Allison Park Leadership Podcast

The World’s Actually Not Falling Apart and Why We Should Be Grateful

• Jeff and Dave Leake • Season 6 • Episode 12

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Is the world really falling apart—or are we just addicted to bad news?

In this episode, Dave and Jeff unpack why we may actually be living in the best time in history—and how a shift in perspective could spark a summer of gratitude in your life. From global poverty declining to medical breakthroughs and technology improving daily life, this conversation is full of surprising stats and spiritual insights.

We also tackle the growing mental health crisis and explore why gratitude isn't just a nice idea—it’s a lifeline. In a culture that constantly feeds fear, we’re choosing thankfulness instead.

- Why the world may be getting better
- How to fight negativity fatigue
- Practical ways to live with gratitude this summer
- Faith-based hope in the middle of chaos

If you're tired of doomscrolling and ready for a mindset reset, this one's for you.

Watch now—and discover why there's still so much to be thankful for.

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Dave Leake:

How bad are things really right now? Are they getting worse? Do we live in one of the most progressively negative situations world's ever seen, or are things getting better? It feels like what we hear all the time from news and culture is just that things are bad, but is it possible that maybe while some things are bad, that things are getting better in general, and ultimately, how should this affect the way that we live our lives today? We're going to talk about things like, what is negative, what's positive, what the context has been in the scope of history. But also, how do I live a life full of gratitude, peace and contentment in a world swirling with negativity? If you want to hear more, tune in. Hey everybody. Welcome to the Allison Park leadership podcast, where we have culture creating conversations. I'm Dave

Jeff Leake:

and I'm Jeff, and we're so glad you're with us today. Again, we're father and son. We're both pastors on staff at Allison Park Church, and Dave's getting ready to make a big transition here, so headed to Jacksonville, Florida to plant the church in 2026 give us a quick status update. How's it going? Dave,

Dave Leake:

the last three weeks have been 7am until midnight. Work days,

Jeff Leake:

we hear the fatigue in your I'm so tired. But

Dave Leake:

today is the last day we kind of have the well sort of, but it's the last day for the home listing. We're getting pictures today and be on the market, hopefully

Jeff Leake:

this home listing not homeless, right? It sound like you said the homeless thing. So, oh, you've been working on your house, getting ready to list it so that you can sell it. And then once it's sold, you move to Jacksonville, and not a whole lot else help happens until that.

Dave Leake:

Yeah. I mean, I mean, you know, after, hopefully after this week, we'll be moving into, you know, we're doing web, website development, and, excuse me, brand branding, and all that kind of stuff. Yeah, so, but again, if anybody's interested in being a part of the team in any kind of way, if you want to be part of our prayer team, we would love that. If you want to support financially, we'd love that if you want

Jeff Leake:

to move down Absolutely. Yeah. People have come and asked, well, what happens when Dave moves? Are you guys gonna keep the podcast? And we are? We're gonna keep the podcast. We're looking at different formats, ways to do it. Maybe sometimes Dave will fly up here and we'll do in studio. Maybe sometimes we'll do some kind of tool that allows for us to be doing it at a distance. We also may change the name of the podcast and stay won't be Allison Park anymore, although you're still always else true, Dave, yeah, so, but yeah, so that's developments yet to come. We don't have any shout outs specifically for reviews today do. But

Dave Leake:

gratitude to everybody who's been a part of this. So thank you for always being a part of our podcast. Family. Yeah, excited for this, this next season of the podcast as well, it's gonna be great, yeah. So you found a video that is good perspective for the season that we're

Jeff Leake:

in, yeah? So I, you know, we have commented on this book a number of times, called factfulness. It was written by a Swede, someone from Sweden, and he talks about how things in the world may be bad, but a lot of things are getting better. And he offers a lot of data about that. And in line with that, because we had talked about maybe doing an episode on this particular idea, I saw this little clip starts out with comedian Jimmy Carr making some very serious statements about how we should view the world right now, and then it shifts into another teaching video from an organization called Prager u which gives good statistics that might be very surprising. And so we're going to make our way through this video. It's a longer video, but we may well it may show some of it, and pause and do some commentary, and we'll use this as sort of our guide for the discussion today. Yeah. So, so I guess the question of an episode, is the world getting worse and worse, or is it getting better and better, or is it a mixture of both? Is kind of, I guess, the question we want to address. So let's go ahead and start with that little clip

Unknown:

you get used to how great your life is. No one had a hot shower until 50 years ago. So I try and do this thing when you stand in a hot shower. George Mack, my friend, pointed this out to me when, well, look when you stand in a hot shower, just for a moment, just go, Well, no one that you admire from 100 years ago had this simple pleasure in life, and when you look at the world that we live in, we're like you're doing there's been 100 billion people ever, right? We are in the top, top percentile in terms of the luck that we have had, that the lives, like the the calorific intake, that we just take for granted, the fact that our children don't die. You know, in the first year the modern medicine and our lives and the entertainment that we get, we're living like kings. We are, in fact, the most fortunate human beings ever.

