The Best & Worst of 2025: Life, Liberty & Lessons Learned

[00:00:02] Speaker A: Welcome to Life, Liberty and Equipped Podcast. I'm Greg Davis, founder of NeoMag and a firm believer that life is worth living boldly. Liberty should be used for good, and we all have a calling to be equipped to pursue it. Every week we explore what it means to live with intention and carry the tools and mindset that prepares for whatever comes. We'll dive into topics around the freedoms we cherish, the gear we trust, and the skills that equip us. It's more than a podcast, it's a mission. Life, Liberty and equipped to pursue it. Coming to you live on the NeoMag YouTube and Facebook accounts and we'll be pulling your live comments into today's conversation. If you're listening to the recorded podcast, we go live every Wednesday at 1pm Eastern and we'd love to have you join us in real time. And don't forget to join the NeoMag Insiders club. It's free to join and gives you access to exclusive episodes, special discounts, behind the scenes content, and more. Just head over to neomag.com and sign up through the pop up on our site. While you're here, please subscribe to the channel, follow us on social and leave a review for the podcast. It really helps people discover what we're doing and keeps this community growing. And joining me today is my co host. Come on, turn on my play. Here we go. Welcome to the show featuring the incredible trio of Tib, Nate and Michael. The men who when combined, form one of the most impressive forces of wisdom, integrity and drive you'll ever hear behind a microphone. They bring a balance that's almost unfair. Almost their calm strength, steady leadership and relentless ambition and infectious energy. Together they elevate every conversation, sharpen every idea, and somehow manage to make deep insight feel effortless. They're the kind of team that makes you smarter just by listening, inspired just by showing up and motivated long after the episode ends. These aren't just hosts, this is a powerhouse partnership. [00:01:57] Speaker B: Are you ready for this? All right. Episode 23 brings you the man, the myth and the engineer who somehow designed the Neo Mag and somehow dropped a 10 point buck with a bow in his rookie season. Yes, Greg Davis. He is a worship leading clay, crushing bourbon sipping, cigar smoking GMC command and outdoorsman who cheers for hockey fights like a prayer request. He's a husband, father, friend, boss and the only guy alive who can worship on a Sunday, win on a Saturday and invent something world class in between. Ladies and gentlemen, Neil Maggs. The Greg Davis. [00:02:31] Speaker A: Wow. Thanks. [00:02:31] Speaker C: Look at that he's got his own intro now. [00:02:33] Speaker A: Look at that. Tidded one for me. I think you were gone that day. Almost did one for me, too. [00:02:37] Speaker C: That was good job Tip. [00:02:38] Speaker A: That's very kind. Thanks, guys. [00:02:40] Speaker B: Thanks. [00:02:41] Speaker A: Look at us loving on each other. [00:02:43] Speaker C: How nice. [00:02:44] Speaker A: So much love. [00:02:45] Speaker B: All the love. [00:02:46] Speaker C: How kind. [00:02:49] Speaker D: So I think this is our last live episode of the year, correct? [00:02:53] Speaker A: It is. [00:02:54] Speaker D: It's kind of sad. [00:02:56] Speaker A: It is a little bit. [00:02:57] Speaker D: A little bit. Oh, my TV's acting crazy. Sorry. [00:03:00] Speaker B: But the sun is shining and it's not cold outside. [00:03:02] Speaker A: Yeah, it's definitely hot air. [00:03:05] Speaker D: Not too bad. [00:03:06] Speaker A: Everything's melting. [00:03:08] Speaker D: Yes, it is. [00:03:09] Speaker A: Tib, you want to head to the next section? The. [00:03:11] Speaker D: Yeah, I was just about to. So we are going to dedicate this entire episode to the best and the worst of 2025. [00:03:20] Speaker B: We are sharing our best and worst moments in life. Sharing the most brilliant or worst display of humanity in the Liberty segment and the equipment that shined through or failed us this year. [00:03:30] Speaker C: Then wrapping up in the Faith and Fuel segment with each of us sharing a verse that got us through it all and continuing in the Advent season. [00:03:38] Speaker A: So grab your favorite beverage, break out the popcorn, because we got a good one for you today. [00:03:49] Speaker D: Life isn't just the big moments. It's the everyday joys worth protecting. Family, friends, and community. Let's talk about what makes life rich. [00:03:59] Speaker A: Yes, we're going to bring you the best and worst today in each of these segments. And, you know, we. We. I asked each of the guys to kind of prep their own stuff. Bring your best and worst of each of these things. Frankly, this first segment, each of us could easily fill an hour with the true best and worst. So we're just going to kind of go with what we're going to share with you guys today because it's been a year. But, Nate, how about you? What's your best horses here? [00:04:23] Speaker C: Well, so the best is I did tag out hunting for the second year in a row on opening day, which was really pretty cool. The worst was contributing to having my parents put one of their. My favorite dogs down. She bit one of my dogs. And that was the onus to having her put down, which was pretty, pretty big bummer. [00:04:43] Speaker A: When was that? [00:04:44] Speaker C: This fall. She bit my dog. [00:04:46] Speaker A: And I think I remember hearing that. [00:04:47] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, she bit my dog. And then my parents had to make the decision whether they were going to or not. I wasn't going to force the issue. It's their decision. And. But we were concerned about her particular with the kids, not with other dogs. Per se, but just with the other kids. And my dad decided that he didn't want to have to worry about it with her being around the kids. He didn't want to have to put her away every time grandkids came by, which they come by a lot and he didn't want to just deal with all of it. And she was getting older so they decided that putting her down was the best option. Unfortunately, the onus was she bit my dog. So that was the thing that put it over the edge, which was really quite unfortunate. So we had a last couple weeks with her before the deed was done. But it was a bummer. [00:05:35] Speaker A: Yeah, it's too bad. So yeah, you're man, you're two for two. Just wiping out. It's a good thing you aren't. You'll stay in Pennsylvania with a 308 all season long. [00:05:45] Speaker C: No, I could kill everything. All of it. [00:05:48] Speaker A: Just everything just wipe out. [00:05:51] Speaker C: That's right. There would be none. I could have bought a third tag. I didn't. I don't know if I regret that or not because I would have had opportunity from my spot. But yeah, I don't really need more. I am hunting again this weekend, but if I get one, it's going in one of my sister's freezers. It's not going to mine. It's just hunting for the family at this point. So we'll see what happens. So I'll get one more hunt of the year, but I'm not. This is casual. This is just for fun at this point. So we'll see what happens. [00:06:17] Speaker B: Yeah, well, there's a freezer in there that you guys need to stock a little meat in this season. [00:06:22] Speaker A: Yeah, we need. I might need it because I'm actually heading back out today. So as Michael kind of teased, I got one of my highlights for the year. I just, I just did this past Sunday I had a good friend invite me out to. Out to his property. Put me in a enclosed bougie, bougie heated. I had a buddy heater in there. I'll meet a 6 inch subway sub. Sipping on coffee, my feet up, listening to a Penguins game, watching, you know, watching out for deer. And man, it was. That was nice. That's a way to hunt right there. And then, you know, kind of, kind of longer story short, I put a, I put an arrow into a 10 point buck. A good looking 10 point about 8 yards away. I ran probably about 40 yards or so, which is actually, I'm gonna kind of get into that a little bit in My gear segment. But yeah, just a great looking buck. I did have to. I did have my, my bow drawn back for probably almost two minutes because there was some dough came in first and I was like great. I'll. I'm super happy taking a doe and I had to wait for them because they're like three does stacked up right next to each other. I probably could have taken two or three of them in one shot but I didn't want to. So I was. I was waiting for them to separate and I think that was a guide thing because God's like hold on, I got something for you. Then according to my eyes see another deer come up and I see it's got a nice rack on it and I'm like nope, that's my new. That's my new target. And he made his way over eventually almost two minutes of holding my bow back and put it down and yeah. First, first year of my life. Beautiful buck. Super super grateful for for Doug you guys. I recommend going check out created outdoors. He's kind of got his. His own kind of hunting show and social media channel stuff like that. He's. He's had going for quite a while and and I give give him all the credit for. For getting me in that situation. So that was very cool. But I also didn't want to like make that's my main best part of the year because that's kind of. Kind of selfish. Honestly one of the best things was we got to go to Colorado. I took my family out to Colorado this year and just unbelievably beautiful. I can't put it to words. Pictures and videos I took just don't come close to doing it justice. And I actually, actually shed a tear on the back deck of our a frame that we stayed at in the mountains when it was time to leave because it was just painful to leave. This is just the most beautiful place ever. So you know, just exploring we got to do with my family and you know, memories I got to make it was that the trip was because this is the other cool thing this year was my 20th wedding anniversary and that's why we did that trip. So there's a lot of really cool things. Honestly I could go on and on with a lot of really cool things that happened this year and a lot of that followed my. I'm going to kind of put in a nutshell my, my worst part of the year which really was kind of the first quarter. Just kind of spare a lot of details. Business for a lot of business owners have has been tough the last couple years, and this first quarter was. Was tough. And I spent a lot of time worrying. Very little time sleeping, a lot of time praying. There are tears. There was. There's just. There's a lot of stress and worry wrapped up in that in that time. And I might get into. Into this, you know, kind of the second part of that, when we get to the faith segment. But I basically ruined the end of last year and first quarter of this year with stress and worry over stuff. God has shown himself to be very faithful in his plan, and that's a big thing I've learned. Like I said, I could easily fill. Easily fill an hour with both these things. So those are some of my highlights and the lowlights of the year. I'll be Michael. [00:10:40] Speaker B: Yeah, I think we could all go into, like, a long spiel on. On. On so many different aspects of just this year alone. 