Life is Hard, God is Good, Let's Dance - Brant Hansen

welcome back to another episode of

Christian Natural Health today I'm

excited to have Brandt Hansen with us

brand is a best-selling author

syndicated radio host and advocate for

healing children with correctable

disabilities through cure International

Children's Hospitals his award-winning

radio show the brt Hansen show airs on

top stations in the US and Canada his

podcast the Brandt and Sherry podcast

has been downloaded more than 15 million

times he has been named personality of

the Year multiple times by Christian

music broadcasters and is called

Christian music's most beloved radio

personality by Christian voice magazine

Brant writes about various topics

related to Faith including masculinity

in his book The Men We need and

forgiveness in unoffendable in which he

was recently interviewed on ABC's Good

Morning America Brant's new book life is

hard God is good let's dance releases

January 16 welcome brt thanks for

joining us thank you honored to be here

yeah so uh tell us a little bit about

the premise behind the book life is hard

God is good let's dance well it's

like Jesus tells us not to worry yeah

and not to be anxious and I I I when I

ever I talk about it on the air it's

really interesting because I I sometimes

I get push back from people who are like

that's not realistic or it's my belief

that Jesus isn't crazy like that he is

in touch with reality more so than we

are and that we can actually live life

free of being worried like being weighed

down by everything that's happening but

we get so much information and stuff

that people are just

perpetually

anxious I get it we have a we have

epidemic of anxiety in our culture and I

I I wanted to address that because

somebody will tell you like well if

you're not going to worry about this and

that what about this issue what about

that like you're being naive and I'm

like no I'm not being

naive there's a thing where you actually

know

more not less and and part of the

knowing more is is trusting the nature

of God and actually knowing how this all

ends and that takes a lot of the steam

out of the anxiety and it's a much

healthier way to live like Jesus he

knows us he made us that's that's my my

belief on this so he's he's brilliant

right yeah of course and we know we read

the end of the book We Know How It Ends

kind of thing do that change everything

though because it's like I tell people

like if you're if you're watching a game

I don't know if you're a sports fan

Lauren are you at all no not even a

little but go with it somebody listening

might relate somebody is like you get

all worked up when the ref rips off your

team or you're down I I had a favorite

team that was down 18 points in the NCAA

tournament with like three minutes

left and I remember watching the game

and I said to my my kid I shouldn't have

I was very pessimistic it's over why we

this I just I was so down we're gonna be

eliminated well so happened they came

back and one right and it made the final

four as a result well I can watch that

game on YouTube now I'm not stressed out

right because you know how it ends

that's a Know How It Ends so even when

the ref makes a bad call or you know

some guy misses an easy shot or like I'm

not yelling the screen right because I

know how it is you can still be excited

right it's still to watch it's but it's

you if you trust how something ends you

can everything takes on a different

color in life so that's all I'm trying

to say no that makes perfect sense so in

the nitty-gritty as far as it you know

when people are reading a a news head of

something terrible happening or

something happening in their personal

lives what does it mean to Outsource

your worry to the Lord like how do you

practically do that yeah so I got this

from I don't know if you know who Tim

Ferris is but he's like oh yeah okay he

has got podcast and stuff I I should

have finished the book I didn't finish

the book but he wrote this one book

about about you know limiting your work

hours or whatever four hour work week

yes four hour work week exactly uhuh so

one of the things he was talking about

is out sing Everything like you can and

one of them was like he had a personal

assistant he hired in India this woman

that helped him with everything and he

as a joke one morning I thought this was

so funny as a joke he told her hey I'm

really worried about something can you

worry about it for me

today uh yeah and the funny thing was he

said you know what it it worked worked

he's like it's taken care of right it

doesn't like because he's like knowing

somebody else was worrying about freed

him up to like that's really funny but

it's there's something to that right

yeah the Bible's so full of wisdom that

that is for us like it's not burdening

us it's telling us how to live so into

the Old Testament and the New Testament

cast your cares on

him bring your anxiety to him whatever

you're anxious about and with

gratitude it's telling us and then the

piece like if you do that

don't be don't be anxious instead pray

about it and and tell God what you need

tell them what you're thankful for and

then it says the peace of God will guard

your heart like this is how to actually

live so the Outsourcing something going

I'm not in control of

this God I want you to worry about this

