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So, it's a few days before Thanksgiving 2025, and I wanted to make a video to say a heartfelt thank you to all the sponsors that donate to make it possible for me to spend my time writing books and making videos and ministering to other people. And it absolutely positively would not be possible without you. And I hope that you feel meaning and joy in knowing that when you read the books or watch the videos, I hope you realize that I couldn't do what I do without you doing what you're doing. Now, maybe that's one reason why not not as many people as I wish are part of that. Uh, and not as many people donate and sponsor this ministry because maybe they don't want to be associated with those things that I say uh in the books and videos, but a heartfelt thank you. Um, those donations, they they fund my mortgage. They pay for food for my family. Uh, my son just had an operation on his foot and all of these things. That's where the money goes and I really appreciate it. For those of you who would like to participate in that, you can find information on how to at upwardthought.org/donate. those donations are are appreciated. They're needed. A lot of people um well, a lot's not the right phrase because there weren't a lot in to begin with, but some people have had some financial situations come up where they've had to reduce or stop giving. Um other people never did in the in the first place. Um, and and some people have have chosen to stop. But I really appreciate those of you who stepped in and made it so that we can keep doing this. It's an amazing thing. I think every day that I get to do this is a miracle and I thank God for it and I thank God for you that you're in the picture. But beyond just saying thank you, I wanted to take a minute and talk about darkness of all things, darkness, chaos, and faith, and dedicate this to those folks who are who are making all of this possible. You'll see why hopefully in a minute. Hopefully, it all ties together. So we can read through the creation account and see how in the beginning what what made it all possible wasn't just the raw material. It was the idea that it was possible and it was the personality namely God who is who is backing the whole enterprise and the Lord is such that to the extent that we know him we we trust him in a way that enables us to act in ways we wouldn't to go beyond where we would stop to to have hope where we wouldn't have any hope and to endure things that we'd never be able to deal with otherwise. And in like manner, it's interesting to understand that there's a kind of faith that the world can't overcome. that no matter how bad things get or how hard they are or how undesirable they may feel, there's a kind of faith that just holds on and keeps going. I had an interesting experience recently when I was watching a video that one of my friends made. And first off, I thought, "Wow, this is great. I never could have done this. This is so much better than what I could have done. It's perfect. It's exactly what it needs to be." But then it was almost like it's almost like I had a retroactive flashback. And I don't want to make this out to be more than it was in that sense, but I thought this is exactly what I thought was possible years ago, years and years ago, you know, 10 years ago. I could see that someone could do something like this if I just did the bit that I could do. And I'm not sure if I can phrase this significantly enough, but the chaos, it's almost like we we are all grasping in the dark just doing the the bare minimum that we can do because it's such a challenge. But all it takes, all it takes is a few people, in fact, just one person to stand up and say, "No, I'm going to do this. I'm going to stare into the darkness as long as it takes for it to invert into light, for the darkness to turn inside out." And that's what happens. It does turn inside out. It's possible. I said, "Hold on, there's a truck coming." I said it's possible to have so much faith that that the world can't overcome it. It's it's also possible to have so much faith that you yourself as an individual cannot carry out that faith fully. It's possible to have so much faith that you can't fully carry it out as an individual. It's possible to have so much faith that you need the help of others to bring what you see into fruition. Now, I'm going to tell you something. It might be mind-blowing. God has so much faith that he cannot complete his vision alone, which is that's going to offend some people. I'm sorry, but it is what it is. He needs people as part of his plan. He doesn't need you or me specifically, but he needs somebody. He needs people to step up and do the parts that he can't do. Again, that's going to be offensive to somebody, but let me explain. It takes let me let me deflate our egos just a little here. It takes imperfect people to complete the plan of perfection. Why? There are a couple of reasons. One has to do with windows of truth, which I've taught you about the we need near peers. Near peers are are our best bet of receiving truth. And that that it's a hierarchical deal. And that's important. But the other piece of this is that the things that God does make it impossible for him to do anything else. So let me give you an example. Jesus was crucified at something like 33 years old. Someone had to do that and it was the best person ever who did it. He was needed for that. So in being born in the meridian of time and being murdered at 33, he couldn't do anything else. He couldn't be born sometime before the flood. some and sometime after the flood, but before he was born or sometime after he died, he could only come once. And why was he sent in the first place and not the father? Well, because the things the father had already done prevented him from coming down himself. So each of us has a role to play and it's the best that we can do. And in doing the best that we can do, this is what happens. Coming back to the darkness, we establish footholds and handholds for other people. That's what happens. So you you create this little latch point, this little uh I I have the imagery of a of a um I'm thinking about cellular biology right now. I just can't remember the words here. Um my goodness. I'll I'll remember as soon as I stop recording. Anyway, receptor. There you go. A receptor. PhD retained. A a receptor in the chaos. You're creating something that someone else can clip into and build onto. And like Paul's frequent use of the analogy of the body, we all have a piece of that or we could at least we we should. We're called to it. We're invited to take hold of it and become it. But so few of us do. And that that that's this is the long- winded version of thank you. Some of you have been exceedingly generous, mind-bogglingly generous in creating a foothold in creating a way beyond all likelihood, all probability of me being able to do this. And uh together we are we are creating footholds for other people to do more and better than they could have done otherwise. And this is this is a process that's not supposed to be particular to any people. It's something that's available for everyone to do. But because so few people have faith, you don't see this. You should see it everywhere. You should see it in businesses that people start and work together on. You should see it in families. You should see it in associations of friends, neighbors. You should see it in all sorts of things, but you don't see it because people don't have a lot of faith. And so, that's one of the things that we're we're trying to work on here. Recently, I took a look at the at the books to come and just sort of refresh my list here, and there there are more than two dozen of them. Now, the book, the next book that should be out, I am I am pushing so hard to get the draft done by Christmas, and I'm being extremely hard on myself and trying to push and push and push on this. Uh I I just I wish I could do it faster. But one thing that makes me uh not so upset with myself in in my pace with that is that I've I've actually I've done an an incredible thing in combining what was going to be and had been written out to be four books plus chunks from two others. And I found a way to package that up. Hopefully, if I do my job well, it won't seem like that. You won't read it and say, "This is four books plus two chunks of another just squashed together." But in re in repackaging and rewriting it, I think um I think it'll it'll it'll cohhere nicely. And and if it does, basically what I've done is taken about four years and packed it into something closer to 6 to 8 months of concentrated writing. Now, now there's some details here. These I've been turning these ideas over for years and years, but the actual focused writing. So there's always all these books in the hopper and then there's one that I'm focusing on right now, which will be the next one. That's the process. This one, um, I've been focusing on exclusively, like I said, for six or eight months. Um, but the the reassuring voice as I was looking through all that list was just we are still so early. And this folds back onto the theme here. It is crazy to me to think about what what I am being enabled to do uh through your donations in terms of generating these books so much earlier than they could possibly be appreciated. This these books are are going to collectively present a system of thought that is just overwhelmingly novel and it's it's very much in line with the trend of what's already been published. Um but it just keeps going and this is just the beginning. It's crazy. And there are two dozen more books. And so, thank you for for being a part of that and for enabling it. And I hope that as these books continue to be published and these videos continue to come out, we take advantage of the time that we've been given, you find practical ways to apply this these things in your life and in the lives of those that you care about. On that note, well, no, I'll put that into a short. All right. Thank you all very much.