Jeff Leake:

Okay, why don't we pause there, and we will come back to this additional but let's just start there. Dave, what was your reaction like you just a few minutes ago? Saw this clip. For the first time, what was your reaction to what this comedian was saying in terms of, you know, his reflections on on life?

Dave Leake:

Yeah, I just think it's, I just think it's different than what you think about, what you expect. You know, man, I feel like I wish I had been more verbal to say than this. My brains a little foggy. I think so this is probably one of the things we'll maybe theme this out to be. But it makes me think, like, I don't think I'm grateful enough for what I do have, you know, I mean, like, let alone America, in comparison to places in the world that it's a little rougher to live in, but just even now versus 100 years ago or 50 years ago.

Jeff Leake:

Yeah. So I think I have, I have a number of reactions to it. First, I think that because we are living in a world of constant outrage, right? So news media and social media is feeding the outrage, we are constantly fed the bad news. We aren't really told a lot of good news. We're just told the bad news, because fear and anticipation of the bad thing that's going to happen is what keeps people tuned in, and what keeps them scrolling right? And so there is, there is a culture war, and there's a lot of bad news being shared all the time. I think, secondly, I think a lot of people in our era don't have a good understanding of historical perspective, sure, like a lot of people, just think the life has always been this way, like they don't understand how much technological and economic advancement has happened across the globe in the LA in our lifetime. Like, so, you know, I'm a boomer, and Boomers have lived through a lot of transitions. So when I was born in 1964 life was at a certain level, and now things have changed so much, and a lot of what we see as negative, like so much technology change and so much change in our culture, and so many things that have happened globally, and so many wars and conflicts that have happened, and the pandemic and 911 and like all of this stuff has happened, and it's almost like people can watch the news On any given day, and start to think, Man, this must be the end times, because things are getting worse and worse and worse. And yet, in many ways, life has never been better because of the level of technological advancements, creature comforts, available food, medicine, hospitals, you know, just conveniences, like you said, just the idea that you have a hot shower. I mean, that's a massive thing to stand because there are many, many times I go on a trip overseas to a place where maybe I don't have a hot shower, and most places in the world do now, and you're like, boy do I miss having a hot shower. Boy, I miss a good hot cup of coffee. Things that most of the world never really knew a long time ago, and now we sort of take for granted, but doesn't take away the fact that things are still bad, right? There's still a lot of things. We look and we say, Man, that that's a problem. Like, who is ever going to solve that particular issue there? And there's a lot of lot of that stuff too. Yeah. So, so, you know, the lack of historical perspective is interesting to me as an old guy. Why do you think that is from your generation's perspective? I mean, yeah, do people just not care?

Dave Leake:

Like, I don't. Yeah, I don't. I think when you were pointing out, like, the just the cultures view on life in general, like, I've mentioned this book, you know, a number of times. It's been a little while, but there's a book that's all about this. It's called Hate. Hate. Inc, yeah, and it's about the way that, you know, regardless, as the partisanship, the way that news stations make money is by polarizing, typically through fear or anger, those kind of negative emotions, is what makes money, and it generates a lot more revenue, they should, like, I can't even name them, but there was like, statistics about the way news stations used to present things, and it would be like, here's here's what happened, and then there'd be like, an opinion piece. But like, as soon as media started to polarize it, ratings went way up. People were glued to the screens. And so I do think just the way the culture, culture talks about the world, like, even when you say that, like, So Hans Rosling book, factfulness is about how things can be bad but still improving, yeah, but even saying things are bad, like, I guess thing like, Will things ever not be bad to some degree before heaven. Because, I mean, things are also good. You know what? I mean? Like, they're, they're they're not just bad and improving, they're bad and good and improving. Yeah, there's just things that are like

Jeff Leake:

and getting worse. They're bad and getting worse and good and improving, like, all at the same time. But most things

Dave Leake:

that are bad are actually not getting worse. Most things that are bad right now, like, if you we'll look at some of those facts in just a minute. I'm not saying that there aren't problems that are getting worse. Like, obviously, tension in the Middle East is getting worse right now. It's, it's not the worst it's ever been.

Jeff Leake:

No, no, no. Actually, there have been multiple wars that we, we talked about in an episode about what to do. Israel probably over a year ago now. So there have been conflicts. 1967 1973 and on it goes right mid 2000s it's always been bad in the Middle East over the last 100 years or so. It's bad today, but doesn't necessarily mean it's getting worse. Some people would make a case that it might be getting

Dave Leake:

better, and maybe it is, but I'm saying, even if it is getting worse, most things are getting better. Yeah, you know.