2025 was. I think everybody starts with the aspirations to, like, this is gonna be the year. We're gonna crush it. We're gonna do everything well. And then everything hits all of a sudden, and it's just one thing after another. So one of the hard things that I ran through was just finding a place to live and getting settled in, and that. That. That kind of took a toll for a little bit. And when I sat back and thought about this for a while, it was like, what is the worst moment? And what was the best moment? And as you said, not to be selfish. And I put in here even my best moment. I'll get to there in a second. But, you know, it goes right into the segment of faith, and I'll cover that with our faith segment as well. But the hardships that I faced this year didn't stop. They weren't just one thing. They were multiple consecutive moments, consecutive happenings. That sucked. Like, you had to bear it, you had to deal with it, and you had to contend with the moment and handle it as such. And sometimes it wasn't the way God wanted us to handle it, or it wasn't the way I wanted to handle it, and sometimes I handled it the way I wanted to handle it. It was completely opposite of what I needed to do, but it was a learning lesson. So I sat on this for a little bit, and I was like, what was the worst moment? And I. I don't think there was a worst moment. I think for me, this year was a lot of trials and a lot of tribulations and a lot of learning. And to caveat that, to bring it to about the best moment. The best moment for me when I sat back and I was like, well, what was the best moment? I saw that you put the vacation. Nate, you know, tagged out on his deer. You got a deer. And I'm like, I love hunting. I was like, I went on an amazing vacation with my mom, which is probably the first actual adult vacation, like, as an actual grown man that I took with my mother and paid for things and. And did things and got to do things I wanted to do. And that was an amazing time because I had the time to create the moments. But then I sat back and reflected and said, okay, what was really the best moment? And I was like, what was it? Business and growth. Because during times of struggles, business picked up. It was like, man, I need it. And it was like going right to the faith segment. I was like, man, you know, I threw up a quick prayer like, lord, I need this time. I need. I need this income. I need to get this stuff done. And it was just like the next day or that night, you get an email. And things happened to tie these all together. The worst and best moment, one of them was I got injured. My back is still. I'm continuing with it now. But the best moment throughout this year for me was seeing everything that we all went through, and we still showed up. Like, we still came to the office. Sick kids, sick business, struggling, taking on more tasks with the company, taking on side jobs. Everything that we did. The best moments were spent with. With you guys and with my family, because I almost blacked out in the office. You know, I collapsed, and I'm screaming Nate's name across, you know, a closed door because I have a sauna in my bedroom or my bedroom in my office. It might as well be a bedroom. It's so warm and cozy. But you guys were there. And that was probably the best moment for me this year, was seeing that no matter what we went through, good, bad, ugly, and then the best, we had a laugh, we had a story. We had somebody to vent to and somebody to be with. And even the times that we were outside of us and with our, you know, blood and with our family, and it was like a text. It was like the moment that you're like, man, everything is just down in the dump. But get a text, you're like, we're going to the hockey game, you know, on the state. Or like, I got this deer, or, you know, a story from one of you guys. And that, for me, is the best for. For 2025 was the learning, was the Growth was the challenges that I thought were impossible at the moment. And now looking back at it, it's like, well, I'm glad it's done. But we got through it and we did it and we did it as a team. And I must say that that part that I put in here was being settled at home is like, I am. I'm feeling settled. There's still things that I aspire for, and there's still things that I want in this. In this world and in this life, and still things that I will accomplish on my own. But I feel at home. Like, I wake up and it's like, I got to get out of bed in frozen weather. No, it's like, well, it's cold outside and I don't like the cold weather, but it's like, I going to go hang out with the guys at the office. Yeah, like, I'm going to go sit down in your office and talk about your dear story. And yes, we took 30 minutes of the work clock away from it, but we still finish our task at the end of the day. Or then I go into Nate's office with a new gizmo or new gadget every other week and I'm showing him something right. Or I'm following Tibs on his YouTube channel. And Tib, you're Insta famous, so you get the support from me, but I get so much love from a guy that's not even here. Like every single story post that I post, every single interaction or anything from a guy that lives thousands of miles away, it's love, love, love, love, love, you know, and it's support. So that was the best learning moment for me, if I sit back, was the people that were truly there didn't do it for glory, didn't do it for anything. It was just like, well, we all have a job and we have to be stuck with each other. Unfortunately, at times we might think. But the best moment for me in 2025 was with you guys, with my family and just living 2025. So, yeah, it took. Absorbed a little bit of time, but that was definitely when I put a. [00:16:07] Speaker A: Little thought into yeah, no, and I can. I can kind of caveat for that too, is. And I share this a little bit. We had our company Christmas party on Friday night and I actually didn't really have a speech planned or anything, but once I kind of started talking, things just started coming out. And part of it was just how thankful I am for this team. And like I said, everybody showed up every day and worked hard and Even though this year started off rough, even though, I mean, we're not back to crazy numbers or anything like that, but we've been trending up and that's, and to me, that is a huge win and that's proof of just how dedicated everybody here is to, you know, to their craft and to success and stuff. [00:16:56] Speaker C: So. [00:16:57] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm very thankful. Love you, Tib. [00:17:02] Speaker D: Well, like you guys, I have a lot to be thankful for and a lot of blessings. Working with you3 has been a blessing in many ways. If you guys, you guys don't know it, but you guys challenge and bless and help me in so many ways. So it's truly an honor working with you guys. And you guys definitely make me a better person religiously. Family man, so many, so many different ways. So I wanted to say thank you for that. I appreciate that. [00:17:36] Speaker A: You complete me. [00:17:40] Speaker D: The other thing I've tried to appreciate and enjoy more, more this year is spending time with my family and making memories with them. You know, my kids are about teenagers here. In a few years they're going to be off in college and you know that the time is ticking on how much time we get to spend with them. So, you know, going on vacation, making memories. Like even yesterday we had to go to a concert, like a two hour long concert in the school. And the school was like 20 degrees. It was freezing in there. Like, people were shivering. But, you know, there's only a couple more of those concerts I get to go to. So I was tired. I didn't feel like going to, it's 20 degrees. But I put a smile on my face and enjoyed it and because, you know, five years from now I'm gonna be dying to get to go back to one of those concerts. [00:18:31] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:18:32] Speaker D: The toughest part for me this year was losing my dad. Back in April, my dad passed away. Anybody who's ever lost a parent, there's not much you could say to describe it. It sucks. That's the only way I can think of describing it. Very different from losing my mom. I lost my mom when I was younger and that was unexpected where my dad was sick for a few years and different, I don't know which, I can't really say one way is easier or harder or not, but. Yeah, that's just never easy. [00:19:08] Speaker C: Yep. [00:19:09] Speaker A: Yeah, that's, that's tough. I'm, I, I'd actually, actually kind of forgot. Like I was trying to go back through the year. Like as we've been kind of as I was prepping for all these segments and really trying to think through the year, man. It's. It's hard for me to draw back any more than, like, I don't know, three months back in my memory. I don't know about you guys, but, like, I just kind of lose track of time after that, before that. So, you know, finding, you know, when I saw you mention your dad, I'm like, that's right. That. That was this year, and that was. Yeah, that. I know that was tough. You know, Nate and I got to come out and, you know, and be with you for that. And. And. And that's not. Not a trip that you ever want to. Want to take, but. But I'm glad that we could be there. [00:19:57] Speaker C: Not the reason I want to be in New England, but. No, it was a reason. [00:20:01] Speaker D: You did get a lobster roll. [00:20:03] Speaker A: We did get. [00:20:03] Speaker B: Oh, you guys got the lobster roll. [00:20:05] Speaker C: Get a lobster roll out of it. [00:20:07] Speaker D: Crappy trip. [00:20:07] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:20:08] Speaker A: And that pizza place we went to, it's pretty fantastic. That's pretty great too. I like to come back just on better terms. [00:20:16] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:20:17] Speaker D: Not for a funeral. Yeah, More lobster. [00:20:20] Speaker C: More lobster. [00:20:20] Speaker A: Less. [00:20:21] Speaker C: Less dead people. That'd be cool. [00:20:22] Speaker A: More dead lobsters. [00:20:23] Speaker D: More dead. Yes. [00:20:28] Speaker A: All right, well, let's. [00:20:29] Speaker B: Let's. [00:20:30] Speaker A: Let's talk about Liberty. I think it's actually gonna be fun. [00:20:34] Speaker D: Liberty isn't about what we can get away with. It's about how we use our freedom to serve. Let's explore what that looks like today. [00:20:44] Speaker A: So I challenge you guys to. It could either be something that you personally have seen or just has been in the headlines. But for our liberty segment this year, for. For season one, we. We. We try to chase after topics, you know, headlines and things like that that go along with how people are using their freedoms, their liberties to better their country, their family, and whatever it was. And so I've got a couple things that. That I have. I've got to witness firsthand. The first thing is of a friend of church. His name's Corey Weida, and Corey was paralyzed. He was like an all star football player when he was in high school, and it was like the last play of the last game of his senior year or something like that. [00:21:34] Speaker C: I mean, it was mid season, but it still sucked. He was a senior in his senior year, football season. He's my age. [00:21:42] Speaker A: Yeah. And. And he was. He was hit and he was paralyzed. And so he's been. How long has it been? [00:21:49] Speaker C: Well, I was just talking to Tim about it this morning, so it's not quite 20 years, but it's been about 17 give or take. So it would have happened like the October, September, October timeframe of 2009. So just shy of 17 years or 16 years. 