المجموعة المجموعة ، تصميم بشكل أكثر من المجموعة المجموعة ، وكذلك يجب أن يجب أن يساعد السلطة إلى المدينة التي يجب أن نتعرف أن لا one can ever become a prophet لا one can ever become a prophet اما هي محاولة يقول وَلَلْتَ مُنُّهُوَةُ مُبْتَسَبَةَ وَلُرَا مْقَاطِرِ خَيْرِ عَلَى أَخَضًا المدينة cannot be acquired but regardless of how significant your stridings may be when it comes to spiritual discipline you won't become a prophet in any fashion a law sometimes ought to be used as a people and in one narration contributed what considered to be a Hadith Climsy and we go it's a bit dispute but played by Muthani in one of his books he says that Allah سبحانه وتعالى يقف رأيين يقف رأيين لما اقيته لما تخطفت صليلا he said, oh, you know why I chose you as my friend now you may be my friend and he responded or he said to him because I noticed that with you giving is more beloved to me than taking giving is more beloved to me than taking this is why I chose you as my friend but there's this situation there's this idea of becoming a problem some people will be married from another and a lot of it certain people need a certain physical capacity that others don't have and it does so because certain people those type of people are fit for certain types of tasks and others are not fit for the second task women are fit for certain types of tasks that men are not men are fit for certain types of tasks that women are not that we find natural problems and also social problems among the married and the young but ultimately when we look at stories like the story of Braneen and his family that we need to reflect upon then and see that as the standard or a standard to travel and usla the word usla I mentioned in the Quran only three times two times in relation to Braneen and his people only once if once is in relation to Muhammad and his family and so their example is one to follow their example of being committed to the relationship between themselves and their community that they're very committed to to the agreement between themselves and their community that Allah has to be confersed before everything before everything before everyone Allah confers and we struggle we try to to never compromise that relationship and when we fall short we seek Allah's forgiveness and we try to reform our behavior and I think that those are some of the takeaways of the things that we can reflect upon in addition to what we've already heard and so we ask Allah to forgive us that He guide us that He grant us assistance that He allow for us to become more able-hazard in our way of living which also means becoming more محمدان in our way of living because if I'm telling you that I'm not only a Nazi but I'm not even telling you that I'm not even telling you that the those who are at most for most deserting of Abraham and those who follow him and this topic and those who leave a lot with them this is what Allah tells us so may Allah make us for محمد some of Allah's will some of Allah's will some of them we ask Allah that He practically save journey and return to the prejudice that He help them to focus in their in their crisis and to forgive them sins and bring them back to this place back to home and to their families as people who are in this state some of them who as they were first born that it is about sin we also ask Allah that He grant forgiveness and mercy to all of those believers who have passed recently including the brother of our dear brother brother توكيد حندي who is the brother of Waleed حندي we ask Allah that He grant mercy to them and to them and to them is along with everyone else who may not really be aware where we ask Allah to grant forgiveness and make their grace according to the Paradise and not this and that God إن الله سبحانه وتعالى يصدون عربي ياربي ياربي ياربي ياربي ياربي ياربي ياربي ياربي ياربي ياربي ياربي ياربي ياربي ياربي ياربي ياربي ياربي ياربي ياربي ياربي ياربي ياربي ياربي ياربي ياربي ياربي ياربي ياربي ياربي ياربي ياربي ياربي ياربي ياربي ياربي ياربي ياربي ياربي ياربي ياربي ياربي ياربي ياربي ياربي ياربي ياربي ثم أرجع على سبيلات رحيم وعلى آل سبيلات رحيم والهارجين إنك أحيين ومجين أبواه مفرد لنا بالإخواني أن الناس يبقوننا بالضبان وراجع أجل يقول يا ربنا لدينا هانا وربنا لدينا فارغوش رحيم أبواه هم لدينا إننا نسألك الجنة وماري قرروا إليها من طول المعمل ونقول لك من النعب وماري قرروا إليها من طول المعمل


Hey everybody, I'm Lance Gwakie, and today I want to talk about why I think strength work is so important for people who are struggling with various functional exercise or mobility or pain problems. So my story today is I have a guy that I've been training with a spondylolisthesis. That's when you have a body of a vertebra and the spine of the vertebra and basically it's broken off. The spine is broken off and they become kind of two separate pieces here. So this guy has been very diligent with his exercises and he is great about doing them. He's very easy to queue and all of that is a necessary first step. So the first thing that I want to emphasize is if you are working with somebody who is, you know, struggling with, you know, kind of an outlier issue, right? Something