0:00:00 - 0:00:27 I think we're recording. Um I trying to get into writing this morning. Um, as part of that, I have the usual process, I make sure that I think through the previous day and I make sure I've got uh all the revelation I received the previous day written down uh through the day. Try to stop what I'm doing 0:00:27 - 0:00:48 . Take a quick note when I can. Um, well, whenever it comes, but there's different kinds of revelation and sometimes the Lord's working on you as you're speaking with other people or you might have a fleeting thought that's so soft that it doesn't even register as something you could write down. And 0:00:48 - 0:01:07 , um the Holy Ghost is an aggregator. And so it'll just sort of turn into more and more and more like spinning a stick around a cotton candy machine and more and more comes onto that thing and it just looks wispy. But then all of a sudden there's this tangible blob of cotton candy. And so as I got into 0:01:07 - 0:01:31 it this morning or was trying to, uh one other thing that I do, sometimes I have a little playlist of songs that I find deeply sincere and sincerity is a gateway to revelation. And so it's part of my morning process of booting up. It's like, it's like spinning up this really giant machine engine and 0:01:31 - 0:01:52 sometimes you need some starter fluid in there. Anyway, as I was going through all this, the Lord brought to my memory, this letter that I wrote in October of 2021 to my niece. I'm sorry, my cousin, she's younger than me. Um But this is uh the daughter. Well, obviously, you know what a cousin is. Uh 0:01:52 - 0:02:18 So, uh she's, she's a lot younger than me, but uh I'm relatively close with her parents and in more of like a friendship way than a family way. Uh We're really tight. So, but her pa her parents, particularly her mom, I talk to a lot and she, she's very concerned about her daughter. And so she's an only 0:02:18 - 0:02:41 child. She's got a lot of attention and uh we were talking, her mom was talking to me about my cousin and I got some revelation at that moment and I asked, uh her mom if I could write her an email and she said, yeah, absolutely. Just sort of out of courtesy. I, I sent it to her mom before I sent it to 0:02:41 - 0:02:59 her and she was really touched by it. But this is a really personal thing and I'm just gonna go over it because that's what the Lord told me to do. So I'm following orders here. And hopefully I can get through this, maintaining some level of self control. It's not super long. But I think that you'll 0:02:59 - 0:03:18 find, well, I know that there's someone out there who's going to find deep meaning in this and that's why I'm supposed to share it. Ok, dear. So, and so I had a call with your mom yesterday and some echoes of the conversation are on my mind this morning. I'm going to share a few of those ideas here in 0:03:18 - 0:03:39 hopes that you might find them helpful. I hope that the distance between us doesn't impede your willingness to consider these things no matter how different they may seem, you obviously have immense musical talent. I wanted to share some observations I've made of the world that you may find helpful in 0:03:39 - 0:04:02 making your music and pursuing joy in life. We humans look relatively similar on the outside, but we have astonishingly varied capacity to feel love, to give some sense of what I mean by astonishingly varied, think of the brightness of a flashlight compared to the brightness of the sun. The intensity 0:04:01 - 0:04:24 and depth of love that most people feel is closer to a flashlight. Some people love a lot more than that. And it's possible for a human to love like the sun's brightness. One reason no one seems to realize the severity of this range is that as humans, we rarely see what lies outside of our experience 0:04:23 - 0:04:46 . We have a tendency to assume everyone is like us. Most people are dishonest, selfish and willfully act against what they understand is best. Whatever flashes of good nature they might experience are fleeting and will be quickly detected and overwritten by their underlying nature. These folks assume 0:04:46 - 0:05:10 everyone is like them and this provides a feedback loop to internally justify their poor treatment of others. The few people who have more honesty, more interest in the welfare of others and more courage to follow their conscience similarly assume that everyone is like them. They will be hurt in frequency 0:05:09 - 0:05:34 and intensity that matches the degree to which they love more than the norm. It's an inescapable pattern. The people who love will be beaten down by the hordes of people willing to take from them and hurt them in return. This tends to wear down those who dare to love. The younger these people are, the 0:05:34 - 0:06:01 more concentrated, their love tends to be and over time that love wears down from years of repeated disappointment with and pain from others. What is critical for these people to realize is that there are, in fact people out there just like them. They are rare but they are real. It's easy to think that 0:06:01 - 0:06:29 it's only worth it to be loving if those you love, love you back. This isn't true. There are at least three sources of value to loving deeply. First, there are people like this out there when you find them not only do you find the fulfillment that has evaded you in relationships with others, but you 0:06:29 - 0:06:57 also realize that all your suffering was necessary for you to be the kind of person, these others need you to be the meaning provided from this makes it all worthwhile. Second, it isn't possible to be a deep loving person. Just some of the time, you can't turn it on and off. You either choose to be true 0:06:57 - 0:07:24 to the love inside of you all the time or choose to shut it down