Sunday Service: Practicing Forgiveness

If you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your father will not forgive your sins. Matthew, verse 614, through 15, what does that even mean? How does it apply to you and to your life, if it even does at all? That’s we’ll figure out today. Welcome to the Sunday service. The past emphasizes the reciprocal nature of forgiveness, which suggests that our own forgiveness is connected to our willingness to forgive others. Bible also teaches the importance of letting go of anger and resentment. That’s one of those things that sounds easy, but does hard and think that I intellectually understand that I should let go. I should have a like water off a duck’s back when somebody does something that I don’t like, or they they mistreat me, they victimize me, I should move on. That’s a really, really hard thing to do. I am exceptional at holding a grudge might be very much to my detriment, one of my top skills, you able to hold a grudge? Yes. Yes, I absolutely am. And I’m confident that’s true of you also. And think it’s one of those things that that we need to learn. It is a skill that we must learn, we must cultivate that of forgiving other people. Oftentimes, it’s that very famous quote, it’s like swallowing poison and expecting the other person to die. I’m holding on to this resentment, it’s bottled up inside of me, and it’s hurting me, it’s affecting me. But I’m expecting it to be hurting this other person, when they very well may be totally unaware, that I’m holding and harboring is resentment and anger. And whatever else is negativity that follows me around like a rain cloud everywhere I go. That is, it is it is a burden that is on May, two more to share with you from Ephesians 431 through 430. To get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling, and slander along with every other form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another forgiving each other. Just as in Christ, God forgave you. Next from Colossians, verse three, bear with each other and forgive one another, if any of you has a grievance against someone forgive as the Lord forgave you. So it’s powerful passages. Focus, highlight the idea that forgiveness is not just an act of mercy, but it’s also connected to the understanding of God’s forgiveness towards just humanity serving as a model for you and I to emulate in our relationship with other people. Again, not easy, really hard. But like everything else in life, the hard things are oftentimes the most valuable, the valuable things are oftentimes, the hardest to do. Things that come really easy, are not of high value to us, things that are free, are oftentimes of, of lower value, or at least we do not attribute a lot of value to things that are free. So we have to let go, gotta let go of certain things must forgive, we must forgive others. And we must forgive ourselves. Carrying around anger, resentment, shame, countless other negative emotions is a heavy burden, one that absolutely wears on us one that has a high price or cost, even if we don’t realize it. I know this has been true for me. I would think that I’d moved on from something and that I may have consciously done that. I just tell myself, you know what, I’m past it. I’m fine. I’m past it up over it. I was still carrying it around with me. was still there. It’s true, big things. It’s true of little things. Think about it. Last time you had a fight with your husband or your wife, your boyfriend or girlfriend. Does that follow you around for the rest of the day? Of course it does. You had a falling out with your brother years ago. Is that still impacting you today? Yes, of course. It is. These things weigh heavily on us, got to forgive yourself and others, it’s not simply enough to say, move on to anger, that pain, that shame, that resentment, it is still impacting, it’s still affecting you. It’s still there running in the background, it’s contaminating your current your future plans. It is it is limiting your happiness, it is threatening, without question your contentment, it is hurting your relationships, your business partnerships, everything. Just as a single drop of poison, can contaminate entire water sources, contaminates the well. So to can a drop of resentment, contaminate your life. Today’s service is for the vast majority of us, those with functioning consciousness, or consciousness, rather, it’s not for psychopaths or sociopaths. Because those people psychopath can easily just move through the world and not have to worry about other people not have to worry about how things are affecting them or impacting them or how their behavior impacts other people. So they’re a psychopath, sociopath, please go turn yourself into the local authorities immediately the rest of us this is really what I’m focused on, is helping myself and you to recognize the profoundly negative impact that carrying this stuff around with us has, because it does, it’s true. We have valuable resources, our most valuable resources, our time, our attention, our energy and our money. And, therefore, we have to be good stewards, because all of those things are finite, certainly, our attention is incredibly finite, I only have so much of it to go route, I have a certain amount of time, I can focus on things. And then I try to maximize how I’m using my attention where I put it, where I give it, who I give it to who I absolutely will not give it to. And the reality is, it’s like think about the bandwidth that have or the memory on your computer. If you just keep piling more and more stuff onto your computer, what happens, the memory gets taken up, it slows down or just stops because you have exceeded it, you have you have consumed all of it. Now our brains the same way, I like to think that my brain is not that I have an unlimited capacity to keep taking on more and more things. But it’s just not true. So what we’re talking about is when we are still carrying something around with us. And we think that it’s not having an impact on us, when in fact it actually does, there’s this thing called Task residue. And that simply means Think about it like this. If you’re working on something and you glance at your phone, and you get an email, and the message or the text says, you know, it gives you some kind of negative or bad news, you put it down, and then you go back to doing what you were doing. But it’s not that simple. Because your brain is still processing and handling the bad news that you got in your in that last communication. So that’s why multitasking is such a hard thing. Because this residue, it just sticks, what you were doing, you can’t just all of a sudden have a clean slate and move on from one thing to the next. The stuff you were doing, it’s carrying with you that fight with your friend or your wife. It’s impacting everything else that you’re doing throughout the course of the day. So that resentment or that pain or that anger or whatever it is rage, sadness that we’ve been carrying around forever, years, 50 years, 100 years, whatever that is, coloring, negatively impacting everything else that you’re doing. They’re giving it so much power, instead of really forgiving, really addressing getting down to it. That’s what this is. So it’s also it’s just again, we only have so much bandwidth, we only have so much focus so much attention that we can give. So we need to be a good steward of it so that we can focus our time and attention and our resources and our money and all these things are on the things that are of the greatest value to us and not letting the tail wag the dog. We’re in control, we’re in charge. We need to recognize that need to move on.

