0:00:00 - 0:00:31 So I've broken my Hermitage to come into town for business meeting. We are, we as me, I've been trying hard to um meet with investors for my company um to raise some money. But um in the traversal of events, I've had a few minutes here before my meeting and I was just sitting here reflecting on some 0:00:31 - 0:00:56 thoughts and um I managed to find a shady spot because I don't want my car to be 400 million degrees when I get back into it. And I'm in the parking lot of a, of a restaurant, um, a no frills restaurant and the middle of a pretty busy spot in town. But as I'm looking at the greenery here and the birds 0:00:56 - 0:01:19 are chirping and the sun's coming through the trees here. And I'm watching these cottonwood seeds just slowly float through the air all over, just kind of majestically in the sun and I'd show it to you, but it wouldn't do it justice. So I'd rather just not a thing about the rest of the Lord and Eden 0:01:18 - 0:01:43 and how when Adam and Eve were in Eden, they really didn't appreciate it. And, uh, you know, you can't fault them that much. What did they have to compare it to? So often we have these tremendous opportunities or blessings from God, whether they're opportunities, things that could happen later, pathways 0:01:42 - 0:02:08 to greater things or even where we are at the second. So often, we don't really understand what we have so often it takes a loss for us to understand what we have. But there's another process which is the opposite direction where God can teach us the value of something we don't have yet. And then when 0:02:08 - 0:02:37 we, when we find ourselves in that situation, we can appreciate it in ways that we never could have before. And um that happens an awful lot. That's actually quite a central theme to our lives and our intended lives. I should say I was also thinking a lot. Um I had to do some projects with our septic 0:02:36 - 0:02:58 system recently. We had a little, little emergency. It's kind of a recurring theme in my life. And so I have a lot of opportunities to reflect on the fact that I somehow have a sense of smell that exceeds uh other people. I know with maybe one exception or two of people who kind of are the same in that 0:02:58 - 0:03:26 regard. And it's interesting that when I was younger, I remember I've always really had a thing for smells, which sounds really weird. But you know what I mean? I always really enjoyed good smells and um it's always been a motivator, in fact. And I think that's kind of a weird thing for people, but it's 0:03:26 - 0:03:57 always something I've noticed and appreciated. And, um, I remember as a younger person, um, like I dated this, I dated this lady once and she wore a particular fragrance that I really, really appreciated. And interestingly, uh, through the years, what I've noticed is that for the most part, having an 0:03:57 - 0:04:22 acute sense of smell is kind of a curse and I'm hedging. There's no kind of about it. I mean, in some sense it's terrible. Um I could go into details but um I'll let you use your imagination just to keep this short, but it's, it's no fun. Um because the truth is that scents seem to be Pareto distributed 0:04:21 - 0:04:44 and almost all smells are bad, really bad. And then some smells are just a little bad, but most things are within the that ballpark and every once in a while, there's a good smell, but they're rare and they really don't smell that good. And then you get this long tail of things that smell amazing, but 0:04:44 - 0:05:10 they're super rare. And I guess over the years, my experience has been, has clouded, not clouded. It's actually has clarified my judgment on these things and refine my perspectives where to tell you the truth. Um It'd be hard for me to, to describe how much I'd appreciate never being able to smell anything 0:05:10 - 0:05:42 again. Um, and pay a high price for that. Um, notwithstanding my knowledge of the existence of nice smells. So that's interesting. Um, and maybe, maybe a better way of putting that a more accurate way of putting that is that if I could go to a place where, where most things had no smell and, um, maybe 0:05:42 - 0:06:15 some things, the, the fancy smelling things still smelled fancy. I take that in a heartbeat to go to a place where the stench doesn't exist to finally escape that. Um, and then the, the other thing that I want to say about that is that, uh, over the years I've really moved away from any appreciation 0:06:14 - 0:06:38 whatsoever for the synthetic smells. I, I really don't like them. Um, and it doesn't matter if it's like a, you know, a cleaning product that's designed, it's supposed to smell good or, um, perfume. I tend to not like it. There are some exceptions, but for the most part, I can't appreciate it because 0:06:38 - 0:07:00 I know how fake it is and I know that that actually most people smell really bad and all people smell bad, given sufficient time and situations. And so like I have this deep appreciation for people that just have a neutral odor, which all of this really sounds gross. It's, it's grossing me out. Um, but 0:07:00 - 0:07:21 I'm not like one of these germaphobe type people. Um, I just have a really sensitive sense of smell and if you do too, you know exactly what I'm talking about but it's, it's a rare thing. It turns out who would have thought, but it's, it's a very rare thing. Um, it tends to co occur with amazingly good 0:07:21 - 0:07:44 looks. So that's just the burden we bear. Um, that's not true. It does co occur with things though that at other attributes, which is really interesting that I won't go there. So, what does this have to do with Eden and the rest of the Lord I have noticed with every passing day and every additional thing 0:07:43 - 0:08:15 that the Lord teaches me or leads me through my appreciation for something like this where I'm just sitting here watching the cottonwood fluffs flow through the wind that will just down, down through the air. They're not really blowing in the wind and I just get a minute like this, the amount of value 0:08:14 - 0:08:54 that I can squeeze out of that would overflow most people's capacity tanks. And if there was a switch flipped and I was just sitting in something like this for the rest of my life, I would not run out of praise for God. I would not run out of things to think about and feel mostly to feel. And I think 0:08:53 - 0:09:21 that most people's idea of the rest of the Lord is something where he plucks you out of this life where all these things have power to overcome you and do on a daily basis, even though you might not see it. And then he puts you in a place, not of rest and peace, but a place like an amusement park or 0:09:21 - 0:09:52 something. Some place that is just designed to satisfy your every desire that is very normal that you have that one has and not like you. Um, but just typical things that typical people want and that's not what it is. And I think the less often you see things like this and feel things like this, the 0:09:52 - 0:10:25 more surprised you're going to be if and when you end up in it eternally and it's so different than what you expected because I have been shocked in my um my experiences with the Lord. And as he's shown me things about, caused me to feel things or he's explained things about heaven and about the afterlife 0:10:24 - 0:11:04 . I've just been so shocked because I carry all that back. And I see with my eyes that have been touched by that and I feel as my heart that has been touched by that. And I think with my mind, it's been quickened with that and so many things are here that already that are so much like that and it's inexplicably 0:11:03 - 0:11:43 challenging to know something about it and to desire it because you value it just to value it approaching what it's for approaching, for what it's worth and to know just how much um I don't know the best way to say this. It's not, it's not correct to say you're kept from it. I, I'm, uh, I'm willingly 0:11:42 - 0:12:22 postponing it. Um There's a lot of tension between one's desire to go there forever and one's desire to stay here and help others to come to see it because here's a very important piece of information. So your mortal eyes are gonna be different after the resurrection and your mortal ears and your mortal 0:12:21 - 0:12:53 heart and mind, all those things are gonna change. But your spiritual eyes, your spiritual senses, your mind, your heart, those things will remain as far as they p they have come to become here. This life is the time to prepare to meet God. That's not just in the sense of repenting of your sins. Although 0:12:53 - 0:13:21 that's super duper important and it's, in fact, it's prerequisite. It's everything though. It's how you think, it's how you feel is not just what you do, that's why you do it and what it's like for you to do it. Those are the things that we tune here and now, and if you don't tune those here and now 0:13:20 - 0:13:33 there will be no difference there. Even though everything is different, nothing will be different. So deep thoughts.