that can be very challenging. You have to first make sure they understand what you want. And so this guy's back curve is pretty excessive. So the first thing that we need to do is teach him how to make it. Oh my goodness. That was a terrible pelvis. First thing we need to do is Okay, this was just okay. We need to teach him how to make it a little. Oh my goodness. You guys, what is going on with me? Let's just restart. Do you know where I'm going with this yet? He's got his pelvic bones and he's got a really excessive curve both in his upper and his lower back and then he has a head, right? And eyes on the front. This is posterior. This is anterior. Now, what we have to do is we have to reduce this curve. We have to bring the lumbar spine backward. We have to bring the thoracic spine forward and we have to lengthen him upward, make him taller. And so that might look something like this. Maybe we have a little bit less of a curve in the pelvic bones and then maybe something a little more reasonable throughout the rest of the body.  Cool. So in dealing with spondylolisthesis, I need to make sure that he can achieve something like this. This is absolutely necessary first. And so you might use something, some sort of exercise, that looks simpler, that isn't so fatiguing, that doesn't sound much like exercise. But eventually you can create stronger changes if you load them more, if you make them stronger in those positions. And so what I've been doing with this guy, he's been working with a great trainer that I know and she has done so much good work. And he's been working with a great physical therapist and they've all been doing really, really good work. And I love working with him because he understands the language that I'm trying to speak already. He already knows kind of how to get in the right spot. I just need to help him a little bit. And so now my role here is to say, hey, now that you know what to do to get here, we need to make sure that you are getting as strong as possible in these good positions. And so for example, I had him today. He did this hands and knees exercise. There's a foot. I'm gonna make that a knee. And if he normally wants to let his low back drop, really hunches up or back and let his head kind of fall downward. What I wanted to do was, again, this is just the same drawing we just had over here. I want to take the lumbar spine move it backward and take the thoracic spine and move it forward, just like that. And so that's what we tried to do. Here's by the way the ground. So, you know what? We got to erase this too because that changes. So I want to make sure that he can fully tilt his pelvis this way. We call this a posterior pelvic tilt. And in doing that, I want to make sure that he can round his back in general. Not without or not without.  Okay, this is not necessarily just a long-term goal. It's just what I need to see to make sure that he's doing okay. There's an elbow and there's some hands there. Okay, so this is now our new goal, but this is not it. This is not the only thing. I need to make sure that he has a really strong contraction holding him there and that, ladies and gentlemen, is your ab muscle. So we have the transversus of dullness really, really deep that wraps all the way around everything like this. And then we have crosshatching, which is internal and external obliques like this. Let me have this six-pack muscle here in the front. All of those are pretty important. I think people overuse that six-pack ab muscle a lot and don't really get the obliques. And the transversus subdominus quite as well. But if you get a spine that looks really good like this drawing, then you're probably feeling pretty good about it. You don't need to be super paranoid about whether or not they're feeling those abs. You just say, hey, keep that position. Maybe even get greedy and get a little bit more of that position.  And this is me having him exhale. And so that helps cinch everything down.  Now there's a smaller lung there now that helps bring these muscles from being way out here and kind of not really on. Way out here and not kind of not really on to way back here and really, really tight. And so that helps me load him. Now if his knee and hand are on the ground, he doesn't have a very long lever here. There's not a whole lot to oppose. I want to as quickly as possible transition him into doing this with a nice straight leg. And that then becomes a plank. Now, if he loses any of this, if this head tries to drop down and if this hump comes back, then we stop. We have to stop. We just say, hey, you got to go back to putting your knees on the ground, right? Because you can't demonstrate that you can do this with your legs straight. But I want to get you to do it with your legs straight as fast as possible. And once you can do that, you know, sometimes you can still do that in the same session. Maybe you just use that as a teaching tool you say.  You can tap them. That's a really good time to use a tactile cue.  