for me because I can't handle it I even

think of it like I'm at a desk at work

and somebody brings something

radioactive to me to my desk like an

envelope that's glowing and like that's

not I don't yeah right right you take

that to the glowing envelope

Department that's not my thing right and

so I think practicing this it's not a

it's not Abracadabra thing but it works

like practicing this I'm gonna be

grateful actively tell God what's going

on so I'm forced back to talking to him

reminding me that he's actually in

control of this thing not me and the

Gratitude chases away anxiety it's very

difficult to be grateful and

simultaneously be worried or angry right

yeah no absolutely it's just genius he

knows our psychology he knows how we

operate and this is this is a better way

to live so you you can actually do this

right yeah and it's interesting like the

implication of what you just said sounds

like the we think as we're worrying that

we're actually accomplishing something

like we have this idea that

we're in control by the fact that we're

still thinking about the problem but

it's a complete illusion so if that is

absolutely right right if you can cast

it on him right yeah yeah it's an

illusion it's illusion of control like

we're somehow doing something about it

by worrying we're not right yeah so

what's so genius again people need to

think in terms of Jesus as a genius

about how to live yeah yeah absolutely

not some pie in the sky being it doesn't

understand he's telling us

don't worry be like the

animals yes they're not worried which is

in fact quite true you talk to anyone

who knows anything about the endocrine

system or they there zoologist there

there's a primate neuroendocrinologist

at Stanford has wrote a book called why

zebras don't get

ulcers yeah that's right right so there

are any other creatures on the planet

who get ulcers we're the only ones who

can borrow threats from tomorrow right

yeah zebras don't do that they're not

thinking hey a lion could come next

Tuesday what if it happens oh no what if

what if what if what if we're the only

ones and we don't need to do this Jesus

is telling us that so be like the

animals because worry we now know will

kill you yeah that's absolutely true so

and you're also alluding to in in

Matthew 6 when Jesus is telling us don't

worry about tomorrow but what I find so

interesting is he's saying the reason

you don't worry about it is because

God's going to take care of you like

it's it's not like he hears you and now

you're stuck and you're not going to get

those needs met trust him seek first the

kingdom and all of these things are

going to be added to you why are you

stressing out about it and creating more

problems that are completely unnecessary

that's exactly right but so I know what

can happen and I totally understand this

I'm human too it's of course but right

we go to worst case scenarios in our

heads and we're like this does happen to

people but think the thing Jesus did and

I I do write about this in the book but

the thing Jesus did where they went out

on the

boats and the storm kicked in on the

lake

like he's he he apparently brought a

cushion he actually uses the word

cushion in which I think is

funny how how many times is the word

cushion in the Bible once yeah yeah he's

asleep everybody soaked I bet you yeah

yeah

yeah it was his idea if you go back a

couple verses that was his idea to take

those boats out there right he was doing

this to say let's see how you handle

this and then he's kind of like you guys

failed doing a little test here and you

failed you don't need to freak out even

if the boat did go

down you'd be

okay yeah you're gon like ultimately

you're safe trust me yeah yeah so even

and when when you encounter people who

are believers who've gone through the

worst case scenario they will have this

weird story about how God showed up gave

them something they'd never experienced

before and right hard to relate to if

you haven't experienced it and I haven't

not like that but I I'm trusting the

character of God that if it does I'll be

okay yeah yep he's got you regardless

for sure so and you talk in the book a

little bit about the concept of of

deconstructing Faith this movement to do

that tell us what that is like Define it

and what would you say to people who are

in the process of doing that or maybe

who are in leading the faith altogether

well yeah I can relate to people who get

disenchanted with stuff and I've I've

done a lot I've been disenchanted with a

lot of church culture stuff I get it

yeah why I'm not I shared why I'm not

and it is because I'm not leaving the

faith because I trust the character of

Jesus I trust the character of God it's

too he's too good to leave

and what I find interesting and I what I

wrote about in the book is that when I

read these manifestos from people that

are leaving they're Maybe Christian

artist or big- time Christian authors or

something like well I'm done with

this I I wasn't aware going on

interesting oh yeah yeah oh yeah huh

yeah usually after their career has

peaked or something has happened that

they've been you know they're not going

to have the same success or something

right but that's I don't know you know

or their or their marriage is breaking

up because of something they're

doing suddenly they're losing

faithh what I find interesting though is

