So I'm just laying here. This is behind my house and there's some woods behind my house and it's just gorgeous. There's leaves falling.
Of course, you know, when you come out here in the summertime, it's different because there's bugs out here and ticks and stuff. But this is just a beautiful time of the year. It's probably like 50 degrees or something like that. But you know what I'm thinking about as I'm laying here looking at this view
is that there's something heavenly about this.
There's that leaves falling out there.
Jesus did this and Jesus didn't, you know, I think Jesus made really good decisions. But before he had anything big coming up in his life, like starting his ministry or, you know,
performing miracles and even before he was crucified in the Garden of Gethsemane, he retreated like this. And I think there's something very biblical about this view being out in nature.
I read a book several years ago. It was I think it was called the three day effect.
And in the book,
I wish I could remember authors. Maybe I, you know, if I post this, I could put the links below. But it's an audio book and it was very cool the way it was put together because the author actually took a recorder with her and she recorded the book as she went. So you listen to it and it's not really written. It's more recorded, which, you know, was exciting to me as a recording engineer that she recorded it this way. But she took three different kinds of people out into the wilderness and they camp for a few days at a time. The first group was a bunch of PST, a post-traumatic stress disorder soldiers who had been in the battle. Kind of like where we all are now sometimes, you know. They took them to the woods and, you know, they didn't trust anybody. They were not sleeping well.
And by the time the three days was over,
their lives were changed. There's something more than just spiritual about being able to do this, to be able just to retreat in the wild, in the wilderness, in the desert, in whatever nature is around you. There's something scientific about it even. I don't know what it is. I don't claim to know what it is. But in this book, she took the post-traumatic stress soldiers and three days in the woods made a big difference.
And then the second group of people that she took out there was some abused women, some women that had been in slavery, had been abused, had been homeless, a lot of things. And she took them out to the woods. And even though that adventure was not quite as cut and dry, it was very cold and wet. But still, at the end of that three days, those women were changed. They were different. They were hopeful.
They had a plan.
Their lives turned around.
The third set of people that she took out there was really just a very small group. I think she took--
oh, and by the way, on all of these,
it wasn't just, hey, I think I feel better. She actually took brain scans
of these people. And she tested their brain. She did a brain scan. Scientists-- so this scientist went with them every time. We'd take a brain scan. And their brains were different at the end of the camping trips.
She would scan it before they would start. And then she would scan it when they were done after the three days. And it took three days to make this happen.
The third set of people was just the scientist and one of her friends who was-- get this--
he was having writer's block.
He had been writing a book. I'm writing a book. And I feel like I'm making good progress on it. But still, I'm writing a book. And if you've ever written a book, you know what this dark night of the soul feels like when you are too far in it to quit, but not close enough to call it done.
This writer, they went hiking. They took his brain scan. He was not happy about being out there. He was really just doing it out of obligation to his friend, who swore that this would change his life.
Went out there, did some hiking that he was begrudgingly went to.
And then by the third night, by the third day or night or whenever it was, when they were getting ready to come back, he felt different. I'm telling you there's something scientific about this. I'm telling myself this. I need to do this more often. Not lay in the woods. I mean, I could walk if I wanted to, but this hammock was just laying here. I thought I would keep it company.
By the third night or the third day when he was ready to come back, I think he was from Washington, DC. He flew back to Washington and he finished his book.
He finished his book from being out of nature. There's something about this. A few years ago, when we first moved back to Murfreesboro, the second time from California, we bought an RV. A friend of ours, mom, was selling an RV and it was a pretty good deal.
So we took her up on it. We bought the RV and me and Jana and Kalen went camping. And I'm telling you,
as hard as the camping trip is to gather up everything and try to plan for meals and pick a place and park the RV and all that kind of stuff, as stressful as that can be, there's some conversations around campfires that just don't happen unless they're around campfires. Or maybe it's not the campfire. Maybe it's being out in nature like this. But I remember coming back feeling having a whole new lease on life and I wish that I could do this more often. And I say that and I don't know what it is that I'm wishing for.
I could do this more often.
I don't need permission.
I'm just laying out here in Miami, Miami right now and it's doing me good. I've got some phone calls to make right now and I probably could be doing a lot more things, but I'm hoping that being out in nature like Jesus was, just trying to listen to the Father,
trying to dampen out the voices in your head, trying to listen more, is going to do me good.
By the way, did I mention I'm writing a book called Learning to Listen? And I'm going to be doing some more chapter readings and things like that from this book and I'd love for you to be involved.
So if you're watching on YouTube, subscribe to the channel because they're probably going to be YouTube live.
If you're watching this on Facebook or Instagram, subscribe and I'll let you know when we do this. But I'd like to bring up some subjects that I've been thinking about a lot and hopefully you can help me learn to listen better. That's what this life is all about, is listening to the right things and surrounding yourself with the right people who are telling you things that God wants you to know and being able to clear out your head enough to where you can listen to God a little closer. All right, hopefully this has been helpful to you. Get out of the nature more, learn to listen better. Love you guys.