Keep that away from the ground while you straighten these legs out. And then maybe they get something that looks really good. And then you're like, okay, good, good, good. Maybe two months goes by and they're starting to get stronger. And you're like, yeah, you're really getting good abs. That's nice. Now I want to make it even harder and you make them straighten their arms way out here. And so now we have an even longer lever that they have to do this plank on. Makes the plank a lot harder, puts a lot more torque from gravity onto these ab muscles. Now I need to keep the integrity of these ab muscles. Let's get rid of some of this here. And then you can start to look really good. What's great about this is now I need a more forceful contraction in those muscles. And I've taught this person's body and neuromuscular system how to be really strong here. They've spent X number of years for the guy that I work with, maybe, you know, almost 70 years going through doing stuff where it encourages, oh my goodness, my pelvis is are getting so bad. It encourages this hyper curve of the spine, right? They've done a lot of things that turn on their back muscles and make their pecs really tight. Right? So we need to be equally vigilant in making them reverse those positions. So it's okay to make sure that your people are in the right position. But what I would challenge you as a trainer to do is to find ways to load them in that position, to get them as strong as possible because if you are strong in those positions, they're going to last a lot longer.


Keep going 35 steps. Keep going under them green growth. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going You see him? Yeah, that's him. That's him. Got him Oh another one get him. Got him. I'll get yours you get mine


There is nothing like the joy of Jesus. When he gets deep down in your soul, brings joy, brings laughter, and it makes you feel super happy. And we're so happy you're joining us on Hope Today. I am here with Tom and Amy. And I'm super excited about our guests that it's coming up today, Tom. I am too.  But we're gonna hear another one today. You know, comedians, they're there to make us laugh. We all love comedians, right? We wanna laugh. Today we're gonna talk to a comedian who's success in the clubs didn't translate to success in his personal life. Jeff Allen, who you may have seen on Cornerstone a time or two, joins us today to share his journey from a messed up to a meaningful life. It's gonna be, that's actually the subtitle of his book, My Journey from a Messed Up to a Meaningful Life. It's going to be a great time. All in favor, say aye. I mean, God, it doesn't, that's what God does. He takes up our messed up lives and he makes them meaningful. I love God stories too. We overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony. I'm excited to share my God story tomorrow also. But guys, it's so important to take time and to laugh and to dig in deep to that fruit of the spirit joy and to get that oil of gladness for the spirit of heaviness. We gotta switch some things here today, Sydney. You know, one thing I always think about when I'm going through a really rough time, a hard time, there's nothing like I'll call my best friend or I'll be like people that I love and sometimes we'll just have a moment. Sometimes you just have to laugh about the situation because it can be so ridiculous, so at the top. You're like, really, this is happening in my life but we just encourage you today. You know, I know a lot of us are walking through heavy times. A lot of us have these tough burdens but can we just encourage you today is that as you're watching the show, as you're about to listen to Jeff Allen share his story and his testimony just to take heart and just knowing that God is walking with you through it. And sometimes I really feel like God sets up things in our lives or I'm like, all right, Jesus, this is really funny, what you have going on, but I know that you're working all things together for my good. And you know, as always, we have our prayer line that is available at<PHONE_NUMBER> because you know, we are always here for you. So at any moment part of the show and you wanna give us a call and you need a little pick me up and encouragement, we are here just for you. You know, I think of two verses real quick. Laughter, do it good like a medicine. And in your presence is fullness of joy. You know, that's like, what did C.S. Lewis say? Joy is the serious business of heaven. That's the thing that we're really supposed to be about when we're talking about the things of God. A couple of Wednesday nights ago, I was teaching at church and I mean, I had this whole agenda about being led by the spirit of God. And I just got tickled. I mean, and I don't think that's happened to me in a long time, but I was just, everything I said was funny. I mean, I was so funny. I was laughing at myself. I was laughing at other people. I was watching a lady sitting there like, be serious. You know, this is serious business, the kingdom of God. And, you know, little did I know that I would be going through something rough the next week and that oil of joy was just so soothing and good. So maybe today you need to tap in to that joy and let God lift that heaviness off of your life.  