17 years, something like that. [00:22:10] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:22:11] Speaker C: It's been a long time. [00:22:12] Speaker A: And he's got a beautiful wife, beautiful kids. He's, he's. He's been very successful in his, in his career, but with a lot of limitations. His wife has had to feed him, bathe him, help him the bathroom, like, just. He's able to do very little. So he came across some technology, I think it was down in Florida, to experience it at first and to try to just. I guess I'm explaining the best way, best way that I, I can. There are. Basically, it's a machine. It's like electronic machine that's hooked up to you like the both ends of your spine and it sends signals through and it's basically reconnecting. [00:22:55] Speaker C: Yeah. Nerves. [00:22:57] Speaker A: Nerves. And he's able to do that. He's able to feed himself now. I just watched a video yesterday. He's throw it well. But you threw a, threw like a tennis ball across the room. I've been telling him, I'm like, bro, you're gonna. I can't wait to go to the Guardians game when you throw out a first pitch. And that's going to be amazing because not long ago he, he, he could barely even move his arms. And so he lists all these things. He's starting to get feeling back. So one of the, One of the hard things is just being able to tell, am I hot? Am I cold? I don't know, you know, and trying to regulate your body temperature and just. There's so many challenges to his life that he is seeing in real time and quickly are being turned around and he's able to. I was talking to his wife, Kayla, this past Sunday, and she's like, I've had to sit next to him in restaurants to feed him since we've been married. And he's sitting across from the table me now we can look at each other and he's feeding. He's able to feed himself and he's able to just. He says that he's able to. He was able to feel the touch of his kid. Like, that started to make me cry when I thought about that. Like, he's able to feel his kid touch his hand and just unbelievable technology. And to go through something for that long and then be able to experience this has to just be just indescribable. So what's even cooler is he has. He and his wife and and some friends purchased this technology. They have a friend who, because it's a, I'm going to fail on terminology here, but basically, like, you have to have a practice in order to get this technology. [00:24:42] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:24:43] Speaker A: And so they have a friend who has practice who, who has allowed them to, to basically take a segment, a wing of the, of this practice and put this technology in it. It's called Arc Arc Adaptive Recovery Center. And there are multiple people now that are showing up, having this thing connected to them and they're able to start getting movement back. So they are taking this and they're spreading it out. And this technology is not cheap, but they've taken loans and they're going to be doing a fundraiser soon here to help, to help pay for this. And frankly, I was looking on the website, it seems like it was like a hundred dollars an hour to be attached to this thing. That seems incredibly cheap. [00:25:25] Speaker C: I don't know. [00:25:26] Speaker A: I, I, I, I don't know. Like, I just like in the world of medical stuff, well, to go from. [00:25:30] Speaker C: Not feeling anything and be able to not move to being able to move is a. Yeah, pretty big deal. So, yeah, I think I'd pay 100 bucks an hour. [00:25:36] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:25:36] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. So it seems like they're doing this very affordable and they're passing this on. And some of the stories that I've been hearing from Corey and Kayla about these other people that they're bringing in is just mind blowing. So I wanted to give them my top, most inspirational moment of liberty that I've heard and to know them personally and to be watching them go through it. I don't know, maybe like a month ago or so. He's always in the front row at church and, and there was one week I was leading worship and I looked down at his and his hand was up in the air. He's never been able to do that before. Like, I almost couldn't finish the song because I see Corey, who's never been able to do this before, be able to put his hand up and worship and was just. There's things that we take for, we take for granted constantly that it's really cool to see him get that back. So that's my top, top, most inspirational. And I'm gonna throw, I'm gonna throw. [00:26:46] Speaker C: Somebody under the bus here for. [00:26:49] Speaker D: I've been waiting for this, I've been. [00:26:50] Speaker A: Waiting for, for a moment. I just, I want to educate. I'm doing this, I'm not doing this to be, I really don't want this to come across as like being petty and stuff. I want to educate. [00:27:03] Speaker D: Okay, 50 Cent, here we go. [00:27:04] Speaker A: I want to educate the industry. [00:27:05] Speaker C: Not petty at all. [00:27:07] Speaker A: I want to educate the industry. I want to educate those who, who go to shot show and stuff. So real quick, I've been going to shot show since like 2016. Started going just, just on my own and then started going as NeoMag and having a booth. The last handful of years we've had a 10 by 20. We brought a team of people out. We have put incredible amount of time. [00:27:33] Speaker D: Money. [00:27:36] Speaker A: And everything into the show. And frankly, to be honest, we have not made, we've not made money. We're not able to track ROI and dollars on that. So it's been a really hard decision, frankly. For years we have talked about do we do this again? Do we not do this again? Because I'm not saying that there's not been highlights of being there and having a booth there. There have been opportunities that come up because of everything. But we decided to not come back as, as a company with a booth. So me and Tib are still want to go have meetings, meet people, shake hands, make connections. And so I signed up as a, as a intern as a Internet retailer because we at Neomeg retail other. Other people's products. It was 200 and it was, it was like 200 to do that. And two weeks later they reply, said, hey, you're in but thumbs up. We are going to re. Qual. Not reclassify. Yeah, reclassify you as a non exhibiting manufacturer. And that's now $2,500 per person. [00:28:55] Speaker D: Per person. [00:28:56] Speaker A: Per person to attend. To attend. Absolutely unbelievable. Astronomical. They're, they're basically pricing out people from coming. And I know what they're trying to do and frankly I don't, I don't really have as big a problem with this. They are trying to make it so that it's almost a no brainer to come as and exhibiting. [00:29:18] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:29:19] Speaker A: Because If I take four people at $2,500 a person, I might as well just get a booth and whatever. Which by the way, it still doesn't come close to what the actual cost is. [00:29:29] Speaker C: Even with. Of the booth. [00:29:31] Speaker A: Yeah. Of booth of, of shipping a display of bringing four people and feeding and housing also. Right. It's like even, even that's still a drop in the bucket compared to what, what all that actually costs. The thing that I think really tripped me up was that they would not refund the money. You either just lost it or you had to pony up and pay what they reclassified you as. And I went back and forth to them. And here's the reality of Shot show is it is not what it used to be. It is not a place where companies come to place orders for the years. Not a place. It is not the money making, the event that it used to be back in the day. [00:30:14] Speaker C: It is kind of people aren't unveiling products there anymore. No, people aren't placing orders there anymore. They come to make contacts and see celebrities. [00:30:25] Speaker A: Yeah, Wash up celebrities, frankly, a lot of them. And that's. And that was the thing that I was. I was very respectful and honest with them and said, listen, I've stood in this booth, I've been on the floor and I've had people come into the booth that are like a chiropractor, but they know somebody that has a gun shop. And so they came. We see washed up UFC fighters walk up, up and down the rows. We have. It's probably about 50, 50 with somebody that you actually want in the booth and somebody that you do not want in the booth. [00:30:54] Speaker C: We have waste of time, kid influencers from YouTube somehow show up to Shot show that have nothing to do with the industry. And they get in Shot Show. [00:31:03] Speaker A: Yep, they get in. However, I want to come and actually do business actually to connect all stuff like that. And they want to charge me 2500 a person and they want to not refund me after they reclassify me. So NSSF. [00:31:19] Speaker D: Sucks. So. [00:31:23] Speaker A: Yep, that's my worst, worst moment. You should be using your liberties, nssf. You should be using your liberties to better the industry, better your company, better the show. And you don't care about any of those things. You just care about lining your pockets. So that's my message for you. [00:31:41] Speaker C: Can't drop the mic. But there you go. [00:31:42] Speaker B: We could totally drop the mic. [00:31:43] Speaker A: I wish I had. I need a mic drop sound. [00:31:46] Speaker C: You got that sound? [00:31:47] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [00:31:50] Speaker C: There you go. [00:31:50] Speaker B: There it is. [00:31:52] Speaker A: All right, Michael. [00:31:53] Speaker B: All right, well, I'll kick it off with some humor. For the worst. [00:31:57] Speaker A: Starting off worse, I like it. [00:31:58] Speaker B: The worst or dumbest criminal. So being that I lived in Florida, I feel like it was only acceptable to use a Florida Man 1. So here we go. Florida man tries to evade arrest by cartwheeling away from police. [00:32:12] Speaker C: How. How else do you get away from the police? [00:32:14] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, irony of the story is he gets caught. [00:32:17] Speaker A: I haven't read any of this, but I'm going to guess that he was completely naked too. [00:32:20] Speaker B: I don't know. They. They excluded that part, but that was the first thing that I interpreted. [00:32:24] Speaker A: There's. There's no way that a Florida man cartwheeling away was not completely. [00:32:27] Speaker B: Or he had a gator. Like he's running around with a gator in his hand or something. So. And I did find one with somebod throwing gators in people's yard. So like getting mad at them. But this one's pretty good. [00:32:35] Speaker A: So it's a wild place. [00:32:37] Speaker B: In July of 2020, Orlando Police responded to an incident involving a 40 year old. I'm not even going to say his first name. Gianna Franco, maybe. I said that right. Fernandez. So Mr. Fernandez was blocking a truck by standing in its path and doing a number, a number they said of amateur gymnastic stunts. [00:32:56] Speaker C: So I feel like that means he was doing the worm. [00:32:59] Speaker B: I have no idea what he was doing Naked. [00:33:02] Speaker C: The worm in the street. [00:33:02] Speaker A: Naked in the naked worm seems like a bad idea. [00:33:06] Speaker B: So when police came to arrest him, this is a good one. They, they use the wording he wriggled. [00:33:14] Speaker C: Okay. Naked and doing the worm. He wriggled. [00:33:16] Speaker B: He definitely had some like KY lube or something. [00:33:19] Speaker A: There's definitely a lot of wriggling going on naked. [00:33:21] Speaker B: So he gets out of their grasp and quite literally starts cartwheeling away. Unfortunately for Mr. Fernandez, cartwheeling isn't the most efficient method of making a quick getaway. [00:33:29] Speaker A: That's true. [00:33:30] Speaker B: And he was captured again. This would be the last time as the floor man was cuffed in charge for both resisting and resisting arrest and battery on a law enforcement offer. You probably kicked him in the cartwheel. That's how you got away. [00:33:40] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:33:40] Speaker B: You know, or the worms. [00:33:41] Speaker C: Kind of epic. [00:33:42] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:33:42] Speaker C: Just saying. [00:33:44] Speaker A: You get uppercut by a cartwheel. [00:33:47] Speaker B: Naked cartwheel. [00:33:48] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:33:48] Speaker B: I should have just run him over. I made a flat tire. [00:33:50] Speaker D: But definitely need a video. [00:33:52] Speaker A: Got a video somewhere. [00:33:53] Speaker B: I figured that'd be a good worst humor one. So. [00:33:55] Speaker A: Yeah, it's a good one. [00:33:56] Speaker B: The best. This one was actually both of these were kind of challenging because if you kind of scour the Internet you can find some just terrible things and some amazing things. But. But this one I believe I had actually read or come across earlier in the year. And I wanted to read this one again because I love, I love what, I love just what it stands for. So the best for me this year for 2025 was community rescues North Dakota widow by harvesting her