Pranks and Mishaps, Part 2: A Lighthearted Look at Christmas Past (With Friend & Certified Life Coach Danny Mullins)

Speaker 1: 0:05

Welcome to the Something to Nod podcast. This is part two of Pranks and Mishaps, a special Christmas edition, and I'm your host, nate Vinyo. I hope you enjoyed last week's episode. This week's episode picks up where that one left off, with a few more Christmas pranks and fails. We hope to find a delicate balance between having a bit of joy and laughter while maintaining a reverence for the season. Next week will be another special episode and in January we'll get back to the crash course through the Old Testament. And lastly, let me say that this episode will not have a break in it, like so many others that I've done at this length. So I just want to take a moment to say, on the front end, thank you to everyone who has supported the podcast in one way or another, whether financially through the online store, by purchasing a hoodie or just making a donation, or whether you've rated, reviewed and shared the podcast with family and friends. I will tell you that last week we tried a new posting strategy and the downloads increased significantly. Thanks again. And let me reiterate the goal for this podcast is to spur or drive people to get into the Bible for themselves, to gnaw on it, to meditate on it in such a way that it changes their life. Thank you for partnering with me in this mission. Well, that's enough detail for now. Let's pick up where the last one left off. And, for the record, we do know that it was Isaac instead of Jacob, and that'll make sense a little bit later, enjoy.

Speaker 1: 1:52

I had a other friend of mine, luke Taylor, does the cross references podcast, recently started another podcast called weird things in the Bible. We were talking about, you know, the common idea I wasn't even thinking about when we were talking about, you know, some of the comedy in the Bible or some of the odd things in the Bible, and he's looking at some of those, maybe not necessarily from a comedic standpoint, but we were talking about this and I was asking him if he could fall on his sword and cough up some kind of a story. You know that Christmas a Christmas fail, if you will and he shot me this story and I want to read through parts of this here. I read the first line of it and I thought it took me back to our wild at heart stuff, you know, like the classic. For now, for those of you who didn't listen into the episode we did previously, danny and I did together with regard to wild at heart.

Speaker 1: 2:45

The essential question in wild at heart is he talks about how it demands soul is. You know, do I have what it takes? You know there's this dynamic going on, and so, with that as a backdrop, I'm looking at this and I'm reading this first sentence that says there's no way you can actually drive the gator. My cousin, david, said to me from the other side of the kitchen table you're way too little. I read that. I was like oh, this is I don't know where this is going to end.

Speaker 1: 3:18

The taunting begins. It's like how do you? You go to somebody right into this thing Anyhow. So his response I'm not. I retorted them for the umpteenth time. I've been driving it for years. David smirked your feet probably can't even reach the gas pedal. They can too. I said, my voice getting louder and louder the longer this conversation went on. You don't even know what you're talking about.

Speaker 1: 3:45

I was fully capable of driving the family gator. If you aren't familiar with gators, they're a John Deere utility vehicle with two seats and a bed, a top speed of 15 to 20 miles per hour. They were always useful for transporting equipment, feeding cattle or roaming around the farm, which is where we grew up and what we use them for. I was probably nine or 10 when my older cousin, david, dropped in one day to visit my parents and give me the much needed harassment that all little cousins need from time to time and I had already been driving our gator a couple of years by that point, and he probably knew that, which is why he couldn't resist giving me such a hard time. Have you been there?

Speaker 2: 4:28

Oh, yeah, which one youngest to five man.

Speaker 1: 4:31

I was wondering, I was like you identify with the younger one or the older one?

Speaker 2: 4:36

Always the younger, always the younger.

Speaker 1: 4:38

Yeah Well, you sure managed to get some jabs in with the nader and tie at the same time, so it's anyhow so you get your you learn how to spar.

Speaker 1: 4:51

Oh man, okay, back to the story here. If you can actually drive it, show me. He said, knowing full well it was not parked out front. When he arrived, my dad was using it somewhere else on the farm and there was no telling when he'd be home. I simmered in my seat for a few minutes and went on to talk about other things when suddenly I heard the familiar roar of the gator approaching outside. Dad was home.

