Ever Wonder Why: Why Do I Keep Going Back?

Jason (0:01)

Thanks for joining us for this week's Real Life Church Podcast. We'd love to know if God is using this ministry to bless you in some way. And if you'd like to share your story or get connected at Real Life Church, you can visit us online at livereallife.com.

Jason (0:18)

How many of you wanna hear a life change story this morning? Wanna hear a story today? All right, you guys, come on out. Come on out. Let's give them a good hand clap, everybody. Come on, give them a good hand clap.

Russell (0:32)

I'm trying to make it.

Jason (0:33)

No, you're gonna try to make it this time? Don't worry about it, bro. No big deal. Why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself, introduce your family?

Russell (0:40)

This is...

Jason (0:41)

Yeah, I got you. I got you.

You're on. You're on.

Russell (0:45)

This is my beautiful daughter, Daylen, my son Lennox, his best friend, Adrian, and my beautiful wife, Jackie, and I'm Russell.

Jason (0:52)

Come on, let's give them a good hand clap. All right, why don't you tell them a little bit about what was life like before you came to Real Life Church?

Russell (1:07)

Slow. Heavy.

Depression. Closed heart.

Jason (1:20)

So how was that affecting your family?

Russell (1:24)

Generational.

Jason (1:25)

Okay. Generational curses operating in your family then?

So tell me how you heard about real life. Tell us that story.

Russell (1:40)

My son was playing baseball across the street over here, practicing. My wife, I was working out of town, and I came back in town, and she said, Hey, I want to join a church.

A different one from grandpa's, because the kids go with grandpa, and me and my wife haven't been going. So she said, Hey, we want to look into a new church. I said, All right. So I went back out of town for work, came back, and she seen this on the way home. She took a different route on the way home and seen this church. And we scheduled up a kayak trip July 3rd, and we went kayaking, and I ran into a... I was playing a boombox.

Jason (2:19)

How many know what a boombox is?

Come on. Kids are like, What's that? What's a boombox?

Russell (2:26)

I had a boombox on plan.

Jason (2:27)

Let's go.

Russell (2:28)

And a guy walked up to me and he said, I'm hanging out with you today.

Jason (2:32)

Just some random guy you never met?

Russell (2:34)

Never met.

Jason (2:35)

Random guy kayaking says, Hey, we're hanging out today.

Russell (2:37)

We're hanging out with you today.

Jason (2:38)

Awesome.

Russell (2:39)

Cool. We got on the river and we started talking.

Next thing you know, I said, Hey, you want to come over and join my family for July 4th party?

Jason (2:47)

Must have been some boombox. I mean, we started canoeing and now we're at the house for a party. I love it.

Russell (2:54)

Yeah.

Jason (2:54)

Let's go.

Russell (2:54)

Yeah. So he came over and him and his wife brought some dishes over and we shared with all of our other friends and family.

Jason (3:02)

Really good.

Jason (3:04)

Strawberry cake.

Jason (3:05)

Strawberry cake was good. Praise the Lord.

Jason (3:07)

It was good. Sorry to interrupt your story. Go ahead. All good. Sorry.

Russell (3:10)

And he said, hey, what are you doing on Friday? I said, nothing. He said, you want to go to the tractor pulls in Lebanon? I said, absolutely. So we went there and we started watching tractor pulls. And then all of a sudden he looked at me because we were about to leave. And he said, what are you doing Sunday?

I said, nothing. He said, come to church with me. I said, just send me the address. He sent me the address. We looked in the car, and this was the address that my wife was going to be.

Jason (3:49)

This is an incredible story.

All right, so, you came. All right, so tell us what happened when you guys came.

Russell (3:57)

So, of course, we brought the kids, and Adrian wasn't with us yet at the time. The first service was about forgiveness, and I felt like you were talking directly to me. And I had two people in my life that I needed to reach out to to forgive them, even my parents, I needed to forgive them for things. And my two buddies' names were Jason and Greg. Of course, your name is Jason. It is. And Caleb's dad sat next to me at the service, and he'll be here at the third service. And he sat down next to me, and he said, how you doing? Good morning. I said, good morning. My name's Greg.