late husband crop her late husband's crop. So in North Dakota, a tight knit farming community of antler came together in an extraordinary act of kindness. After a Local farmer and Randy. I cannot say his last name. I'm going to let you guys take that one. So he, he died in a car crash earlier this year. So with 1400 acres of corn and soybeans still in the fields, his widow Cara and their two sons grieving and unable to manage the harvest, friends and neighbors organize a massive volunteer effort. More than 75 people from surrounding areas brought 12 combines, seven grain carts and 40 trucks to harvest the crop over just a few days, ensuring that the family wouldn't lose their season's work. Cara described the gesture as breathtaking, saying her late husband would have been proud of such support. [00:35:12] Speaker A: That's cool. [00:35:12] Speaker C: That is cool. [00:35:13] Speaker B: So I think that's amazing just to see the community come together. You know, the farming community, you know, gun community is kind of cliche when you say community. Yeah. But the farming community, I would think everybody works together, everybody takes care of each other. Ports, components break. But to see them take their time, dedicate and help others and, and to see that season harvest go to other people too, because that, that had probably thousands, thousands of people too. And it put food back on their table as well. So I thought that was an amazing moment. [00:35:42] Speaker C: Well, and if you really think about it, 75 people with that many, that much equipment, especially in a place like North Dakota, they're coming from really far away to do that. These people aren't coming from like right around the corner. You know, here in Ohio a big farm is a couple hundred acres. You know, out west this is 1400 acres. That's a lot of land. And everything is that big. So there's a good chance that these people are hours away way. [00:36:07] Speaker B: Wow. [00:36:07] Speaker A: Especially in a combine that only has top speed of. [00:36:09] Speaker B: Right. So you've got, you got tow it on a tractor and trailer. [00:36:12] Speaker C: Well, I'm just saying you've got that many people coming out, they're. These people came hours to help this family. [00:36:17] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:36:18] Speaker B: That's amazing. [00:36:19] Speaker A: And the expense, you know it as a farmer, it's not like you're raking in the money. [00:36:23] Speaker C: You're not making a lot of money doing this. [00:36:24] Speaker A: So the expense it takes in order to bring your combine and everything way you were taking a loss in order to help. That's. That's awesome. Love YouTube. [00:36:36] Speaker D: All right, so the, the spirit of mine is no excuses and I will never complain about running or working out again. I came across this article of an 80 year old grandmother who completed an ironman, making her the oldest woman ever to complete an ironman. Her name is Natalie Grabo. From New Jersey. And fun fact, she did not learn to swim until she was 59. [00:37:01] Speaker A: Wow. [00:37:01] Speaker D: Still. Still did an iron man. So for those who don't know, an iron man is 2.4 mile swim, which is ridiculous. That's a long swim. Then you bike 112 miles, and then after you do all that fun, you get to run a marathon of 26.2 miles. [00:37:20] Speaker A: Nope. [00:37:21] Speaker C: I'm good with the first two. I'm not good with the last one. [00:37:24] Speaker D: I could not swim 2.4 miles. There's no way. [00:37:27] Speaker B: 48 laps in an Olympic style pool. [00:37:30] Speaker A: I'll do the bike. You guys can run and swim. 80. [00:37:33] Speaker D: She's. [00:37:34] Speaker A: Yeah. That's insane. [00:37:36] Speaker D: Good for her. So, boys, no more excuses at the gym or working out, okay? [00:37:41] Speaker C: Speak for yourself about double our age. She's more than double my age, thank you very much. [00:37:45] Speaker A: You're. [00:37:46] Speaker D: You're. You're. You're the baby. [00:37:47] Speaker A: So I still have time to learn how to swim? [00:37:49] Speaker C: No, you're. [00:37:50] Speaker D: You're. [00:37:50] Speaker A: That's what I learned. [00:37:51] Speaker C: You're doomed. [00:37:51] Speaker A: I'm doomed. [00:37:52] Speaker D: Oh, you're doing Shock won't eat you. You'll be all right. And then my worst story has to be the P. Diddy one. That was just gross. The more I learn about that story, that is like the worst story of the decade. It's just disgusting. And, you know, the low morals attached. Within a crazy amount of money, this is what you get. So I've had some conversations about, you know, with the kids, especially not to idolize actors or athletes or singers or obviously not politicians, because I'm gonna go out on a limb and say the majority of them aren't the most moral people that we know in this world. So, yeah, that's. That was just disgusting. And there's more coming out, I'm sure. [00:38:41] Speaker A: Yeah. And just to be fair, across the board, there's also religious leaders that also, like, you have a high bar for them. And then they. You find out that they're, by the way, they're also sinful people and they also fall. So, yeah, just kind of warning all around. Just don't idolize people you can respect and learn from. But, yeah, that was a weird story. That's not weird. That was a cross story. All right, Nate, you want to wrap us up? Wrap us up in the segment? [00:39:20] Speaker C: Yeah. So the one I have is actually not even about people. Shocker. It's actually, to me, very exciting as an outdoorsman and somebody that is interested in having animals. So we actually have animals coming back to our State. So in a recent news article, they caught on camera for the first time in Cuyahoga county in 200 years, a fisherman in the county. Which. What is a fisher? It's this small, almost looks like a ferret type of creature. Which. What's that? [00:39:48] Speaker D: I said they're mean. [00:39:50] Speaker C: Yeah, but the. The cool thing about it, to me, actually, I had one in my backyard about five years ago, which is. Was odd. It was an odd thing. But the cool thing about it is we hunted them into essentially not extinction from the. From around the country. Right. But. Or, yeah, in the country, but in our area. But if you talk to local farmers, even in the last 50 years, how many. How much more prolific animals are in the area. Animals are coming back. And what I mean by that. So this is, in the case of this one, this is just a highlight of a particular species that is coming back to the area. So fishers are coming back. But. Right. Actually, in my own neighborhood, we have two bald eagles that are living in our neighborhood, which that's never happened before. [00:40:36] Speaker A: You see the. It's been going around. I think I saw it last night. There was a. There's somebody saw a bald eagle eating a goose on Lake Anna in Barberton. And. [00:40:45] Speaker B: Oh, wow. [00:40:46] Speaker A: And yeah, there's some pretty cool pictures of that. And so just. Yeah, we're seeing. [00:40:50] Speaker C: I mean, all of this stuff is starting to come back. I've got foxes that live in, which I know foxes are a little bit more. More frequent, but again, foxes are coming back. We have fishers in the area. We've got bald eagles moving back the frequency and seeing deer again, which I know some people would be like, well, that seems normal. Yeah, it is now, but 50 years ago, again, go talk to some of your local farmers, at least in the Ohio area, and talk about how many animals they saw growing up. They didn't see animals. With the exception of the animals that they were raising, there weren't animals. Bunny rabbits were about the only thing that they saw. So to have all of these animals coming back is actually really, really exciting. It means our conservation efforts are making a difference, that we are doing right by the environment. As much as the news would tell you differently. No, we're doing well by the environment. The animals are coming back. Things are coming back again. I've got bald eagles in my backyard now. They're also killing my chickens. But hey, you know what? I'll take that. You know, I'll take bald eagles for the price of a chicken. It's all good. So it's Exciting stuff. [00:41:51] Speaker B: They're big. [00:41:52] Speaker C: What, fishers? [00:41:53] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:41:54] Speaker D: Have you guys ever heard of fisher cat? The noise they make. It sounds after this. [00:42:00] Speaker C: Go look up. [00:42:00] Speaker D: Go listen to the sound. It sounds like a weird baby crying. [00:42:04] Speaker A: Huh? Oh, I have heard that. Yeah. [00:42:06] Speaker D: It's the weirdest noise we have. We still have quite a few fisher cats up here. [00:42:10] Speaker C: Gotcha, Coop. [00:42:12] Speaker D: Last year, actually. [00:42:13] Speaker C: Oh, that's cool. We're not cool. Probably not cool, but it was. [00:42:16] Speaker D: It was little. Little. Well, not that little, but it was. It was small. It looked like a big ferret. [00:42:21] Speaker C: Yeah. And then we also had a bobcat in the last year, which again, in some areas, you know, down in West Virginia, in the mountains, those kind of things are very frequent, but in our area is not. So it's just cool to me that as an outdoorsman, we're seeing animals coming back, they're more frequent. It's not things that we would not have seen even in the last 10 or 15 years are starting to become more frequent. We don't have to go to the zoo to see a fisher. We don't have to go to the zoo to see a bobcat. I don't have to go to the zoo to see a bald eagle anymore, even. I was talking to my buddy Eli last night, and he was talking about remembering as a kid, 20 years ago, 25 years ago, having to drive an hour away to go see a bald eagle's nest. And that was a road trip for his family. Like, it was a big deal. They all drove because everyone in the area knew about this bald eagles nest. And they drove there and there's a bunch of cars. They all just sat there and looked at a bald eagle's nest and the bald eagles flying around. Well, now they're just. [00:43:16] Speaker A: Yeah, I got one flying over my house. There's. There's a nest on Lake Dorothy, but. Yeah, by me. [00:43:21] Speaker C: So that's cool. It's just. It's neat that this is becoming normal again. They're coming around, and again, it just highlights that we're doing something right. So that's cool. [00:43:29] Speaker A: One of the things I've. [00:43:30] Speaker C: Actually. [00:43:30] Speaker A: One of the things I really enjoyed about getting into deer hunting is putting trail cams in. [00:43:35] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:43:35] Speaker A: And just seeing I have so much fun, I. I can't wait in the morning to wake up and see what's on the trail, see what's on the camera. I've seen foxes and coyotes and obviously a lot of deer and stuff like that, but it's just. It's been cool to. It's Been cool to see those things and have pictures of them. And it could be a hobby on its own of just putting trail cams out and getting stuff. Yeah, it's very cool. [00:43:59] Speaker B: But mountain lions and cougars, will they ever be in Ohio? Because I know Michigan has that big reporting that they were hiding it. Now they're like, no. [00:44:06] Speaker C: Yeah, I actually don't know. I mean, we've got. We have some black bears migrating in out of Pennsylvania. We actually had a black bear every once in a while. I mean, and I mean very infrequently, but there'll be bear scat around our area. Meaning, like, we found some in my dad's valley. We have. I've never run into a bear at my house. Like, I've never seen it, but we've run into their tracks and stuff like that. They're only passing through. They're not living here, but. So bears are sometimes coming over from the eastern side. If you're over by the Pennsylvania border, they're more frequent, but they're starting to move through. I don't know if we're going to get mountain lions. We really don't have great terrain for mountain lions and