Jeff Leake:

So, so now let's talk about, well, why is this important? Okay, for there's a couple things. First, I think, in our culture, we have a mental health crisis, which is really astonishing, because we live in the most affluent time in human history, in the most affluent nation on earth, right? But, people's mental health is not good. That's I'm not casting blame if, by the way, you're going through a mental health crisis due to some kind of trauma you've walked through. I'm just saying, generally speaking, we have a mental health health crisis. So that's one problem. Then I think, secondly, you mentioned it, Dave, you say, I wonder if I'm ungrateful, like, I think that's a spiritual problem that can be very personal, like maybe I get up and I see the bottom half of things rather than the top half, and I concentrate on the the difficulties of life rather than the goodness of God. Way too much. Okay, so that's another issues in gratitude and what it does to your soul. But then I think there's a third problem, and that's just plain ignorance. Yeah, okay. Again, that sounds really harsh. Let me just back, back it up for a moment, meaning that we do not know certain things that are true about 2025 that were not true about 1975 or 1925 right? And if we have the context of things, the more information you get, the more grateful you are for the era that you live in, because there's just so much that has improved. And so I don't know if maybe that's the point which we hear. The rest of this video to give us some of that, but

Dave Leake:

yeah, let's get there in a second. I'm there's a there's a phenomenon. I'll look it up in a second. I think it might be called the expect. Expectation gap. Okay, you heard about

Jeff Leake:

this? Yeah, when? So it's, I don't know if it's a phenomenon. I preached it as a Series A while ago,

Dave Leake:

but isn't there? Isn't there? I think there's a psychological it's where, it's where your

Jeff Leake:

experiences don't meet your expectations, right? And that gap where your experiences and your expectations are at odds with each other, or there's a distance between them that you feel disillusioned, yeah, and

Dave Leake:

disappointed. I think that when, when you expect, like, oh, like, I see my friends and they're living at this level, like, I could be financially better. I could have more vacations. Or, you know, it's this has been rough, or my health should be better, or whatever it is, my family is more dysfunctional than I think it should be, then you can live because the ideal of what you what you think it should be, is not there. You can live feeling like my life is awful.

Jeff Leake:

I do think we do have this. And again, I'm using these really harsh words, but probably most of us have a bit of an entitlement perspective on life, yeah, like, I deserve to be rich and happy and have a great job and a great marriage, and everything in my life should be perfect, especially and easy, especially because I belong to Jesus, and, you know, he's in charge of my life. And if he's doing, if I'm doing what I'm supposed to do before him, and he's doing right by me, that everything in my life will hit this ultimate standard, almost heaven, like in a way, where everything in my life is perfect, and often we're thrown in our walk with God when we deal with unpleasantness or unexpected problems, because that expectation gap exists. And I think maybe our generations have this problem, maybe more than any other generation ever has, simply because, how could we not appreciate the things that we have? How could we not wake up every day and say, Wow, is this cool to live at this time in history with all of these amenities and conveniences and blessings and benefits that that exist, right? I mean, there's so many things that just that just are a part of our life now,

Dave Leake:

yeah, this, let's, let's just, we keep saying like, Oh, things are, things are getting better. Let's just watch a little bit more of this, and we can

Jeff Leake:

talk more context. Yeah.

Unknown:

How lucky are we? The late, great satirist PJ O'Rourke summed it up in one word, dentistry. One could easily add electricity, air conditioning, and lest we forget, indoor plumbing. Lu the 14th magnificent palace of Versailles, had no proper waste facilities. People relieved themselves where they stood in hallways behind curtains and in the gardens. One contemporary observer noted that Versailles was the receptacle of all of humanity's horrors, the passageways, corridors and courtyards are filled with urine and fecal matter. This is Lu the 14th we are talking about, maybe the richest man on earth at the time. Ask yourself this question, would you prefer to live in a studio apartment with electricity, a window air conditioner or. And indoor plumbing, or a Versailles Palace with none of these things in 19th century, stop

Jeff Leake:

there for a minute. Okay, so I actually had this reaction when I was in London a couple years ago. We went through one of the palaces there, and I started asking questions about conveniences. And I thought to myself, if you were to give me a choice between living where I live now with a refrigerator and a microwave and indoor plumbing like, like, like I have, and air conditioning and a vehicle to drive around in, like, the televisions that I watch like I would I would much rather live today in my home than in a 15th century castle. I mean, there's just, there's no comparison. Now, the artwork is amazing. The ceiling heights are incredible. Probably some of the privilege that they enjoyed was was great, but if you start to get down to the nitty gritty, it would be like going on a missions trip, in a way, into a very remote place where they had nothing to rely upon. I mean, if you went back in time, you would notice the odor and the inconveniences of everything. I mean, you're there was no driving down the road to order a pizza or bringing in Uber Eats to have your groceries delivered. I mean, everything had to be slaughtered right before it was it was consumed. So, I mean, it's, that's pretty, pretty intense, right there, just thinking about that change in the era that we live in now,

Dave Leake:

it's not just conveniences. Let's, let's keep going, because I think those are great people are like, why I'd rather have less processed food? Yes, but there's a lot. There's more. Let's keep going.