when they write about it and they do

right they don't mention

Jesus like why are you why I'm leaving

the faith

along Manifesto and they never mention

like that's really odd to me why were

you in this in the first place yeah I'm

not in this for the cultural trappings

I'm not like I say I'm not in this for

the Christian t-shirts or the movies I

me it's because of Jesus right yeah if

if you're leaving and your statement on

leaving you never mention him like I

don't I don't even know what that is

when I see the kingdom of God I get to

travel to these hospitals around the

world that are all about Jesus and

healing these kids with surgeries that

allow to walk or live like by the

thousands and that's the kingdom of God

In Action yeah for sure when I see that

I'm not walking away from that right no

absolutely so when people are

deconstructing Faith they're not like

what was the faith in what is it what do

you mean by deconstruct or do they just

say that this is useless or what well

people will have their a different

different categories for it but a lot of

times it's it's people reflecting on how

Christians are are to this or to that

they the church the church and then

they're they're also like I don't I

don't believe that this is the only way

anymore where I found that I can make a

lot of friends who aren't Believers and

they they make great point it ranges

with each person see I see but it

usually is like I'm on my way out the

door from any sort of

Orthodox Christianity sure yeah so I

mean I just recently relistened to uh CS

Lewis's Mere Christianity and I

absolutely love that book I've read it

so many times but um it's he makes such

fantastic points of the fact that you

can just use I mean even aside from all

of the Apologetics and the science you

can use philosophy to lead you straight

back to the god of the Bible and all of

the rest of those things they they can

just be misleading but it doesn't

ultimately lead you to anything valuable

yeah something he was really good at and

I think people need to do more and I

encourage people who are struggling

because it's legit like a lot of people

are struggling with their faith or

they're like what is this what's going

on because the culture is so the tide is

pulling so strong the other way sure

yeah so I get it um however I'm like

okay let's apply that same deconstruct

Ive impetus to the

culture at large like ask some tough

questions of our larger culture does

this work is what we're doing

working yeah what we're doing about

about human Identity or like what you

know all like like reimagining marriage

like is this paying off people are

happier right yeah exact suicide rates

are down sure

deaths from despair or down drug

addiction no all this stuff is

skyrocketed this doesn't work yep so my

my whole thing is be is if you're going

to be skeptical I get it I'm a skeptic

too but be skeptical in a very equal

opportunity way because honestly the

alternatives to Jesus to me don't work

they don't make sense they don't

acknowledge our Brokenness and um they

don't provide the peace people are not

at peace right no definitely not his of

living provides that right for sure well

and the the title of the book includes

God is good and I feel like that that's

for a lot of Christians they might say

that but they don't necessarily know him

as good and I think that makes such a

huge difference there's this idea of God

is good by definition but he can do all

these awful things and we attribute them

to him and that's not his identity can

you speak to that a little bit like how

did you come to recognize him as good

the way that we word so it's weird but a

lot of Christians don't know this and

certainly non-christians they don't know

what jesus' favorite subject was if you

ask they don't know and I wasn't taught

it but he's the good news to Jesus is

that the kingdom of God is here his

favorite subject he's constantly talking

about the kingdom the kingdom is like

this it's like that it's like this other

thing he's constantly explaining it and

somehow when when we talk to Believers

and I didn't know it for the longest

time it's like what is that we don't

know and if you don't know you're

missing out on something because

everybody's yearning for this Kingdom

and they don't even know it yes

absolutely so that's why we get

goosebumps and I I wrote a chapter about

goosebumps in the book like when you see

certain things in life it gives you

Goosebumps yeah like you can watch a

video of a soldier returning and it's

surprising his daughter yeah or some

someone hearing for the first time yeah

someone seeing for the first time yeah

like the hospitals I work with we see

kids running and jumping for the first

time because because they got got him a

surgery and told him this is because of

Jesus like yeah it gives you Goosebumps

yes that's because it resonates with you

this is you're recognizing home

yeah when someone's healed like that

it's an advanced trailer of Heaven amen

yeah so when Jesus is healing he's

saying the kingdom is breaking through

see so like this is the lame will leap

like deer the deaf will hear he's

talking about he's showing the kingdom

is available now it's breaking through

and when people see the Olympics they

see all these nations together for the

opening ceremonies and there's this Pomp

and Circumstance and all these people