cougars, that kind of stuff. So maybe, I don't know. Depends. I would be more inclined to see wolves moving our way than anything else because they're more of a plains animal. So we'll see. But again, to me, it's just exciting to have more variety and that kind of stuff coming back to the area. So that's pretty cool. [00:45:04] Speaker B: I'm gonna see a fisher and think it's a cat, and you're like, come here. [00:45:07] Speaker C: I mean, you won't mistake it. [00:45:09] Speaker B: It's big. I saw him as this guy was holding one. It was bigger than he was. [00:45:12] Speaker D: Yeah, definitely. Don't pit it. [00:45:15] Speaker C: And then, for my worst, very similar to Tib, stop obsessing over Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey. [00:45:21] Speaker B: Yes. [00:45:22] Speaker C: Taylor Swift is the worst person in the world. I despise her for myriad of reasons. And I don't even like football. And they've ruined football. Like, how can you ruin something you don't like? Well, get Taylor Swift involved in it. Stop obsessing over them. Who cares? Let them either do their thing or let them break up and she makes another breakup album over top of the whole Kelsey thing, which I think is going to happen. Just calling that for the record. [00:45:47] Speaker D: Very likely. So funny. The funny thing is Nate has a Taylor Swift tattoo on his die that he doesn't want. [00:45:55] Speaker B: He just got it the other day especially. [00:45:58] Speaker A: Was cool. [00:45:59] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:45:59] Speaker C: I'll show to you if you ask nicely. But no it's just stop being obsessed with with celebrities for sure. And don't stop caring about Travis Kelsey and Taylor Swift. They're the worst. So that's my. My worst for this year is those two because they suck. That's it. [00:46:20] Speaker B: That's epic. [00:46:21] Speaker A: Let's see what's going on in equip segment. [00:46:25] Speaker D: The right tools, the right skills at the right time. This is where we get equipped to live boldly to be ready for what comes next. [00:46:36] Speaker A: So Michael what's you want to kick us off? What's your. Your favorite and your least favorite gear from this year? [00:46:43] Speaker B: Yeah, I feel like you put the notes in there for me for my least favorite one. [00:46:46] Speaker A: Yeah, I felt kind of. I figured I would. I could get that one on the on the nose. [00:46:50] Speaker B: The subtle segue into our equipment and least favorite gear for the year. So. Yeah, I'm just probably going to go with that one Greg to be honest with you. So I bought a truck. I'm a Chevy person at heart. I have driven it all. I've had a Mustang. I've had Equinox. I've. I've driven them all for Chevy. You you name it. Whatever's hand me down pass me down and I bought myself a truck. I traded in my old truck. She's paid off. She's old glory shine and glory. She made it 212000 miles and we're still running, still kicking. Had some little. [00:47:27] Speaker A: You're putting a lot of money little issues going into. [00:47:30] Speaker B: Yeah. This was the time that is like it's paid off and I'm dumping money into it. So we trade. Got a 2021 trail boss and to save the time on it the engine blew multiple times over. So it's been down for about two and a half months it seems like or two months. Right. But I just got the truck back yesterday. $9,700 later. So the warranty covered everything outside of the serpentine belts and ac belts which they knew they had to tear them apart to rebuild the engine. I still had to pay out of pocket for that so that was probably the least favorite gear. I wanted to love the truck. I do love the truck. It was kind of what I wanted. I put a rough country cab on the back of it. We just put it. Excuse me. Just put it on. So now I'm kind of going through the toss up of what to do. We've had that conversation of whether I keep it. It's got a rebuilded rebuilt engine, but they come with some. Some potential pros and cons to that. So whether I sell it, upgrade to something new and just get a new truck and be done with it, or keep it and just hope that everything's good, that was the least favorite. So that was. It's been a fun experience. It's. [00:48:46] Speaker A: I figured. I figured you're going to trade it in for that, for one of those little Honda trucks. I think it's been good to you. [00:48:51] Speaker B: Yeah. But no, that's like a little tiny car I felt so good to have. [00:48:56] Speaker C: They are reliable. [00:48:56] Speaker B: They were reliable. [00:48:57] Speaker A: That'll run forever. [00:48:58] Speaker B: I had a little horsepower and I set a little bit higher in traffic yesterday, so I felt like if somebody hit me, I wouldn't die. Like, I would. [00:49:04] Speaker C: You're not going to die in the Honda. [00:49:05] Speaker B: All right. [00:49:06] Speaker A: In fact, it's probably got better safety. Guaranteed. [00:49:09] Speaker C: It has better safety features than the Chevy. [00:49:11] Speaker B: Maybe, maybe not. [00:49:12] Speaker A: Maybe guaranteed, definitely. [00:49:14] Speaker B: So the. The least favorite gear definitely was the truck. And just the headaches with that this year and the cost associated with it. But going into some of the favorite gear, gun, clothing, this one was also very hard, honestly. And we've had this conversation before, too. And for the viewers, when you've been in the industry long enough, all the equipment starts to look the same. All the gear starts to be similar in the same. So I didn't really see anything this year that was like, oh, that stood out so much to me. That was like, yes. I will say that there's companies that I have been using their products for years, primary weapon systems. To see them come out with their own suppressor line, tickled to death. Do I own one? No. But I love seeing the innovative design. I love getting to meet them personally when I was in Idaho, getting to have dinner with them, getting to learn more about their products. We get to shoot more of their guns. They sent me a key. They replaced my key mod for an M lock to update me with the time. So I didn't look as flamboyant as some had said. So got it replaced, and I'm happy with that. But just see the innovative in the industry, just. Just little upgrades, you know, I'm not at this point expecting to see something crazy. You know, the last crazy thing to me that really stood out was the gun that could bend a corner. You have a camera you can shoot. And that's just because it was just like futuristic, unique kind of deal. [00:50:39] Speaker A: But say the folding Glock was going to be your favorite. [00:50:42] Speaker B: Yeah. You know, the folding Couple years ago, though. Yeah, the pocket Glock, the pocket rockets, whatever. But I think for the gear, the best gear for me this year and for us, for us is kind of not to throw them a huge bone, but first form, get the sponsorship to be able to come in the shop and like, Joey's coming in the office and you're like, which flavor do you like better? And I'm like, well, I love Red Bull. But like, these are working on me. Like, I found grape. I like grape. And, you know, we were able to share and be able to give back to you guys. And we have supplements, you know, to just take care of our health. One of the things we're focused on, and for me especially trying to recover and recoup and not become skinny fat. But the gear for me, that's work. That's not really, you know, crazy or anything like that is HHV hardhead veterans to be able to run their helmet. And I've. I've learned more this year that my helmet goes with me everywhere now because I'm doing something that's gonna require comms or a PTT or radio. [00:51:40] Speaker A: I thought it was just because you're clumsy. [00:51:42] Speaker B: That too. I need one just so I don't bump my head, especially my back right now. It might be a good thing. So I have a little protection for the noggin. But being able to use their helmet, honestly, I've been really happy with it. And then I've been constantly rotating night vision equipment, thermal optics and setups on these helmets. And it just works. It serves its purpose. I will say the, the plus one to the. The ballistic helmet. If you're going to get a ballistic helmet, the auto gear, the bag, yeah, phenomenal. Like, I love that thing. I cram everything in there. I cram extra night vision, extra mounts, extra battery pack, like everything you need in there. And you protect it because that. It gets expensive. It's just when you get to the night vision, that stuff gets expensive. Now is it a crazy cool feature? No, they just made it bigger, you know. So Victo's brand has crushed it this year with us. We've sold their products. The people love the bags that we have on the website, but they just continue to create better bags and listen to the feedback that we give because we use the bags, I mean, habitually 24 7, where we have some. You guys have some form of fashion of a Victo's bag or brand with you. So being able to use products and then give feedback back and see companies do that. I Think that's where it was the, you know, the best or the. The highlight for 2025 in gear was just seeing the little tweaks, little modifications. I love my OA defense pistol Vinnie with Monsoon. He does amazing work. He's done such amazing jobs on you guys gun make ready with Billy did he crushed your Smith like I'm. I can't do the black multicam. Although I would love that. [00:53:18] Speaker C: I didn't do that but that's fine. [00:53:19] Speaker B: I got it. Well you got yours as yours is a custom right. [00:53:22] Speaker A: He. [00:53:22] Speaker B: He gave it a specific name but I love the work that our friends have done in the industry and what they've been able to produce. Drew with red beard, he crushed my Glock like the Glock had years of work already had a stipple job and he redid that. So to just have friends in the industry that make good products that. That can help you adjust your equipment or products that have just continued to work. Yeah, nothing. Nothing fancy. You know like you guys said about shot so man, I. I'm not going to shot so expecting to see something blow my mind. What I am optimistic for in the innovative design for gear or the best for 2026 is now the integration that we see with AI and quantum computings and everything else for Anturo and I may be butchering the industry but the heads up displays the. The now cameras and helmet systems that have everything in their own cpu. That's a body armor. I would like to see how that translate into technology for our industry. Drones, thermals were huge for the war. I'm kind of curious to see the. The back end of it for the defense sector. But yeah, this year was just gear that works honestly. Gear that we've trusted, that we relied on and it continues to serve its purpose. [00:54:45] Speaker A: Awesome. How about you Tip. [00:54:49] Speaker D: This week on my YouTube channel, I'm doing a top five pistols, top five rifles, top 10 accessories. So there's a lot of gear that I get to play with and I like to highlight a few. The Walther PDP with the Parker Mountain machine comp has become like my go to range training gun. I'm a big fan of that. I got my hands on a Nighthawk double agent and if you don't know what that is, stop what you're doing and go Google it right now because it is the sexiest gun in the world. [00:55:21] Speaker C: It is. [00:55:21] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:55:22] Speaker D: It's so beautiful. And if money wasn't an issue, that would absolutely be my carry gun. It's a collab between agency arms and Nighthawk. It's just beautiful. I'm all about anything from radian weapons. Their AR15 for example, is the nicest, best shooting AR I've ever shot. The afterburner and ramjet is fantastic too. And a couple weeks ago we talked about electric air. I'm all about electric air. I want electric hat and electric gloves and I want electric everything. As far as my least favorite, I don't have much that I had problems with. Out of all the tens of thousands of rounds I shot and all the guns and gear I reviewed, the only thing I really had a problem with was the Beretta apx. Now I love Beretta non polymer guns, but I've never been a huge fan of their polymer guns. And the APX was just the only, the nicest way I could say it was a hot mess. It was. It's just a hot mess. I've never had a gun with so many malfunctions and stove pipes and failure to eject. And as I've shot a few hundred rounds, it's starting to break in. And I actually sent it back to Beretta. They checked it out and sent it back to me and it seems good to go now. But that one was a hot mess for a while. [00:56:39] Speaker C: Yeah, that really does suck. I like what you and I talked about it this morning. Beretta, generally speaking, I actually am a fan of Beretta as a general rule. They make good stuff. [00:56:50] Speaker A: Shotgun world. They make some of the best. [00:56:53] Speaker C: I mean as a family company, they actually own some of the best. Beretta as a family company owns some of the premier shotgun brands out there. I mean not some of the niche handmade, beautiful stuff, but they own a lot of that stuff if you really want to look into it. Some of the cool stuff. They actually have a legitimate family castle in Italy. Like the original Beretta family castle in Italy is a real thing. But again, all their steel stuff is great. I've owned a Beretta 92 for 13 years. 