Unknown:

American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson observed that no one wore white shirts. The pollution indoors turned everything black. Here's another blessing, antibiotics. In 1924 Calvin Coolidge, Jr, the son of the President of the United States, died from a blister from playing tennis on the White House court, many of the best doctors of the day were consulted, multiple diagnostic tests were run, and he was admitted to one of the top hospitals in the country. Chelsea Follett, my colleague at the Cato Institute, has written, yet he died within a week of infection. Deaths from infection of a minor cut or blister were extremely common at the time, and no amount of wealth or power could save a patient in almost every way, life is materially better than what it was in the past, and not just the distant past, either. In 1997 a 42 inch TV screen cost $15,000 today you can buy one for under $200 so why aren't we more excited about the future and the new wonders that await us there? Because human beings are born complainers, the negative emotions are much more powerful and longer lasting than positive ones. That's just the way we are wired. But the truth is that if you are living today, you are the beneficiary of countless life enhancements, and not just in developed countries almost everywhere, consider the following global statistics. Between 1950 and 2020 the average inflation adjusted income per person rose over 300% between 1960 and 2023 the average life expectancy Rose 46% from 50 years to 73 years between 1961 and 2017 the daily supply of calories Rose 38% from 2100 to 2900 today, even in Africa, obesity is a growing concern, worried about the environment. There's plenty of good news there too, the chance of a person dying in a natural catastrophe, earthquake, flood, drought, Storm, wildfire, all landslide fell by almost 99% over the last century. Between 1982 and 2016 the global tree canopy cover increased by an area larger than Alaska and Montana combined in 2017 the world database on protected areas reported that 15% of the planet's land surface was covered by protected areas. That's an area almost double the size of the United States. With so much good news around us, why are we so gloomy? We can pause that now,

Jeff Leake:

yeah, that's a good question, yeah, yeah, that's a good place to ask like, why are we so gloomy?

Dave Leake:

Human beings are born complainers as a hilarious life. And it makes me like, yeah, like, I feel a little guilty hearing that

Jeff Leake:

and negative emotions are more attractive than positive ones, just like negative news is more makes more money than than positive. And you even say just negative, polarizing, right? So here's some others. This comes from the book factfulness. This is, this is such amazing stuff, if you care about the world. So extreme poverty is dropping in 1800 85% of the world lived in extreme poverty today. Less than 9% do. I don't think anybody knows those kinds of things. Say that one more time, 85% lived in extreme poverty. Poverty in the world in nine in 1800 now, not less than 9% crazy, yeah. Global life expectancy in 1950 the global life expectancy was 5050, years. Today it's over 72 okay, I

Dave Leake:

think, I think what go back for a second to the to the extreme poverty? Yep. So, like, here's the here's the context for that. We hear all the time about the, the, what's it called the economic gaps? That was the income gaps that are increasing constantly, how the rich are getting richer constantly, which is true, but actually the whole world's getting richer too.

Jeff Leake:

Yeah. So this is he, in fact, when I see lists 10 instincts that skew our thinking, and one is the gap instinct thinking and binary everything's rich and poor. And so what we're saying is the rich are getting richer but the poor are getting richer. Yeah, right. So it's not that the rich aren't getting richer and the gap between rich and poor are isn't increasing. It's just that everyone's going up. Now there's still, you could say, well, there's still an injustice between rich and poor. It's true, but poor people are getting richer, which is a good thing, like, we can't ignore that aspect of things. Well,

Dave Leake:

the Yeah, I mean, Hans Rosling talks, you know, in that book factfulness, about how something can be getting much better and still not be fixed. Yeah. So, like, is, is, you know, the income inequality, like, oh, we could be helping more people. I mean, we should be helping more people, but the people that are at a disadvantage are much it's a much smaller percentage than it used to be. That's a good thing. Yeah, I think this stuff that we should we should be able to celebrate that idea where they were talking about, about negative emotions. You heard about that, that idea of loss aversion. Loss aversion is the idea that So studies have studies, studies have shown that losses feel about twice as painful as an equivalent gain is pleasurable. So if you were to lose $10 or get $10 it feels twice as bad to lose $10 as it does to have somebody give you 10 it's like, oh, that was nice. But because you're like, No, because you're like, that was$10 I mean, it's like, not a big deal, but it feels way worse. So you know, if it's the same amount of like, a lot of studies have shown, like, even if you know, you're 90% likely to make money, but there's 10% of losing a decent amount of money, people are much more prone to, like, protect what they have. So I think the idea of the media, and not just the media, but our culture amplifying the loss, sparks these emotions that maybe skew our perspective.