So you may think that you move past some kind of a traumatic experience but unless you’ve truly forgiven yourself or others, it is probably still burdening you doesn’t unfortunately Reality, but a reality, none the less. So. There’s immense value in having a short memory. Having a short memory. When you second step in dog poop, it’s good to move on. When you take your shot and you miss, it’s good to move on. New diet goes off the rails, it’s good to move on, quickly forgive yourself to get back on the horse to get back in the game, keep it moving. There’s also value immense value in having a long memory. When you have a long memory, you get to see how far you’ve come. Just think right now reflect back on where you were three years ago, six years ago, 10 years ago, 20 years ago, you have come a really long way. You’ve got a lot to be grateful for a lot to be proud of you’ve learned you’ve grown, you’ve faced obstacles, you’ve overcome them, you are resilient. I’ve been alive memories wired into our DNA. The reason that we’re little that all of us are afraid of the dark are spiders, or snakes or monsters or strangers. Because those things used to be mortal enemies of human beings, they pose major risks to us throughout history. So it’s of immense value to have that sort of hardwired into our DNA. So we’re able to pass along that knowledge for millennia. So we remember, Oh, that’s right, that snake, that is a major danger to me, I need to be afraid of it, I need to be aware of it. Long memory also helps us to keep things in perspective to realize that something that feels really, really, really terrible at the time might not be that big of a deal. That’s not making a mountain out of a molehill. As the saying goes, it helps us to learn from our mistakes, and reminds us that I’ve been here before. And if you go back far enough, you know, remember, remember, for goodness sakes, there was a time you couldn’t ride a bike, or read a book, or even get dressed by yourself. And look at you now. Maybe you’re getting dressed on your bike while reading the book. Amazing. So we benefit from having both long and short memories. But either way, you’re still standing, you’re still in the game or the fight however you like to think about human experience of life. So want to shift a little bit and talk about talk about the importance of the importance of owing others for the sacrifices that they have made. And there’s a lot of that there’s a lot of importance. The Bible plays a lot of importance on recognizing the sacrifices that have made that have been made by others for us. And you think about what helps me to think about that. And to keep things in mind or top of mind. Middle mind, top of mind is I wear a chain around my neck. And there are three reminders hanging from it. The first is a skull. And that signifies memento mori. And that means remember that you must die. And it is a reminder of our fight in our finite nature as a human as human beings, that there will come a time, not so far in the future, that I will no longer be in this current iteration of me that that I will die. So it helps me to focus on the importance of doing the best that I can and to approach every day with with seriousness, obviously, the second one is a key that signifies the importance of the work that I’m doing. And it reminds me that I’ve been given a lot of great blessings and gifts, and that because of that I owe and then I owe and I must do my best, and show up every day and do my work, to the work that I’m called to do in the way that I’ve been given the abilities to do so. And finally a cross that reminds me that I owe I owe a deep gratitude, deep debt of gratitude to many. John 316, For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. I owe God and Jesus for life that I’ve been given for their grace and their forgiveness. And because Jesus died for my sins. It’s also a reminder that I owe the countless others have come before me and made my life and our way of life possible. It’s a reminder that I owe doing my best because there are many who are unable who cannot do what I do. And it’s reminded that I owe my best to my late brother John. I owe, I believe you do as well. And we’ll we’ll we can remind ourselves and to keep that reality, front and center top of mind. To operate in the world, and to do the best that we can, because we owe, it’s critical to forgive ourselves and to forgive others.