14 years. [00:57:30] Speaker B: Yeah, that's a beautiful castle. [00:57:31] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean it's cool like and they've always, they have made quality stuff. If you don't like some of their stuff for aesthetic stuff, I get it. They're European. They make stuff, generally speaking with a European flair, which doesn't always work with the way, you know, we shoot things in, in the us but generally speaking it's quality. So it's a bummer the APX doesn't follow that. Can't win them all reputation. [00:57:59] Speaker D: Yeah, I think it's more of a one off. I think if you got a hundred of those Berettas that, you know, maybe one has those problems. [00:58:06] Speaker C: Maybe it just sucks that you, you got that one though, right? So. [00:58:09] Speaker D: Yeah. Yeah. I'm surprised they didn't check it before they sent it out for review. [00:58:14] Speaker A: Yeah, maybe you just don't know how to hold a gun. [00:58:17] Speaker D: Maybe that's possible. [00:58:19] Speaker A: No, I've seen you shoot. You know how to hold it down. [00:58:21] Speaker B: Yeah. This gun shoots low and left. [00:58:23] Speaker C: I don't know why, it's the sights. [00:58:25] Speaker D: It's always the sights for sure. [00:58:27] Speaker B: Sights seem off. [00:58:29] Speaker A: How about you, Nick? [00:58:30] Speaker C: Mine for sure is my Smith and Wesson Impact edition, which if you guys don't know what that is. It is a collab M and P done by. Well, how to describe it so you can buy it from Aim Surplus down in Cincinnati. It was done in collaboration with Shane Cardwell of Impact Shooting center and then machined by AJ Zito. He does a slide cut and porting and then they do a wolf spring package and a apex trigger kit in it which all together comes together with a very, very nice shooting pistol. [00:59:14] Speaker A: Yeah, not just very nice like it's. [00:59:17] Speaker C: One of the best polymer striker fired pistols on the market. [00:59:21] Speaker A: The recoil impulse is that of a ported staccato P or the, or the C from Monsoon. Like guns, guns that cost four times as much. [00:59:33] Speaker C: Yeah, it's really, really nice. [00:59:34] Speaker A: This gun shoots like. It's unbelievable. [00:59:37] Speaker C: And the nice thing is so if you, if they're still in stock, which they may be, I don't know if they are right now. They're still in stock. The nice thing is you can buy it all. It's about a grand to buy the pistol as it is and all you have to do is throw an optic on it. It's done, it's good to go. I want a step further if you guys follow Make Ready Firearms. Billy Brown, he's just south of Cincinnati in Walton, Kentucky did a stipple job for me plus his sheen camo. It's a custom camo in Cerakote that he designed. So it's a little bit subtle. It's a tri color camo with grays, blacks and a very shiny black as the base color. You can see it on my Instagram, you can see it on his. He did that up for me. This was only a little three weeks ago, four weeks ago, that I finally got it done. So I've been waiting to do this whole build for over a year. So it's finally complete, which is really exciting. I got that all done. So that's been. That's my, my highlight gear of the year. It's the nicest pistol I own from a perspective of everything. It's my favorite. So that, that is the highlight of the year for sure for me was that. [01:00:50] Speaker A: Well, we waited a year. [01:00:51] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean for it. So I waited forever. So better be worth it. But yeah. So it's worth checking out for sure. If they still haven't in stock at AIM Surplus, go pick one up. It's well worth your money. If you want to customize a little bit further, send it down to Billy. Make ready. He does some fantastic work then. My least favorite gear of the of the year is my Columbia raincoat. I was, I can't remember what which particular event I was going to, but I needed a raincoat because it was going to be a rainy weekend. I didn't have time to wait for something nicer to show up and I wanted to light. I have some heavier weight like Gore Tex style raincoats but it was going to be too warm for that. Those things you just sweat in. So I wanted to more lightweight thing and I didn't have time to go order something nice. So I went and picked up a Columbia raincoat which I'm sure would be great if you're walking from your car to a building. But if you're outside for any sustained period of time, meaning like 30 minutes or more and it rains, hey, guess what, it's wet. So it's just wearing a jacket at that point you might as well throw it in the garbage. So Columbia, get your crap together and don't sell a raincoat that's not a raincoat. Or maybe you have to, I don't know, maybe you need to treat it at that point I might as well buy anything, right? I'm not sure. [01:02:03] Speaker A: I mean what I learned, I learned this the hard way is buying spend the money on good Gore Tex raincoat. [01:02:12] Speaker C: Well, I have a nice Gore Tex. I just didn't want to wear it in the heat. [01:02:15] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:02:15] Speaker C: Because I'm going to get it wet from sweating as much as I am. But it's just one of those scenarios like I didn't have time to wait for something nice to come from online and there's nowhere around here that's selling nice. [01:02:24] Speaker A: No, you're not going to. [01:02:26] Speaker C: Yeah, expensive brand stuff. So. [01:02:31] Speaker A: I have a Columbia raincoat and I, I've had this thing probably since like college. Yeah. So it's older, probably a lot older than the one you got. [01:02:38] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:02:39] Speaker A: And I wore. I went on a sea duck hunt in, in New York and we got caught in some crazy weather. Yep. And. [01:02:50] Speaker C: And it was awesome. [01:02:50] Speaker A: Right. And I was bone dry. [01:02:52] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:02:52] Speaker A: There are guys out there with expensive Gore Tex coats who were soaked. I had my cheap at that time, probably five, eight year old Columbia raincoat. That's all I had to bring and it worked great. So. [01:03:04] Speaker C: Well, that's why it wasn't. It's not like Columbia is a bad brand, you know, I mean like I'm not. I didn't go cheap and buy. [01:03:10] Speaker A: Just what happened to the quality between, between my coat and your coat, you know? Yeah, that's. Yeah. [01:03:15] Speaker C: So I'm saying Columbia, get your crap together. Don't sell me a raincoat that's basically just a wind jacket. I mean it actually would be fine in that form as a wind jacket. It'd be great as a raincoat. Literally 30 minutes in sustained water and I was soaked to. Soaked to the bone. I was like, well, this is completely pointless. I literally took it off. [01:03:32] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:03:33] Speaker C: I just walked around my T shirt at that point. Cuz I'm like, well I'm already wet. [01:03:35] Speaker A: So I had something like that. So the hard lesson I had, I was on, actually, I think I was biking with your dad. I was doing the MS.150 and it was driving rain, pouring rain the Entire ride for 100 miles on a road bike. I also learned about chafing, but butter and chafing. Yep, I learned that about that, that, about that that day too. But the whole ride out there I had the same thing. I had a raincoat and I was soaked in like 20 minutes. And so I rode the rest of the day without. I just took it off. [01:04:03] Speaker C: I mean there's. It's no point. It's actually gonna cause more trouble than it's not. Yeah. [01:04:07] Speaker A: Then on the way back, one of the guys I was riding with, I wanted to slap him. He had a really nice Gore Tex coat. Like an extra one. Here's the thing. I rode with him. I rode with him the day out. [01:04:16] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:04:17] Speaker B: Here's the extra. [01:04:18] Speaker A: Yeah. On the way back he let me wear his Gore Tex and I was rode 75 miles back the second day. Bone dry on the way. On the way back. [01:04:26] Speaker C: Who was. [01:04:27] Speaker A: Was one of Mark's friends. [01:04:28] Speaker C: One of his friends. [01:04:29] Speaker D: Okay. [01:04:31] Speaker A: So anyway, yeah, my. I got a handful of guns this year and I'm gonna say these, these two I expected to be phenomenal. And they are. I also got one of the impact M and P. I will say that is. That is. That is going to be the best polymer gun that you can buy. I'm willing to stand on that. Yeah. If you buy that gun, you 100% are going to be blown away and very happy with it for the cost and the features and everything. I think it's going to be the best thing you can buy hands down. I bought a staccato C which I think is getting retired, but I bought that gun. I. [01:05:15] Speaker C: Not his handgun. [01:05:16] Speaker A: The. [01:05:16] Speaker C: The model. [01:05:17] Speaker B: The model from Staccato. [01:05:19] Speaker A: Yeah, I sent it down to Vinnie actually. It went straight from Staccato to Vinnie. I didn't even get it. I'm like, it's going straight to him. He did his grand Genghis grand comp. Grandmaster Genghis Cop. Yeah, Stipple tuned all the stuff like that. It is probably it. It's the only reason I put it in front of the M and P is because of what it costs. And. And the trigger is a little bit better. The apex trigger is phenomenal in the MMP. But it's hard to be a 2011 trigger. Two and 2011 trigger is just going to be. [01:05:49] Speaker C: Well, but even, even, even the worst, cheapest 1911 trigger and I mean like some garbage, 1911 trigger is going to be better than even an apex most of the time just by the design, how the trigger operates. It's just gonna be better. [01:06:08] Speaker A: So I put the. I put the staccato above the MMP just because of a tiny little. Couple tiny little things. But the gundan I'm actually gonna put on the top because it surprised me. I did not see this coming. Nate didn't see this coming. [01:06:23] Speaker C: It's a toy. [01:06:24] Speaker A: None of us saw this coming. [01:06:25] Speaker C: It's a toy. [01:06:26] Speaker A: But the Smith and Wesson Bodyguard 2.0. [01:06:29] Speaker C: Go buy one. [01:06:30] Speaker A: Just go buy it. [01:06:31] Speaker B: Go buy it. [01:06:33] Speaker A: Tip did. Go buy it and carry it. [01:06:35] Speaker C: Did you buy the comped one? I don't remember. [01:06:37] Speaker D: I bought the comp one and it's at Defiant Machine Works right now. Getting a fancy Cerakote and optics gun. [01:06:43] Speaker B: There you go. [01:06:44] Speaker A: It is going to change how you carry how much you enjoy carrying. That gun just came out of nowhere and surprised me. So I'm putting that in my number. My number one because of the surprise factor. 