Jeff Leake:

Yeah. So what should we do with this? Like, we could go on and on with more of these, these stats, like, so there's so for instance, here's another one. Global industry literacy has risen from 50% in 1960 to 86% today. That's a huge thing, right? So child mortality rates, 1800 40% of children died before age five today, just 4% in low income countries today, 60% of girls finish primary school, which is a huge increase from what it was in the past. So globally, things are improving, personally when it comes to conveniences and medical advancements and things like the little story about about the blister that killed the president, son,

Unknown:

insane, yeah, dead by now, just just the

Jeff Leake:

fact that we live in an era that understands antibiotics, right, let alone like I just got off the phone with my friend who had a bone marrow transplant and is going to come out of this procedure with a completely new license lease on Life, like the level of medical advancements that are available to us today is just mind blowing. You know, there even, even like, the fact that health care is available to everybody is a huge thing. Now, we could make the case that everyone should get the same level of insurance, or maybe there's still inequity in that area too. But for the longest time, only rich people got good medical care. Everybody else had to get an in home visit from a doctor that really had no specialties. Sure. So your level of care has gone up your

Dave Leake:

level, but even that idea okay? And for the record, I'm not saying that equity is not a good idea or that people shouldn't have equity across all stratospheres of society, economically, racially, etc, you know, nationality wise. But if, if, until there's comparative equity or meaning like people are, it's not just like equal opportunity, it's people have equal amount of stuff, if we're like, in terms of, you know, not just, not just things. You understand what

Jeff Leake:

I'm saying though, yes, if opportunities and yes

Dave Leake:

until, if we can't be content or grateful, until we hit a society like that, then our entire lives will be miserable.

Jeff Leake:

And if you look at equity between now and 1925 like if you just go back 100 years. We're ahead of the game no matter who you are where you live, right? So no matter who you are where you live, you're better than you would have been if you were born 100 years ago, right? And so that should be the context for the discussion about other inequities.

Dave Leake:

And there's, there's, there's more I want to get into, because so where do we go from here? Is a good question, but just just to highlight this, the binary thinking that gets you stuck in the problem is, well, if we don't have major fear around this issue, nothing's going to change. Yes, that's, that's, that's a false dichotomy. That's actually not how things work,

Jeff Leake:

and it's not healthy, and it's not ever how God works in us to bring change. He doesn't say make everyone terrified enough to act fear and guilt and shame are not good, lasting motivators. They're not unifiers. They're not emotionally healthy. They're not spiritually healthy. There has to be something else that motivates us to do good in the world and to solve problems than fear, anxiety and gills, anger and shame, right? It's actually

Dave Leake:

a really common way to lead change in general, now that I think about it, like, I know you mentioned this book, John Cotter is leading change talks about that idea about creating a burning platform, like, if we don't jump, we're gonna we're gonna die in this, you know? And that idea of, like, it's lost version, you're playing on lots of version. Like, if we don't do this, it's gonna be too late. We're gonna you, we're gonna lose everything. I think that is, it's a little, I mean, maybe sometimes it's the right thing to do in leadership context, but in society, well, if

Jeff Leake:

the platform is burning, sure you tell everyone sure platform is burning. But if it's not, you don't set it on fire.

Dave Leake:

Yeah. Well, and if it's, if it's, I can't follow this analogy. But if it's getting better, the problem is that we can never acknowledge it's getting better, or else, oh, it's not hot enough to jump now, yeah, people are, but that, I just think that there's a little bit of if we're not careful, like, not that everybody here is leading change in this way. But I think if we're not, but it is the atmosphere of our culture, yeah, if we're not careful, we put careful, we perpetuate this cycle of shame and fear, and it's manipulative, and it also probably steals from when

Jeff Leake:

we may it may not be meant to be manipulative. Some people probably mean it that way, agreed, but it just, it's just like, it's almost like the breath that we breathe, and what it's doing, it's, it's killing our soul, yeah, that's right, it's and Okay, I think probably one day we'll stand before God and we'll get have to give an account for the fact that we live in an era of such blessing and prosperity, but we were ungrateful for it, and we didn't necessarily see it from the right perspective. Because I imagine God must be sometimes looking down from his throne and thinking to himself, what you complaining about that now? Like, come on, like there's just so much that I think we overlook. I'm I watched this video, I felt like I needed to repent. Like, God forgive me. I'm so sorry. I i Look at the I look at the minutia of what I don't have, and not the, not the enormous mountain of evidence of the things that I do have, and I need to live in light of. So here's what God has provided into our lives, right? Yeah, it's

Dave Leake:

July 1 on the second. Yeah, it's July 2. Date of recording, I'm sure it'll be released a week later, whatever. But so if you're listening to this, when it drops, it's the middle of the summer, you know, 2025 I'm just wondering, like, how could we, how could we begin to shift and adjust our perspective to make this like, a summer of gratitude? That's a good thought, because I think, I think, like, especially in the part of the world we live now, Pittsburgh, man, it's so much better, at least. I think it is, you know, right now. Well, now the parts of the day, yeah, for parts of the day, till the thunderstorm, whatever. It's like, you know, it's, you know, negative 10 degrees and like, I mean, it's great right now. And I think, like, now is the time to appreciate we always should, but appreciate what God's given us and and begin to adjust our perspective. I actually think, you know, there are all these studies about how psychology affects health, like the way you think affects your health, even just shifting towards gratitude, that's an effective form of medicine. Like laughter is an effective medicine, but gratitude is as well. Hope is an effective form of medicine. I think our health would get better. Think our relationships would get better. I think our relationship with God would be richer. Our church community would be better. So how could we turn the current atmosphere we live in into a summer of gratitude? To shift

