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Speaker 1: Creativity is an addiction, unplugged because we will always say

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yes to creativity, totally uncut because we all make mistakes.

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So let's turn it into a tool. This is arrow unplugged.

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I write in a forest. I go into this forest

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to listen. What started at the Billy Graham Library in

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twenty fifteen, right here in Charlotte, North Carolina, has evolved

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into a lifelong commitment and journey. Something is always moving

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through each and every one of us. I say, it's

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a calling. What do you hear? These aren't my words.

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These are the lyrics from Billy's Forest, chapter number three

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hundred thirty seven, October ninth, twenty twenty two. I'm not

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sure why I've been called to touch this subject, but

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it stems from a conversation shared with a church pastor

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several years ago. The leader said to me, if Jesus

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were to return today, he'd be injured by the way

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that we gather and celebrate on the worst day of

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his life, meaning the crucifixion. Jonathan's words are points of

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view that have never left me. Although the lessons I've

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been taught put focus on Jesus rising in the name

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of love and his spiritual forgiveness. I realize to get there,

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he had to live out the events three days before.

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While I sit in this forest today, it's forty five degrees.

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The leaves are quickly becoming gold, deep reds and oranges.

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People are amazed by the colors of fall. Stepping back

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many feet, I connect to what Jonathan once shared with

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me watching these leaves, amazed by nature. We are celebrating

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the death of a living tree. You see, little things

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like this get into my heart, like when I say

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the sun is rising, Well, you know what my heart hears.

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My heart hears that God's son has risen. There are

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so many storms wrapped around each and every one of

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us at all times of the day. Stopping to think

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about what we celebrate is a deeper look into the greater,

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more meaningful message. Celebrating death. Now, I'm going to go

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in a route that even my heart says, don't do it.

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Don't do it. The loss of my father, my brother,

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my mother, and my sister four just in the past

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few years I've celebrated their love, their life. Never once

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along this journey have I said I have lost them,

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when in fact my heart says they're right here with me.

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Right now, I feel more like a family, and I

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don't know why that is. We had the phone conversations,

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we wrote letters, we did everything that families do together.

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But yet all four of them are very much alive

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in my life right now, carrying the energy of something

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that has transitioned. And I think that's what the story

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is about from October ninth, twenty twenty two, is that

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we do celebrate the crucifixion with praise as well as reflection,

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and we do stand in complete awe during the months

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of fall when the leaves are changing, But when it

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comes to losing a human life, it's a different story.

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All I'm saying is in my heart, my family is stronger.

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They are living within and they help me make the

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right decisions. At where I presently stand celebrating the transition,

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the transition, I'm errow. These aren't my words. These are

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the lyrics from Billy's Forest.