100%. I would rather have the M and P or the staccato. [01:07:02] Speaker C: But it's shocking. [01:07:04] Speaker A: It is shocking how fun and good that gun is. [01:07:06] Speaker C: Just stupid. [01:07:07] Speaker A: That said, and I was just talking to somebody on Instagram, my personal Instagram hit me up about it. And they were like, are you serious? It's that good? And I'm like, yes. I said, however, you need to know your limitations for it. There is a caveat with it. You are not going to make an eyeball shot at 25 yards. [01:07:23] Speaker C: No. Anything past about 15 starts to get a little sketchy. [01:07:26] Speaker A: A little sketch. Like you're going to hit center mass. Like, I'm not worried about center mass. Although with my M and P, with heck, with my.365, like those guns, if I need to put something in an eyeball at 25 yards, you can do it. Easy day, no problem. This gun. [01:07:42] Speaker C: Nope. [01:07:43] Speaker A: I'm probably going to run 10, 20. [01:07:46] Speaker C: Yards and then try and shoot you in the face. [01:07:48] Speaker A: Then probably even. [01:07:49] Speaker C: Even not an eyeball, just shoot you in the face, the general area. [01:07:53] Speaker D: So it's a small gun. [01:07:55] Speaker A: It is. It is so small. [01:07:56] Speaker C: And a.380 is not a crazy round either. So. [01:08:00] Speaker A: So I was. I was talking to Vinnie about this because he's one of the best shooters I know. And even he says he was, I guess what a zero I was trying to zero it at. And he was laughing. He was like, no, buddy, you got to like, you got 10. Zero. Like 10. And your max is like 15 yards. Just like, you need to know what it's for. But that said, I love carrying that thing. Yeah, it is. [01:08:24] Speaker C: But not to say you can't get hits again. It's not that you can't get hits at 25 yards. [01:08:28] Speaker A: No. [01:08:28] Speaker C: I mean, our first day out with it out of the box, we could consistently hit steel at 25 yards. [01:08:35] Speaker A: We now 3ft low. [01:08:36] Speaker C: We had a whole 3ft low and right to do it. But now, again, defensively, that's a little scary, but you can do it. [01:08:44] Speaker A: And that was with irons. Now that's got a red dot on it. [01:08:47] Speaker C: You have to hold it three feet high and left to do it. But the point is, it's for a defensive thing. If you're trying to draw out again based on what statistics say, it's going to do what you need it to be. [01:09:01] Speaker A: So it's great. [01:09:02] Speaker C: Noisy cricket, my least favorite. [01:09:05] Speaker A: I had to really me. And they were talking. I'm like, I had a really hard time trying to think of a piece of kit that I bought and just like, threw it away or, you know, like, I was trying to think of, like, just extremely disappointed in it. Whatever. I really couldn't think of much. And to Nate's point, like, we don't buy A whole lot of stuff. When we do we research it, we have, you know. You know, we. People who have recommended things, whatever. So I had to dig on this. And actually, so I said that I was gonna talk about this when I was talking about the deer that I got the. After I shoot that deer, I go out, I pick up my arrow. Only one of the three blades was open when I. [01:09:42] Speaker C: Not good. [01:09:43] Speaker A: When I got out of the ground, I knew that. I knew 100% that I put a great shot on the tier. But then I started doubting how effective it was when I saw that only one of the blades opened. One of the only things I'm thinking is maybe when I hit the ground, the other two flipped back forward, but I don't think so. [01:10:02] Speaker C: It shouldn't. [01:10:03] Speaker A: They were still seated, like, all the way forward when I did that. So only one blade opened it. Thankfully. I hit. I hit that thing right in the heart. I found it about 40 yards away. I think if all three blades had opened up, I would have found it 20 yards away. [01:10:17] Speaker C: Sure. [01:10:19] Speaker A: You know, I've got a dead deer. [01:10:22] Speaker C: That's all matters. [01:10:23] Speaker A: That's. That's great. I would rather have had three blades open and have it die faster and more humanely. So that was a Spitfire broadhead. So I'm not going to recommend a Spitfire broadhead just because now I've got one shot of experience. So take it for what it's worth. But I was. Yeah, but that's. [01:10:43] Speaker C: That's pretty disappointing, though. Like, it's one of those that if it was one blade, you could say, yeah, it's questionable, but maybe I would try it again. Having only one out of three deploy is pretty. It's pretty disappointing, really. Yeah. [01:10:57] Speaker B: And the only shot you've taken with the bow, too? [01:11:00] Speaker A: Well, yeah, that. [01:11:02] Speaker C: These are the. You didn't do anything wrong. Absolutely not. And there's nothing wrong with bow hunting. Not saying anyone shouldn't go bow hunt, but these are my issues with bow hunting is ultimately just the. The equipment, things like that, where it's like, there's. [01:11:16] Speaker A: There's things that need to go right. [01:11:17] Speaker C: Yeah, there's absolutely things need to go. [01:11:19] Speaker A: Right and there's moving things that need to go right. [01:11:21] Speaker C: Yeah. Like, not to say that you can't make a bad shot with a rifle. That's 100%. You can. Like, those are all things that can happen too. But a bad shot with a rifle is still more likely to put something down than a bat shot with a. An arrow, which will probably still put it down. But it's going to take a lot longer or if something like just a simple thing like a blade didn't deploy, it's going to put it in a lot of pain for a long time. I mean, those are the things that just doesn't make me excited. So making sure you have reliable equipment for your research. [01:11:52] Speaker A: Unfortunately there's no way to like, no test it and no until you actually put it to use in the real world. And so now you know. Yep, now I know. I picked up some new brow heads this morning from Doug that he has many shots with and trust. So I feel, I feel better about that. So, yep, that's my best and worst gear of the year. Let's head into faith and fuel. [01:12:15] Speaker D: Faith anchors us, fuel drives us. Let's open God's word and find the wisdom we need to live it out every day. [01:12:25] Speaker A: So, Tip, what's the verse that got you through this year? [01:12:29] Speaker D: Well, I could sit here, I won't and read the entire Matthew chapter 6 from verse 1 on to however many verses around 30, whatever. That's. That's been my go to. I want to highlight verse 27. It says, in which of you, by worrying can add a single day to his lifespan. I took a lot like when Greg said earlier he was struggling in Q1 with anxiety of how business was going. I watched how beautiful it was of how he gave that stress and that anxiety over to God and just let go. He's like, it's in God's hands. And that was beautiful. And I took a lot of that into my own life and any stresses or anxiety, I do my best. I'm not great at it, but I try and I do my best to let it go and put it in God's hand. And one of the small examples of that would be my YouTube channel. You know, I really want to get that to 100,000 subscribers. That was my goal this year. And the breaks were just put on my channel. I mean, I went from 2000 subs a month down to 400. And that was tough at first. Very frustrating. There's nothing I can do about it. It's not in my hands. You know, all I can do is work hard, try to make good content, try to be creative and you know, when it, when and if it happens, it happens. If not, I'm just going to enjoy the process as much as I can. So being anxious is not going to help the situation, no matter what situation you're in. [01:13:58] Speaker A: Very good. Yep. That's one of them I could list. Yeah, like I said I could list a long list of verses that got me through this year and that. And that is on my list of them. How about you, Nate? [01:14:10] Speaker C: Well, ironically, mine's also out of Matthew 6. Mine's a little bit further along. It's actually the last verse of the chapter which is. Is Matthew 6:34, which says, Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. So when we were trying to figure out our best and worst for the year for the Life segment, I just picked the easiest worst that I could pick. This year has not been a good year. This has been the verse that has gotten me through basically all of it. I actually switched. If you have gotten a package that I have fulfilled this year, I think it was June that I switched to this verse is the verse that I've written on every thank you note that anybody who has ordered from Neomag that I have fulfilled. If you've gotten something that our other guy that fulfills. Greg. Not this Greg, other Greg. I'm not sure he chooses. He changes. [01:15:06] Speaker A: He's got a list of them out there. [01:15:07] Speaker C: He's got a list of verses that he changes. But if you've gotten one from me, Matthew 6:34 is what has been on your package. This is what has gotten through the year for me. So similar to Tib in a lot of ways, but slightly different, which is I can only get through what I'm worrying about today because tomorrow will take care of itself. So just push through the day and worry about tomorrow when you get there. [01:15:31] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. That's another verse I definitely think about a lot. The verse I have is out of Romans. I'm going to change books here. Romans 12:12. Rejoice in hope. Be patient in tribulation. Be constant in prayer. This is a verse that. It was a wallpaper on my phone most of the year. I would write this on my hand a lot of times. Earlier this year, this became my checklist. I am a very. I like plans. I like to have a plan. And when life throws you things that you don't know what plan to make, I start getting very uneasy and start being anxious and worrying when I don't have a plan. What I love about this verse is it gives me three things. It gives me a checklist, it gives me a plan of action, which is to rejoice in the hope that I have that God has a plan. God has a purpose in all of our lives. God wants the best for us. Now we live in a sinful world where there's sickness and death and pain and sadness and all those things, those are a result of sin. Those are not a result of God. And so God has a plan for us. He has. And so to rejoice in the hope that there is still good, even in the worst times in our life, we can still look around and see things to have hope in. And if nothing else, we have hope in God and his promises and eternity. The second thing is be patient in tribulation. This might be one of the hardest parts is being patient in those tough times when you are dealing with the things that I know these guys sit next to me and across from me on the Internet have been going through this year, being patient during those times of tribulation and waiting on God and his timing, because his timing is not ours. And that is one of the things I've had to learn this year, is that the things that I want, when I want them, are not what God has in plan. And frankly, 100% of the time, God's plan is better than what I would have asked for. And then the last thing is be constant in prayer. This is something that I'm thankful that I started this a couple years ago. I spend. First thing I do when I wake up in the morning is spend time with God. And that is something I would never give up. And that time of prayer in the morning with God has been the way that I've got through. The things that I've got through this year that I've been able to help other people get through this year is through prayer. And so just to have this checklist of things, if we do these three things, we will persevere. God promises that it might not be how we want it and when we want it. But, yeah, so again, there's a thousand verses that I could pick up, but this is the one that came to my mind. Actually. I