It's a wonderful thing. You know, one thing I like, one of my spiritual mentors we were talking recently, it just is like, when you were talking, Amy reminded me of this, is you know, we know the story of David and Goliath and he says, oh, who are you? This uncircumcised fellow seed. But she said something that hit me. She's like, I really feel like he was like laughing and making fun and like poking fun. Yeah, mocking the enemy. And I think today that maybe in your situation you need to laugh at it. There's been times literally I will be in the mirror or I'll just be talking. I was like, who do you think you are? And I just start laughing. Like there was recently, I just started laughing at the devil. Like, ah, like who do you think you are? And like, and so maybe you need to do that because I just feel like laughter is a weapon. It's a weapon that we can use when we're going through fierce tribulations and storms. So just, just laugh it away. That's absolutely true. Well, for years one of the funniest men in America, he wasn't laughing. He was crying on the inside. Jeff Allen was a comedian with a lead role in that tragedy. Born in a tough working class Chicago family, Allen fell into substance abuse at an early age. And his problems didn't magically go away when he got married. But in his darkest moment, an unlikely encounter with the gloomiest book of the Bible. Wait till you hear about this. Set him on the path of salvation. Let's hear his story today. Jeff, welcome to Hope Today. Thanks for having me. Hey, we're really glad to have you. Well, let me, let me ask you, the book is called Are We There Yet?  You know, why'd you choose that for the title? And maybe you could just launch into the, you know, your kind of search for, for being there. Well, I, you know, it was interesting. The first title I thought of was an examined life that was off of Aristotle's quote. An unexamined life is not worth living. This is my version of an examined life. But then I started thinking about the recovery journey, which is what it is.  You have no idea. I walk into those rooms. I was scared because I, you know, I got to quit drinking and, and drugging.  And you have no idea where you're going. You don't know what the destination is.  And I likened it to, you know, in, in recovery, it's the equivalent of your parents calling to a rest area and then taking off and leaving you the keys to a car. You don't know how to drive. And, and you have no idea where the destination is. So it was a, I, I was so broken when I got into those rooms. I just did what they told me to do. And the first thing they told me to do was pray. And I said to what I didn't believe in God, certainly. And that was really kind of the hardest thing for me in the, in the entire recovery process was, cause they used to call it a higher power. And I go, look, if I'm making up a deity that makes me delusional, doesn't it? I mean, can you actually make up a God? And then how does that work when life happens?  What are you talking to? You made this thing up. It doesn't work. It's a nice conversation thing to have. But again, when life happens, you need to know that there is a higher source of, of to connect to that you'll be all right. You'll be okay in the midst of all of this. So that kind of started me.  Courage to change the things I can in wisdom to know the difference. And over time, you learn to realize that it takes courage and wisdom to get through this life. You know, and certainly Proverbs talks about that from Proverbs one all the way through, you know, embrace wisdom and push folly to the side. And then the other prayer was what they call the third step prayer. God, remove me from the bondage of myself so that I may have better do, I will take away my difficulties so that victory over them, others may bear witness to their strength, their power and their way of life. I had no idea what I was praying. I was just told to pray it.  And I was not a poster boy for AA. I'm the reason it's an anonymous program. Yeah, less people look at me and think that's the end result. I was an angry bitter jaded foul mouth human being. I couldn't get my head around why anything mattered at all.  I was constantly in my head, you know. And everything that happened in my marriage got me deeper into the process of recovery. The one night I tell about this in the book, I stood on a stool in my kitchen and they yelled at my wife until she fell to her knees and sobbed and I put my son to bed that night. He goes, daddy, you win. I go, what do you mean I win? He goes, you yell, mommy cries, you win. And now one of my prouder moments as a husband or a man, and I went downstairs and I told Tammy I'm gonna get some help. There's, this isn't right, the way I behave. And that really kind of set me when I got to the therapist's office. She said, do you read? I go, no, I've never read a book really. And she said, well, here's a book. She handed me road less traveled. And that kind of got me addicted and hooked on self-help. But there were a couple of things I got out of that book. One, life is difficult. It's not an easy thing to live. And then the other thing was that conflict, true love cannot exist until conflict enters a relationship. There's no such thing as a loving conflict-free relationship. And that was resonated with me because conflict resolution in my home growing up was pretty simple.  