from all these different backgrounds

smiling and get like it's like there's

something in that that resonates with us

Royal Wedding yeah like this is all an

advanced trailer of heaven and even if

you don't believe in God you still get

these Goosebumps why because you're

you're you're like nostalgic for this

place you haven't been yet yes

absolutely absolutely and that's I mean

it it says that Jesus was the one who

went around destroying the works of the

devil he healed everyone who came to him

as well and that is what you know

attracted people to him so much because

he was the one who was going around

destroying the works of the devil and

bringing the kingdom and everybody

wanted a piece of that yeah everybody

wants a piece of that and like this is a

good thing we want this and like God is

good right when you when you see this in

Act

like heck yeah every good and perfect

gift comes down from him absolutely yes

everything we have like every at the

micro and macro level of the universe

down to the subatomic particles it's

just this beauty yeah that or music

itself like the the good he didn't have

to we don't have to have frequencies

that cause us to cry or dance yeah this

is all this is all his his good goodness

overflowing right that he just keeps

ladling on top of it like over and over

and over yeah that's awesome so tell us

a little bit more about the work with

cure and these these kids that you see

having their disabilities reversed like

just a couple anecdotes how'd you get

into it and stories of of of what it's

like I and I do write a lot about that

in the book because what's weird that I

wound up doing this but I didn't plan it

but I I'm I work with cure there's eight

fulltime right now eight full on

Surgical Hospitals permanent training

hospitals that are all about Jesus

there's nothing else like this in the

world so they're they're not people

coming in for a week or back out it's

like these are full on they live there

and we heal the kids and we tell them

about the kingdom of

God so just in the last few months so

since July the number of people who have

become Christians at our

hospitals

13,760 that's so great wow people

haven't even heard about cure which is

weird if you just go to cure.org you're

gonna see it's it's the best kept secret

in the world and it needs to not be so

that's why I'm trying to get the word

out I wound up going to the hospital in

Afghanistan a few times I sat in on the

first surgery it was a girl who was 17

years old she'd not basically been let

out of the house her entire life because

she had a cleft pallet oh there's this

hole under you know underneath her nose

yeah was treated as a curse and her

parents didn't want the neighborhood to

see her because they would chase them

all out of the

neighborhood she's a monster yeah so she

had the surgery done and afterward I was

in the children's board and she was back

there with her mom this again is a full

grown woman at this point she's 17 right

and already the surgery had paired her

face it was still there's some swelling

there's still a suture there but she

looked completely different yeah

unrecognizable and I I was in there and

I was

like hey uh I was wishing I had a mirror

and I didn't and I was like oh my phone

I'll use my phone and I I had my phone I

turned the camera around and hand

it and she was

just in shock like she could not and I

was thinking at the time I'm thinking

like watching her do that

like every girl wants to be beautiful

like

yeah she just looks so different and

it kir does this thousands and thousands

of times so it's club foot it's stuff

like a 15-year-old boy who just it's

just a surgery and he'll be able to get

up and run instead of living as a beggar

his whole life sure oh man well there's

something about there's something about

healing that's why Jesus miracles like

he's healing he could have done anything

right but 75 or 80% of his miracles are

healings like again the kingdom is

breaking through little bodies are being

restored everybody else is destroying

little people out in the world yep but

the people of Jesus are are putting

little bodies back together I'm like

sign me up absolutely so yeah Satan

comes to steal kill and destroy that's

his signature and yes and ours is what

the opposite exactly he came to give us

life and life more abundantly and I love

that it's doing that and how does that

impact the way that you look at all of

the other chaos that's going on in the

world when you see that the kingdom is

breaking through in these places that's

just it it it's exactly that like I'm

aware yeah kingom is breaking through

like CNN's not going to show you Fox

News isn't showing you like nobody's G

to show you this stuff but the but God

is at work in the world if you but you

may not know it but for me to be able to

see it that's one reason I included a

lot of the little vignettes in this book

was like I want other people to see it

he's where I when people are like

where's your God now what when they see

a tragedy I'm like sure hey you know

what come with me to one of these

hospitals I'll show you exactly where he

is he's with he's where he always has

been with just with the marginalized and

the broken and the hurting and the

isolated and the and the sick yeah and

the thing is we're still in a war zone

so it of course there's still going to