to a safer and easier level. Third, there is immense value in projecting that love out into the darkness of the world, which is a point I will elaborate on. Next. I've loved music for as long as I can remember, but it wasn't until very 0:07:24 - 0:07:49 recently that I realized why my whole life, I've had this image of love inside of me. I've never seen that image in any other person. But for some reason, I've always expected to see it somehow I knew what it was like, even though I'd never seen it without consciously realizing what was going on. Many 0:07:49 - 0:08:15 songs captured the passion of life that I could not articulate and could not see in the world but felt inside. Not all music is like this and no one genre holds a monopoly on it. It's usually specific artists and more often just specific songs, two songs by female vocalists you could look up are Rise 0:08:15 - 0:08:39 by Caroline Jones. I recommend the video on youtube or many songs by Paramour. Try Last Hope or that's what you get. I'm choosing examples here that I think might resonate with you. Now, I'll try to tie this all together. You've got a situation that is a blessing and a curse. You've got a father who 0:08:38 - 0:09:03 loves you a sadly rare thing today and who works very hard to provide for you all. You've got a mother who loves deeply, an extraordinarily rare thing and who lived her life in a way to prepare to be a wife and mom also extraordinarily rare. The blessing is that in combination, you've been given a great 0:09:03 - 0:09:27 treasure of a home life compared to almost anyone on this planet. The curse is that you might be tempted to assume that what you have is in any way normal. If you do, you won't be as cautious as you should in your interactions with others. It is a jungle out there. The other thing that's even more important 0:09:26 - 0:09:51 is what is inside of you. I don't know you nearly well enough to say what I'm about to. If I'm right, the value to you will be well worth whatever weirdness I'll cause in the event that I'm wrong, I have reason to believe that you are a person who is capable of extremely deep love. If that is the case 0:09:50 - 0:10:12 , the sooner you figure that out, the more meaning you will have in life, the more strength you will have to endure the many people who will hurt you, the more courage you will have to maintain that love. In spite of it, the more guidance you will have as you seek a life with relationships that make 0:10:12 - 0:10:39 use of and reciprocate that love. And ultimately, the more likely you are to obtain the immense joy that can only be had by those willing to love like you can if I'm right about who you are here are two pieces of advice I want to give you first. I think you are one of the extraordinarily rare people 0:10:39 - 0:11:03 in this life with a combination of deep love and musical talent. I cannot express how valuable people like this are to create through their music, a physical creation of rare intensity of love that would otherwise remain deep inside the hearts of the few people who are like us. When people like you make 0:11:03 - 0:11:32 music, you create a signal that broadcasts out into the world to those of lesser love. You provide evidence that deeper love exists to those of greater love. You provide sustaining nourishment to keep going in an otherwise dark world. It is so needed and so valuable. Here is the advice. Don't let your 0:11:31 - 0:11:59 light fade. There will be many reasons to turn the depth of emotion to the negative side or to turn the intensity, turn down the intensity or to get saccharine sweet. Don't do it have the courage to put your full and sincere heart into your music. Not only will it blast light out into the world, blessing 0:11:59 - 0:12:22 everyone who hears it, but it will develop an emotional depth of self awareness inside of you that will pay immense dividends when you start your own family. This is a short but extremely important point and I promise you that if you follow this advice, you will see how immense a difference it has made 0:12:22 - 0:12:47 in your life when you're years down the road. Second, as far as romantic relationships go, you need to realize that what you see people all around you doing is not the path that will help you find what you are looking for. You are looking for a needle in a haystack. The best way to find that person is 0:12:47 - 0:13:13 to have the courage to live up to who you know, you are all the time, no matter what other people think of that as you do, that your life will act like a beacon to attract the exact kind of person, no matter how rare they can provide what you are looking for. Realize that the path may include spans of 0:13:13 - 0:13:38 time when you feel extremely lonely, I promise you that it is worth it and caution you away from getting into or staying in any relationships where you know, the person isn't at your level getting and staying in those relationships will rob you of what you seek and you will know it and what you might 0:13:38 - 0:14:02 have had will haunt you your whole life. I think you're an extremely gifted person in many ways. Even knowing you as little as I do, I can see that you're a beautiful person inside and out a very rare treasure in this life. I have high hopes for you and your life and the light you will provide in this 0:14:01 - 0:14:28 world. I hope you can share some of that hope, the path you're on can lead to exactly what you seek. So long as you have the courage to live up to what is inside of you, Rob PS, I'm sure this letter is awkward as all get out writing things like this is my version of writing music with fullness of heart 0:14:28 - 0:14:39 . We all have to live according to the song in our heart. I won't be offended no matter your reaction. Don't feel obligated to respond.