So you learn pretty quick to flee. I did anyway, to flee. Anytime there was a conflict, my fight or flight instincts are kicked in. So every relationship I had, when conflict entered, I'd left, that was the end of it. And Tammy was my first long-term relationship. And we met in November. I asked her to marry me in April. She got pregnant in May. And all of a sudden, I'm a father of two kids and a wife in less than six months. And about a year later, I could, you know, shockingly, I'm in a therapist's office. And she says, tell me your story. And I told her, she goes, so what do you hear for? I said, I feel, I'm insane. I feel like I'm absolutely insane. And when I told her what my life was, she goes, well, you took on a lot of responsibility. But that's how dead I was as a human being. I didn't realize what I was taking on was a lot of responsibility. I just thought it'd be a neat idea to be married. So even when you kind of went, you went through the recovery program, but you were still, you weren't, you hadn't met Christ. You were angry, bitter, disillusioned. Where did Christ enter into your story? How did Christ enter into your story? Well, as it always works with God, he puts a person in their path of your life. And I met a guy, I heard about a guy that was doing comedy. He was a multimillionaire businessman. He was just out doing comedy clubs as a hobby. I don't know, anyway, it certainly wasn't for the money. And I heard he was an avid golfer. I was an avid golfer and he could get me on golf courses like Augusta National. And as soon as I heard that, he became my new best friend and I'd never even met him.  I wasn't gonna go to a church to hear the gospel. So we were out on the golf course, we're working together and he starts talking about some things. And I'm trying to figure out how to accumulate wealth now. We had divorce papers filled out, we're bankrupt financially, morally. And anyway, he said something and I said, that's great, where'd you read that? I was something like, you know, in order to enjoy the creation, you have to have a relationship with the one who created it. And I go, wow, that's kind of cool, where'd you read that? He goes, it's biblical. The relationship part, having a relationship with God. And I go in, oh, okay. Couple holes went by, said something else. I go, that's great, where'd you read that? He goes to the Bible. And I said, well, stop it with the Bible. And he goes, what do you mean? I go, who actually reads the Bible? I mean, really? It's a little archaic, God, God's word, all of that.  And he's backs up. He says, what's in the Bible you don't think is true? And I said, I don't know. I never read it. Then he goes, well, then you're not really an atheist.  You know, and so that was the start of our relationship. And he went on to explain it's the most influential book in the history of the world. The entire Western civilization moral foundation is built on the foundation of that book. You can't even crack it open. The most influential book in the history where you can't even open it up and look at it. So that's just lazy and moronic. And it is. So that was the start of our friendship. And before we left that week, he signed me up for some Bible study tapes from his church in Texas, Tom Nelson's church, that in Bible. And I collected those tapes for about a year and a half. And in the meantime, Tammy and I were getting a divorce and we ended up about 10 minutes from filing those papers at the courthouse and she changed her mind. And we went home. And before she left, she took the kids that summer. She goes, you're draining me.  We're losing the house. We're losing everything. If you don't want to do comedy, you don't do it. But for God's sakes, you got to find something. I can't make the money you make. The bills are set at what income you, I can't even imagine. All she wanted to do was have a husband that was available occasionally. And I mean, her expectations by now were low enough to where I think most men could meet it, but I couldn't even meet that. I just wanted to know why anything mattered. And she gathered up all those tapes and threw them at me and said, you're the list of these things or I'm throwing them out. So anyway, I left them on the living room floor, a big pile of Manila envelopes. And she took off with the kids and I didn't think she was going to come back at the end of the summer. So anyway, I opened one up the one day and the first tape was Ecclesiastes. And when I heard meaningless, meaningless, my heart leapt. I go, yes, yes, yes, yes. It's all meaningless. It's pointless. There's no reason to hear. But you got to finish the book. Solomon's conclusions were pretty simple. Life without God will have no meaning. Without meaning in your life, there's no purpose without purpose to your life's suicide. And I dove into that book. I listened to about a year and a half's worth of Bible study tapes in about three months. And I finally went to Texas and my buddy, Phil, who said, when I met you, God gave, put it on my heart. You were looking for something if you found it. And all I could think to say to him was, if Jesus is not who he claimed to be, then I'm a dead man. Solomon was right. I'm not going anywhere else. And that was basically my prayer to Jesus.  