be chaos and tragedy as well but God is

also at work and that just isn't being

highlighted I love and he's using us to

do it to be his hands and feet to do

what he told us to do which is heal the

sick and claim the Kingdom so I'm like

that's that helps me a lot all the other

stuff yeah absolutely so and if people

are seeking a message of Peace overall

instead of like all of the typical

self-help and success plans kind of what

does your book talk about that's a

little bit of a different approach to

how they might it's it's the capturing

your

thoughts speaking truth to your own

stupid thoughts and I have a billion

stupid thoughts through the day but I'm

getting better at going you know what

that's a stupid thought I'm GNA change

my right or selfish or wrong or or

just and when I replace it with

something

true something Noble something you know

that's pure lovely admirable excellent

praiseworthy when I replace it

I can live at peace yeah absolutely

going down these thought these stream

like I can capture you can you can

become aware of it speak truth to it

just like David does in Psalms he's like

why are you so downcast oh my soul he's

talking to himself it's like you can

talk to yourself right and straighten

out this the the dumb but this is a

discipline but it's a good discipline

and over time you get better at it and

you kind of inhabit that and you become

this person that's actually at peace

yeah yeah and everybody else is like

what is the deal why why are you hopeful

sure yeah that's what people are

supposed to be asking us that question

they should

be makes sense right yeah yeah so and

how is that like you you talk about this

idea of a second naite or a second

Simplicity is how does that pertain to

this well so here's what

happens I think I

think you wind up with a child like

faith and when you do so you have this

hope you have this trust you can have

this lightness of

heart Joy is really what Dallas Ward

called a sense of well-being regardless

of

circumstances yeah when you have that

other people will say well you just

don't understand the world like you like

this and you haven't you haven't

encountered the complexities of what

about redactive criticism or what about

you know this the problem of pain what

about like so you start naive as a

little kid right like with that Jesus

loves me this I

know in the

complexity and the second naive is over

here where you just return to you know

what Jesus Loves Me This keeping your

focus where it needs to be yeah so I was

thinking yeah it'll look it'll look to

other people like you have this

childlike faith and you do but it's not

because you don't understand the

complexity it's that you've gone through

this stuff and you are yes and you round

up back with trus in God yeah so people

will think you're ignorant you're naive

like it's it's because you know

more Yep absolutely and you've you found

him to be faithful and trustworthy yeah

yeah absolutely so what have I not asked

you that you want to make sure you leave

with our audience oh gosh that's a good

question you asked good questions

already I don't know I

think I

um I try to make the book funny and but

that's in the eye of the

beholder so but I do I I appreciated

this probably isn't a question to ask

but I

appreciated uh a review I got from

Publishers Weekly which they're they're

pretty tough to

please and they said that the book had a

light touch and a lasting impact and I

like that oh that's great yes because

that's that's what I was going for like

this isn't I don't want to preach right

I want to be I want to be

self-deprecating and I just want to show

you the stories I'm kind of like Forest

gum like stuff I've gotten to see yeah

without intending to right I can just

write it down and go you're not going to

believe this what happened this little

girl or what I was playing with this kid

and

then and I I've gotten to go all over

the world and

uh I get to report on that what God's

doing yeah that's awesome and it's it's

so interesting to me how if you travel

widely and you see more about what's

going on in the world it really does

kind of change your perspective

perspective I mean so many of us I think

are in tunnel vision of exactly where we

are and not recognizing how much more

there is elsewhere when people are like

Christians are this way they're like

that Christians do this they like you

don't know Christians yeah yeah you know

you know a tiny fraction of people in

this country maybe but

like you're telling me an African woman

does this and that like that's the

typical Christ sure yeah like getting

out to see what God is actually doing

among get get out of your

like yep just reacting to their cultural

setting like hey God may be better than

your blinders you think absolutely I

love it so where can people go to learn

more about you and also about cure um

cure.org for cure okay awesome I'm at

bran hanson.com but if you were just

gonna go to one of those websites I

highly recommend cure.org

because it's the it's the best

expression of Jesus I've ever seen in my

life yeah love it that's great so I will

link to both of those in the show notes

and also to your book um thank you so

much for this this has been really

encouraging I appreciate it good good

good my pleasure

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