Jeff Leake:

this so we actually did this. So Wednesday mornings, we have staff prayer, and pastor, Greg Jacobs from our butler campus, led it this morning, and he he did something that I have taught often, that I do by practice often. He said to us, let's take the next three to five minutes, and I want you to write down or say out loud to God in your own private prayer time, 30 things you're thankful for. 30 takes. Five, I can come up with quick 10, not that hard 15. It's pretty much in my wheelhouse. But once you get past that, then you have to sort of search a little bit. So it was, what am I? What am I thankful for? This is something that I regular practice during my prayer time every morning, is I get into a season of Thanksgiving, and I force myself to come up with 30 new things that I wasn't thinking about before that I should be thankful for. And I think that's a that's a really helpful thing to do. Another thing to do would be, every time you use some modern convenience, pause and give thanks to God, like you get out of the shower, like the Jimmy Carr was saying. You say, thank you God for this shower, like where they still stop and smell the roses, the little things when you pop the food in the micro. Thank you God for this microwave. You get in the car and you've turned the keys. I thank God I can I have this car to drive, you know? I mean, sit down. You have your meal. This is actually what praying before a meal is really all about Thank you, God that I have this food. For many people, it's a perfunctory religious ritual to pray before you eat. But technically, the way that originates is that when you had food, you sat down, you said, Thank you, God, I have this food to eat like it's designed to be a an exercise in gratitude. Yeah, yeah. I don't think the food so much needs blessed. Sure, it needs we need to be thankful for it. That's what it is,

Dave Leake:

right? I think here's here's the other thing that I think maybe helps just as much. So those are good disciplines of practice to be intentional, to insert gratitude. I think practices of becoming aware of where ingratitude is or where, like, let's say things aren't are meeting our expectations, you know, like, just, just personal examples. Like, you know, sleep has been just the last couple of weeks. Like, I've been, we've been on lower sleep because we've had to be. It's, you know, it's just been a very intense season for us. I found myself some morning because I'm tired and lower energy, like just in a mood, and I'm like, you know, it almost feels like an injustice, like I'm the one staying up that late. I'm the one like driving the the speed that we're trying to get our house on the market. But, you know, because I got to bed later than I wanted to, maybe my kids woke up in the middle of the night. I'm so frustrated, or I get into if I'm getting into a small disagreement with Sarah or, you know, fighting about something stupid, I just think, like, the practice of like, man, like, I'm gonna choose to be thankful like, for for anything. You could always find something that could be better about it, whether it's your spouse or your kids or your house, your job, or you could choose to see the things about that thing that are amazing. Like, who was it? I know you preach about this a lot, but that the phrase, like, what you appreciate, appreciate,

Jeff Leake:

yeah, right, yeah, right, right, right. And what you depreciate, depreciates in terms

Dave Leake:

of in value to you, you know, like, obviously, value in some degree is in the eye of the beholder. And if you choose to value what you have by being like, I have the best wife and kids in the world, you know what I mean, you begin to I don't know. I think it's shifting to like. Feel where are the 10 spots of what I'm dissatisfied with if you're not fully healthy? I mean, I believe we should be praying and believing for healing, but I'm thankful that I can still walk, or that I can use my hands, or I'm thankful for modern medicine. You know, i Does this make sense? What I'm saying like just, it's

Jeff Leake:

taking a deep breath where you are in the moment you're in, and looking for the thing that you should become grateful for, right? It's seeing the value or the silver lining in every every cloud, or the value in every moment. That is, that is the thing.

Dave Leake:

I think I'll try, I'll try to different way one more time, because that's not quite what I mean. I think it's looking for, what are my perceptions of what's lacking? Okay? And it's, it's choosing to decide to be grateful in spite of something not meeting the expectation. Okay? So it's like, oh man, like, things are going to be so much better when the the boss that I have at work finally shifts out, or I get, I get a, you know, I'm making a little more money. Whatever it is that I'm so frustrated by this, like, this is nagging Splinter, yeah? Like, I think it's it. When I've done this successfully, it's the biggest relief in the world when something's really bothering you and you're just like, God, thank thank you, though, for for this stuff, even with that person, or even with you know what I'm saying? Like, figuring out, what are the things right now that I'm allowing to suck the joy out of my life because my expectations aren't being met. Can I read a verse real quick? Yeah, I think that sort of speaks on sort of this idea. So Hebrews 13 verses, five and six. It says this, your life should be free from the love of money. Be satisfied with what you have for he. Himself, as Jesus said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. Therefore we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper. I will not be afraid. What can man do to me that just gives me peace to even just read that? But the beginning there, your life should be free from the love of money. The idea there is the love of money is the expectation of I need what I have, or I need more. You know what I'm saying, and I can't be satisfied until I get it. Yes, and it's, it's probably also, you know, greed, the love of money. Greed isn't just you have a lot and so you, you're now greedy. Greed is also being so petrified about, Hey, I like, I'll be honest, this is, this is an issue for me sometimes, like, oh, we shouldn't be that generous. You know what I mean? Like, that's gonna put us I know that sounds bad. I'm just being honest though. Like, it's like, like, oh, you know we need to give somebody a card. Like, Sarah is a very generous person. And I've noticed myself sometimes being like, Scrooge McDuck or whatever. Like, you know what I mean? Like, trying to pinch like, Oh, we didn't give it 50 bucks. Maybe, like, 10 bucks is fine here, like, you know, but, but that that's a form of greed. Well, there is a range, right? I'm sure there isn't a range. I mean, you can be unwise in being too generous. You're right, but if you're, if your heart is always pulling back, yes, do a little less. Yeah, yeah. Because, and for me, that's a trust thing. Also, my trust sometimes strays out of like, God's gonna take care of this, and it's I need to financially manage, or I need to whatever, whatever resources my time or my sleep, or, you know, do I have time for this phone call that I'm gonna take? And again, wisdom and boundaries need to be taken into consideration. But again, Hebrews, 13, five, your life should be free from the love of money. Be satisfied with what you have. For he himself has said, I will never leave you or forsake you. Therefore we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper. I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? It's good, you know, in a in a world that we live in that is so disillusioned and jaded by what's not fixed, or what what's, you know, inequitable, or what's wrong, what the injustices are, I don't think we should be taking our foot off the pedal to pray and to act, to try To make things like heaven as much as possible now, but there should be a level of gratitude to where, yeah,