I'm a lousy father. At this point, I wasn't even a very good comedian. And anyway, the transformation was immediate. Immediately, Tammy must have seen it. She came home with the kids and I told her, I was a born again Christian. She goes, what does that mean? I go, I really don't know. I just read it somewhere. You know, I don't even know what it means. And I love that. I love people who don't know what happened, but all of a sudden God showed up. So tell me then, where did it go from there? Well, I'm here today talking to you only because of that relationship. Tammy was raised by Christians who were not very kind. They were Christian on Sunday and they were abusive on Monday through Saturday. So her initial reaction was almost a recoil from it. But within a couple of weeks, she was coming to church with us on Sunday. I told her, I said, look, this is my journey. You can hop in anytime you want. I'd love to come to church with us, but you don't have to. And she developed her own relationship with Christ after all of that. And if you want her story, I have to ask her, but she, it's interesting. We moved, I call them in the book, geographical purers. We moved every two years, probably in our marriage early. We moved like three or four times in eight years. They're called geographicals.  You naively think that if we pack up everything and move to another location, it'll get better. And it is for a little while, but so it's no coincidence. We've been in the same house now for 27 years after giving our life to Jesus. And it is, I don't think it's a coincidence, you know? So what was your new relationship with comedy like? Your comedy had sort of been based in a lot of, seemed like a lot of anger and things like that before Christ. What did he do with that? It's just, again, joy. It's a different heart delivering it. I don't know how else to explain it because the material didn't change much. You know, I still, I still got to pick on her. It was interesting when I started working churches, you know, my first Gayther event, I worked for Bill Gayther and he, somebody came to me the second day and said, hey man, did you mention you'll love your wife at some point? And I go, they don't know that. And they go, well, you hit her kind of hard. So the next day I'm doing some breakout show and I'm leaving the stage and they're applauding and I remember, oh, I got to go back and tell everybody I love her. So I go back and the first time I start talking about her and what God's a blessed I am to have such a wonderful woman in my life, she stuck with me through all these hard times. And I start crying.  And anyway, I walk off and Tammy looks at me and goes, what the heck was all that? I go, I don't know, baby. But I just, maybe I should not talk about this anymore. But anyway, people started hiring me to tell the story and I kept crying through it. And she would call me, she go, did you go Jimmy Swaggered last night? Did you go full blown cry? You know. But it was an emotional thing to realize what Jesus has brought you through. Hey, that's some good crying. So let's just say somebody's watching right now and they're like something about their story. Maybe they've never read Ecclesiastes. They don't know about that. What would you say to someone who says, hey, somethings that Jeff is saying is something I need? Well, you gotta, I don't know if most people, most people who are in a bad place isolate. That's like the worst thing you can do is be alone. And for me, recovery began when I started servicing others. And that's the one thing about the 12 step program. You get in right away. You pick up chairs, you make coffee for people. You serve others. And somebody gave me a trash bags one day and I said, what are these?  Pick up trash. Just go out and then here's the hard part. Don't let anybody see you. Cause your pride will kick in and you'll start thinking it's about you. It's not.  