just recently put this back on my phone wallpaper. I was scrolling through my wallpapers from this year. I'm like, you know what? I need to see this one again. So that's fine. All right. Michael, how about you? [01:18:48] Speaker B: I guess we all kind of drew from Matthew today. So mine is actually, I have this tattoo. It's my first tattoo I got on my. It's Matthew 14:31. And it'll sum it up. It says, jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him. Peter saying to him, ye of little faith, why do you doubt me? So this is when Jesus is walking on water, and Peter asked to Walk on water with Jesus. And then Peter saw the storm turn away, lost sight of God and let the fear absorb him and consume him, and he started to sink in the water. And the context that I put at the bottom of it was Peter begins to walk on water and sinks, and when he loses focus. So at one point, Peter believed and he doubted, and God was there at both points. Like, so kind of in the life segment, we talked about our worst and our best moments and some of the things that can resonate. And I kept kind of wanting to segue into the faith segment and yield little faith. Why do you doubt me? That has driven me for years. Honestly, not. Not just this year, but for. For as long as it's been tatted on my. On my body, I carry that. And sometimes it always just pops up and resonates with me. And this year was, as Nate said, it was a tough year. It just all around, mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually. It was just an envelope full of sometimes what we want to call chaos. And in those times, you guys were there, you guys can pushed, you get. You came in. Greg, you gave me a Hunter's Guide for a devotional. You gave me more notebooks than I realized I needed, but I filled them out with. [01:20:22] Speaker A: Bought your Bible this year, too. [01:20:23] Speaker B: You got me a Bible because I couldn't find my Bible. Asked you for a Bible. I have a daily devotional on my desk. Every day I get to flip through and read you. You kept pushing on me to find a better church, find a church that I wanted. I found Mosaic Church in town, started going there. My competition seemed to always be on Sunday, but I have a wonderful church to go to, and I've enjoyed just knowing that God was there. Like, in the end, there were times that I wanted to doubt, and there were times that I had faith. And when I saw that I had doubt, he was still there. And when I had faith, he was there. You know, I told my beautiful girlfriend this last week. I was like, you know, the other day I was a little stressed going into the holidays about money, and I wanted to close on some contracts, and I wasn't certain if they were going to close or not. And I said a quick prayer about it. The next day, I woke up to two emails. Two companies paid me out for the rest of the year. And it's like, like right there. It just, you know, what was the biggest verse that got you through the year? That was kind of a steady reminder of, you have a little faith. Why do you doubt me? And even in the Moment of doubt, he was there. But when you had faith, he was there. He was just waiting for you. He's just. His arms are already outreached for you. So that's the one that's definitely just continues to resonate with me. [01:21:31] Speaker A: Yep. I love it. [01:21:33] Speaker C: Patriotic Penguin. I want to share his. So he had said that for him, he had a. He needed to let go of politics this year. And his verses of choice was Proverbs 24:15, 20, which says, do not lurk like a thief near the house of the righteous. Do not plunder their dwelling place. For though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again. But the wicked stumble when calamity strikes. Do not gloat when your enemy falls. When they stumble, do not let your heart rejoice, or the Lord will see and disapprove. Turn his wrath and turn his wrath away from them. Do not fret because of evildoers or be envious of the wicked. For the evildoer has no future hope and the lamp of the wicked will be snuffed out. That's a good reminder, guys. [01:22:14] Speaker B: Yep. [01:22:16] Speaker A: So we need to put our trust in God in all things and trust his plan. That's. There's a. There's a book that changed that changed me this year too. It's just called Trusting in God. If you guys go look it up on Amazon, highly, highly recommend reading that book. It will change. I believe it'll change you. And no matter what, what stage you are in your life. So guys, I appreciate you guys bringing those and I appreciate you guys being honest this episode and sharing some things. And I said this could have been a all day episode if we really would have dug into all the things we. We all have stuff that we're dealing with. And as we head into the Christmas season that it's so important to keep our eyes on what the reason for the season is. And that's the birth of Christ. And so every, every week I've been reading a devotional for Advent. I have one for you guys here for this week. The third Sunday of Advent is a Sunday of joy. It is called from the Latin Gaudet Sunday, the Sunday in which we say to one another, let's celebrate. But haven't we been celebrating all month, one might ask? Well, in somewhat sense, yes. Every day is a celebration of God's goodness and the culture around us, certainly in celebration made at this time of year. And that's a wonderful thing. But the rhythms of the Christian life allow us a different perspective and sometimes a retreat from the facile frenzy around us, such as Advent. This is a season of expectation, certainly an expectation of the celebration of Jesus birth, but also the expectation of Christ's return. This is a season in which we contemplate our readiness to receive the Lord or the lack thereof. And so in the history of the church, it has been a pennant and solemn season. I'm going to be asked a couple words here, not familiar with, except for this day. On this day, the colors change. In one tradition, the color of Advent is blue, a visual demonstration of the season's connection to Lent. The intensity of mourning our sin is displayed in the richness of a purple hue. But this week, the third week transitions from blue to a rose, not quite as celebratory as the red of Pentecost, but pointing in that direction. This is the week to pause from somber introspection and to rejoice. And this is the week in which Mary is honored, rightly so, for the first word spoken to her in Scripture is this rejoice. When God directs Gabriel to her space to present the invitation for salvation, not for her alone, but for the entire cosmos, this is a cause for rejoicing. God has shown you grace, the angel says. The Lord is with you. What better news could be given? Clearly, the fitting response is joy. But this is not Mary's response, at least not initially. Instead, she's disturbed. Instead of embracing the good news, she stops to consider it. Gabriel reads her hesitant response. Don't fear, Mary. Let me tell you more. Your favor with God means that you will escape the anxieties of barrenness. You will have a child, a son. And unlike so many other infants born in uncertain times, he will live. In fact, he will become great and ultimately reign upon David's throne. You will be the mother of the awaited one. And even with this news, yet again, her reaction is not a joyous one. She does not embrace the news with giddiness. Instead, she poses the question, how? How can this be? In response, Gabriel utters words, most holy words, never spoken before or after. He tells her, the Holy Spirit will come over you. The power of the mighty High, the Most High, will overshadow you, and the child conceived in your womb will be called Holy Son of God. With the pregnancy of Elizabeth as an example, Gabriel concludes, nothing is impossible with God. After contemplating and questioning, her answer to the divine invitation is yes. Behold the handmaiden of the Lord. Let it be unto me according to your word. It is an infinitely weighty and somber yes. So why would the church honor someone so serious on a Sunday meant to celebrate joy. Possibly, one might respond, it is because she will soon be break out into song. Clearly she is joyful when she sings. When she sings the Magnificat, my soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. But even here she has not lost her edge. In the same song, she acknowledges power and its misuse, hunger and need, and God's faithfulness amidst the mournful history of her people Israel. But surely, once the angels arrive, then there is joy. They say, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be for all people. Yet they direct these shepherds to a poor child bedded in an animal stall. This is not how things should be for such a king. So too with Simeon. He proclaims the epitome of his life, seeing God's salvation when Mary and Joseph bring Jesus to the temple. And yet this sun, he says, will be for the rising and falling of many a sign to be opposed. And Simeon turns to Mary. A sword will pierce your soul too. Luke is the most joyful of all the Gospels. At least he uses the word more than any of the others. But this joy, the joy of the Lord, the joy of Mary, is not precisely what is often packaged to us in this time of year. It is a joy that does not escape reality but embraces it. A joy that asks questions, a joy that names injustice, a joy that calls attention to the outsider, a joy that understands the price of pain and says yes anyway. A joy that can sit amid three weeks of solemnity. This is the joy of adventure. Advent is about anticipation, great expectation, something on the horizon. The season remembers Mary's pregnancy year after year, because all of creation is groaning in its labor for our redemption. We are anticipating the return of her Son, the Son of God, when he fully and finally sets up his kingdom on the renewed heavens and earth. At that point we will experience joy no longer tinged with sadness, but free and full. Rejoicing now is an act of hope for that untainted joy we will experience in the future. And so this Sunday, when we don our pink and sing our gadgets and join the young Jewish woman Mary, who knew that deep and abiding joy, the joy only possible when one is graced with God's presence. We do not experience it embodied as she did, nor yet resurrected as we all will. But through the Spirit, we too are the recipients of God's favor and God's joy. Now may that kind of honest and hopeful joy shape your celebrations. This day, this week in this season so hope you guys enjoyed that. We have one more episode for you guys coming next week. It is a pre recorded episode that we did. We just kind of had a fun pre Christmas episode. We had some would you rather questions. We had a lot of fun with this episode. Tib was here with us so we were able to just kind of riff off each other and have a fun conversation. So check that out. Next week we will still have the YouTube video premiering at the same time one o' clock, so if you still want to come and watch it live, you can. The podcast will also be up for you guys to check out that as well. So thank you guys so much. Thanks for tuning into Life, Liberty and Equipped if today's conversation challenged you, encouraged you, or helped you get more equipped to pursue your mission, Share with a friend, drop a comment and leave us a review. [01:29:31] Speaker C: Don't forget we go live on the new NeoMag YouTube and Facebook page. Show short. Be sure to subscribe and turn on notifications so you can be part of the next live show. [01:29:41] Speaker B: And if you're not already part of the NeoMag Insiders club, now's the time. Get early access to NeoMag gear, exclusive content and front row seats to everything we're building. Go to theneomag.com to sign up. [01:29:53] Speaker D: Until next time, live boldly stand for liberty and stay equipped. See you soon. [01:29:59] Speaker A: Bye. [01:29:59] Speaker B: Merry Christmas. [01:30:00] Speaker A: Merry Christmas. [01:30:01] Speaker D: Merry Christmas. [01:30:02] Speaker C: Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.