It’s not easy. Back, I think that’s one of the hardest things that we can do, especially when it comes to the really serious, heavy stuff that we carry around with us. I’ve been thinking a lot lately recently about, about, about my parents, and if I am carrying around any pain or resentment or anger towards them. And I think that the answer is probably yes. And some of its probably trivial. Some of its maybe extremely serious, but it’s there. And how long have you been carrying that around a really long time? So it’s something I’m working on right now. is, what, if anything, do I need to forgive my parents for what, if anything do I need to forgive myself for and it is valuable and worthwhile work? To sit down and to think about and consider what those things may be. And when I do identify them, as I’m sure that I will, that I actively forgive that I forgive myself? For things in my past that I’m not not, that I’m ashamed of them embarrassed of. Because the reality is that God has already forgiven me for those. So what am I waiting for? What am I waiting for? would life be better? would my life be better would your life be better if you forgive your loved ones yourself? For those things, that thing that you’ve been carrying around with you forever, like an anchor, tying you down, slowing you down just a little bit. I advocate that your life would be better, so much better. To forgive. But that was good. The Reverend at our church closed each service the same way and I’ll close today’s service with it as well. Thank you for listening. As always. Life is short, we have little time to gladden the hearts of those we meet along the way. So be swift, to love swift are still to forgive and make haste to be kind

george grombacher 16:00
So if I want my iPhone, and my Tesla and my Bitcoin to work, we need to get the metal out of the ground.

Pierre Leveille 16:07
Absolutely. Without it, we cannot do it.

george grombacher 16:13
Why? Why is there a Why has production been going down.

Pierre Leveille 16:21
Because the large mines that are producing most of the copper in the world, the grades are going down slowly they’re going there, they’re arriving near the end of life. So and of life of mines in general means less production. And in the past, at least 15 years, the exploration expenditure for copper were pretty low, because the price of copper was low. And when the price is low, companies are tending to not invest more so much in exploration, which is what we see today. It’s it’s, it’s not the way to look at it. Because nobody 15 years ago was able to predict that there would be a so massive shortage, or it’s so massive demand coming. But in the past five years, or let’s say since the since 10 years, we have seen that more and more coming. And then the by the time you react start exploring and there’s more money than then ever that is putting in put it in expression at the moment for copper at least. And what we see is that the it takes time, it could take up to 2025 years between the time you find a deposit that it gets in production. So but but the year the time is counted. So it’s it’s very important to so you will see company reopening old mines, what it will push also, which is not bad, it will force to two, it will force to find a it will force to find ways of recalibrating customer, you know the metals, that will be more and more important.

george grombacher 18:07
So finding, okay, so for lack of a better term recycling metals that are just sitting around somewhere extremely important. Yeah. And then going and going back to historic minds that maybe for lack of technology, or just lack of will or reasons, but maybe now because there’s such a demand, there’s an appetite to go back to those.

Pierre Leveille 18:33
Yes, but there will be a lot of failures into that for many reasons. But the ones that will be in that will resume mining it’s just going to be a short term temporary solution. No it’s it’s not going to be you need to find deposit that will that will operate 50 years you know at least it’s 25 to 50 years at least and an old mind that you do in production in general it’s less than 10 years.

george grombacher 19:03
Got it. Oh there we go. Up here. People are ready for your difference making tip What do you have for them

Pierre Leveille 19:14
You mean an investment or

george grombacher 19:17
whatever you’re into, you’ve got so much life experience with raising a family and doing business all over the world and having your kids go to school in Africa so a tip on copper or whatever you’re into.

Pierre Leveille 19:34
But there’s two things I like to see and I was telling my children many times and I always said you know don’t focus on what will bring you specifically money don’t think of Getting Rich. Think of doing what you what you like, what you feel your your your your your, you know you have been born to do so use your most you skills, do what you like, do what you wet well, and good things will happen to you. And I can see them grow in their life. And I can tell you that this is what happens. And sometimes you have setback like I had recently. But if we do things properly, if we do things that we like, and we liked that project, we were very passionate about that project, not only me, all my team, and if we do things properly, if we do things correctly, good things will happen. And we will probably get the project back had to go forward or we will find another big project that will be the launch of a new era. So that’s my most important tip in life. Do what you like, do it with your best scale and do it well and good things will happen.

george grombacher 20:49
Pierre Leveille 21:03
Thank you. I was happy to be with you to today.

george grombacher 21:06
Damn, tell us the websites and where where people can connect and find you.

Pierre Leveille 21:13
The it’s Deep South resources.com. So pretty simple.

george grombacher 21:18
Perfect. Well, if you enjoyed this as much as I did show up here your appreciation and share today’s show with a friend who also appreciate good ideas, go to deep south resources, calm and learn all about what they’re working on and track their progress.

Pierre Leveille 21:32
Thanks. Thanks, have a nice day.

george grombacher 21:36
And until next time, keep fighting the good fight. We’re all in this together.