Isolationism is the disease of the 21st century. They got us convinced that we should stay in our homes and look at our devices, but get out and be part of a community. And I cracked that book open. It's the most influential book in the history of the world. I'll open it up. That's right. Don't let that book just sit there. But Jeff, thank you so much, Jeff Allen. Thank you for sharing your story. The book's called, Are We There Yet? My Journey from a Messed Up to Meaningful Life. I highly recommend it. Jeff, thank you so much for sharing with us today. Thank you guys for having me. God bless you. Well, great story. And we're gonna have a little bit more about God's story for you when we come back during our 21 Days of Prayer. Stay with us. Every now and then life gets the best of us and we need a reminder to keep calm and trust God. Simple but striking, the Keep Calm and Trust God box of blessings provides messages of reassurance to help carry you through tough and challenging times. These small cards fit into the palm of your hand and will turn your focus to the one who is in control of everything. Inside you'll find 51 colorful double-sided cards featuring a combination of inspirational scripture verses and faint-based quotes. Add it to a Get Well basket or use it to encourage a teacher, family member, or friend, or save it for the time you need encouragement. Be sure to ask for the Keep Calm and Trust God box of blessings when you give today. It's our way of saying thanks as you encourage others by providing life-changing Christian television through Cornerstone TV. Call us at<PHONE_NUMBER> or give at ctvn.org slash donate. I just loved the interview and really the honesty, how well he communicated where he was at as a man, which I've heard is very unusual for men to be able to clearly communicate, you know, where they were at and what was going on. He will be in Pittsburgh. October the sixth, you can go to word FM for all of the details. I was laughing out loud myself a few times, but you know, we are on day nine of our 21 days of prayer. How cool that we get to come together for 21 days and pray about specific things. So today we are praying for healthy communication and selflessness. Now do not check out on me. We all need to go to the next level in this and our scripture for today and for this moment of prayer is 1 Corinthians 13, four through eight, otherwise known as the love chapter. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast. It is not proud. It does not dishonor others. It is not self-seeking. It is not easily angered. It keeps no records of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices in the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres and love never fails. You know, when the rubber meets the road in any relationship, in any communication, love never fails. We can always walk in love. If you really want a life change, like you're having significant relational issues, communicational issues, this is what I have done in the past when I go through those seasons and I honestly should probably do this every day. Amy is patient, Amy is kind. Amy does not envy, Amy does not boast. Amy's not proud. Just take love and put your name in there and just say, I'm a person of love. I have received the love of God in my heart and it is easy for me to walk out that love walk in life. Cause I'm telling you guys, you will come upon a situation where it is like ding, and there is no resolve. And you might think, well, it's not fair. They're winning or whatever. Like he said, I was on a chair and yelling, that's not winning. Winning maybe is saying, you know what?   Sydney, it's not easy, but we can do it with the help of the Holy Spirit. Yes, you know, I like love this whole topic about talking about healthy communication and love. And actually that scripture is in our bedroom. So when I wake up every morning, I see it and I'll do I read it every day? Absolutely not. I'm telling of myself, but I just think about, we're talking about love. Love is a person and that person is Jesus. And we cannot do love without Jesus. And I think about the Greek word for love agape, agapeo. It is this selfless, sacrificing love. Even if you look in the Hebrew and the Old Testament, it is ahava, it means to give. So love in God's definition, I think in the world, you know, I've watched so many rom-coms and all these things and it's mushy and gushy and it's doing all these things. No, it's about giving yourself away. It means loving that person when they're at their worst.  What did he do? He gave his son Jesus. And we are to model the way that we live our lives and love through that. So I know it can be difficult. Love is not easy. I think a lot of people we like say like, oh, no, love is hard, hard, hard, hard, hard. But when we lay our lives down, when we seek the Holy Spirit, when we pursue God, He will give us the strategies. He will give us the ways that we are able to go and love one another. Tom, what are your thoughts on love? Well, I like that you put the positive spin on putting your name in there, Amy, because usually I get to Thomas patient, Thomas kind, Tom does not have a Tom. And about that time, I'm convicted completely of my wretchedness, my wretchedness before the Lord. But God is faithful to us that no matter what we have failed in, no matter what we have blown it in, He is faithful, and He's faithful to you today. He surely is faithful.  I was giving myself some love. Well, we are so grateful that you joined us for a hope today, and we just really pray that as you've been watching this show that you'd be encouraged that God loves you and goes for that love to someone else because they need it today. God bless you, we love you.