Jeff Leake:

and a level of perspective too. So, you know Jesus, I forget what chapter it is now Dave, but he was responding to an interaction with some people who were putting to the test. And he said, life does not consist, and the abundance of your possessions, and I always like to counter that it actually consists in the abundance of your heart. Yes, right. So if you have an abundant heart, which is, you know, described in the verses that you read, what is, what does it mean to have an abundant heart? It means a heart that's filled with gratitude. It means a heart that recognizes God's grace. It means a heart that's filled with the Holy Spirit. It means a heart that's filled with joy. It means the hearts of living in the moment. And if you have an abundant heart, then that's where joy comes from. You know, I think it also is just good. Bringing it back to what we've been talking about here, to have a little historical context of your life is important. So on July 1 every year. I don't know if you know this guy, Dave, but he used to be a Pittsburgh pirate. Bobby bunia, okay, so he lit he was a pirate in the era of Andy Van Slyke and Barry Bonds and the early 1990s which was the last time the pirates were almost in the world when I was born. Yeah, okay, early 90s, yeah. Bobby Bonilla was traded to the Mets and got this exorbitant contract with the Mets, and he had six years left, and they wanted to get rid of him. And so they had to make salary cup room for him. And so they wanted to clear out his contract. And they decided to pay him off by giving him a deferred contract where every year for 35 years, he would get$1.3 million on July 1, all the way to 2035 so So Bobby, when he hasn't been playing baseball for 20 years, but yesterday, July 1, he got a check for $1.3 million I was I was walking with mom, and I was thinking to myself, what would it be like just to get one of those checks? Like, one time someone say it's July 1, here's your $1.3 million like, he made himself a really good agreement. But if you were to talk to Calvin Coolidge in 1925 he would think, what would it be like to actually have live in an era with antibiotics? My son would still be alive. Yeah, you know what I mean? Like, right? If we have a context for where we are and what we have, and we don't see it always as we're we're lacking something, but we see it as that we've been given a lot more than we deserve then, then we live in a grateful perspective, right? So everything's a matter of context, and because we live in the the, you know, top percentage of people on Earth, even in 2025 if you live in America, wherever you live, whatever's going on in. Life, you're better off than people who live in Burundi, right? Because Burundi is the third poorest place on Earth. So I just think we need to, I just think we need that context too to be constantly reminding ourselves I'm more blessed than I realize. I'm more blessed than I deserve, and I need to be thankful for what God's placed in my life.

Dave Leake:

Okay, so let's, let's build out our summer of gratitude. Idea. Okay, so what are daily habits and practices? So the daily

Jeff Leake:

30, right, get up and thank God for 30 things that would be one thing to do every every moment that you use a convenience. Thank God for it. Pause and thank God for it. Your idea was, as you look around your life every day, become grateful for who you're with and what they add into your

Dave Leake:

life. Yeah, especially like, I think, find what feels like the lacks or the pain points and choose to see it from a different place. Yeah, you know, I don't have to wait until this gets better to be thankful for what I do have.

Jeff Leake:

Yeah, actually, there's and again, I'm doing poor on book references, but I will try to remember it later. But they say that couples are the that are the happiest are those who look at each other with rose colored glasses. Yeah, that they and you could Google this, probably you'll find this if somebody wants to look this up, if you tend to exaggerate your partner's positive qualities, because what happens in marriages that start to deteriorate is we exaggerate their negative qualities, right? But if you exaggerate their positive quality, and you look at your your your spouse through rose colored glasses, even though everyone else looks at them and think, What are you talking about? She's not like that at all, or he's not like that at all. Okay, you will be happier if you live in a positive delusion than if you live in a true reality. Now, that's not to say that you walk around in a purposeful delusion, but when it comes to relationships, it's better to see your partner through the eyes of vision and than it is to see them through the eyes of their of their worst moments.

Dave Leake:

Yeah, I think that was that there was a study done by John Gottman that's yeah, Gottman Institute, yeah, that did the four horsemen of the apocalypse for marriages. Yes, criticism, contempt, defensiveness and stonewalling. And he was the one that talked about how marriages that see each other through rose colored glasses are much happier, yeah, because they become what you're what you see them as to you, right? That, I think it's beautiful. Yeah, to his and

Jeff Leake:

if you and if you look at the world that way. I think that also helps, not that you live in denial. We're not saying live in denial. We're not saying, Stop acting on the things that you need to act on to make the world or your family or your life a better place. Like, get on the scale and you say, I'm skinny, you know, kind of a thing like, there's a certain limit to what positive confession can do in your life. But, but, yeah. I think that's a very powerful thing. I absolutely do as well.

Dave Leake:

There's a song that's, um, do you know the artist? Forest, Frank, no, he, he's like a, kind of a trendy arts when I was a Christian artist. He has a song that's called nothing else. I'm not sure if we could play this on the outro. Matt, I'm not sure if we get in copyright trouble, but if we could, we should, okay. He says, No, he doesn't know we can't. Then you can listen to it yourself. But for summer of gratitude, that's been one of the theme songs for me and Sarah.

Jeff Leake:

Are you already in a summer of gratitude going in we've not? It's

Dave Leake:

not branded like that, okay? But now it is, yeah, yeah. I came up with that, yeah, no, but it's, you know, I think, like, songs like that, he just talks about, like, you know, like part, one of the lines is, I've got my family, Jesus and my health, and if I've got all that, I really don't need nothing else. That's how, like, the song goes. And I, I love that perspective, you know, I think I just want to live a life that's free, free from offense, that's free from that. I don't even know that, what we call the expectation gap, that's free from the heaviness. And I just want to live, live this summer, especially thankful for all that God's given me with the right context. Yes, obviously we're still working for justice. We're working for improvement, equity, all this different stuff. We're working to to bring the kingdom, but I just want to, yeah, I want to live a life that's thankful the way that we're supposed to be. Here's

Jeff Leake:

what it says in Philippians, chapter two, verse 14, do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation. So that's a good combination. Live as live with gratitude rather than complaining. Even though you live in a war and corrupt generation in the midst of it all, still do that. Then the next phrase you will shine among them like stars in the sky, as you hold firmly to the word of life. And then. Be able to boast on that day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain, that that's you know, the world is complaining and living in fear and dread, but those of us who follow Jesus, even in a warped and corrupt generation, should live without grumbling and complaining instead being grounded, grateful for

Dave Leake:

Matt wanted me to throw something in here. We read a book in our men's group, and can't think what the name was that had a flag on a beach on it, yeah. Why do I do what? I don't want to do something like that by JP, PUD, I don't know if you know that, guys. Yeah, anyway, and he had this point that we really liked in it. We were discussing this about, if you notice, what you tend to complain about the most is it tends to show the area of greatest entitlement. Ooh, like, Oh, I'm entitled to being treated differently. Oh,

Jeff Leake:

man, that's intense. I think that's what I

Dave Leake:

was trying to get at, is figuring out what, what am I currently complaining about,

Jeff Leake:

expectation gap? What am I so that would be the next thing in the summer of gratitude, listen to yourself, yes, complain, because that will reveal your greatest entitlement. That's

Unknown:

what I'm that was what I was trying to get at. JP, just said it way better.

Jeff Leake:

And, and then repent, yeah, of that entitlement. And and shift your heart into a place of gratitude. Exactly, yeah, exactly. That goes way deeper than 30 things to be grateful for. Pause and thank God for the fact that we live in 2025 it's like, hear yourself, yes, hear what's coming out of

Unknown:

your in your mental monolog. Oh, man, you know that's good,

Jeff Leake:

yeah. Like, really, oh, so frustrating. Wow. Yeah, I think we maybe just need to leave it on that note, Dave, because that hit really, that, like I felt that in the chest, like conviction, good stuff. All

Dave Leake:

right. Well, I'm grateful for the show that we're gonna be doing, and also for people that are part of the show, that are listening right now. Thank you for being a part, and we would really be grateful if you could help us to spread the word. You can do a number of a number of things for this. You can leave a five star review. You can like and subscribe if it's on YouTube, share it with a friend, whatever you want to do. All of it's helpful to us, and we would appreciate two minutes just

Jeff Leake:

to spread the word. Help feel like summer of gratitude needs a t shirt. Dave, maybe I'm not the one to design it, though. Producer, Matt, maybe we unless you want to stock Canva t

Dave Leake:

shirt. Yeah, good stuff, hey. Well, we are so glad you chose to join us. Hope you enjoy the beginning of your summer of gratitude. We'll see you guys next time you.