Speaker 1: 5:20

I sprinted out the front door and hopped in the driver's seat of the gator. As soon as my dad got out, I fired up the gator and put it into gear. I'll show you. I yelled at my cousin revving the engine and putting the pedal to the metal. Our front and back yards together were about five acres and I knew it like the back of my hand. I planned to zip back and forth across the yard with the grace of an ice skater doing figure eights across a rink. Then Dave would hang his head in embarrassment and slink back inside ruin the day. He dared to doubt my gator driving prowess, or at least that's how I saw it playing out in my nine-year-old mind.

Speaker 1: 6:00

All of these thoughts had run through my head in the first three and a half seconds into my journey through the yard. So far I had not yet got out of the gravel driveway, but I decided it was not too soon to go ahead and gloat a little. Still going full speed ahead, I turned myself around and saw cousin David standing on the porch. See, I can drive it too. I yelled back at him as loud as I could over the roar of the gator engine until suddenly something else drowned out my shouts. There are noises that seared into your memory forever, and the crash I heard right then was one of them. Those few seconds that I had my head turned, I had smacked right into something, any guesses?

Speaker 2: 6:47

I'm guessing a tree, a tree, okay.

Speaker 1: 6:49

All right, anybody else, I'll give you a second. Okay, here we go. I slowly turned to look in front of me and I had driven straight into the side of cousin David's pickup truck.

Speaker 2: 7:05

That's better than a tree. That's better than a tree.

Speaker 1: 7:08

I'll teach you to taunt me, oh man. Yes, I may have known every inch of our yard, but there wasn't usually that extra vehicle in the driveway. Whatever happened over the next 30 seconds, I literally can't remember, because the next thing I know I'm on the other side of my house, getting as far away as fast as.

Speaker 1: 7:28

I can, but eventually my dad caught up to me and I had to go back and apologize to my cousin. Time to think of it, one of us did end up hanging our head in shame and slinking back that day, and it wasn't him. That might be the takeaway from something like this. As someone important once said, he who exalts himself will be humbled. This is true. Nice point, luke. He who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. I wish someone had told me that when they gave me the keys to the gator, oh, wow, wow.

Speaker 2: 8:14

Murphy came to roost.

Speaker 1: 8:16

Oh man, you know, I think there's a lesson to be learned from cousin Dave's standpoint of taunting such a young kid.

Speaker 2: 8:26

Yeah, because he's still got his truck in it.

Speaker 1: 8:29

I'm wondering if Luke had to cite his autograph by that or something. How does that go down? How does that go down long term? Your brother's hack on you like that, oh gosh yeah.

Speaker 2: 8:43

Well, so here's the thing, though I was young and I was sickly as a kid, I had lots of medical issues when I was little, and so they were pretty protective of me, but that didn't change the fact that, once they realized, I was healthy again by age 10 or 11, which was really just me and my second oldest brother, or the brother that's just above me, who's Bobby? Yeah, excuse me, robert, he goes by Robert, now Roberto, roberto. He hacked on me all the time. We had lots of knock down, drag outs and normal sibling go at it, but yeah, it was. There were a lot of challenges growing up.

Speaker 1: 9:30

Yeah, yeah, my brothers and I would go at it. I mean, there were seasons, yeah.

Speaker 2: 9:38

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 9:39

I think they're probably seasons. You go through like that and at the same time, they're seasons after the fact that you get along in a completely different fashion. You've figured out how to get along with each other A lot of it is just testing.

Speaker 2: 9:57

Your will testing your strength and testing your, your personal. I don't know if it's power or what it is, but you always have to see how much do I have? You know, and it goes back to that question.

Speaker 1: 10:09

Do I have what it takes? Do I have what it takes? Well, and the extent to which you know and I've seen you do this with Nader and Ty, just in joking with them, where you challenge their manhood or their male, you know it's like, and Ty's only six, you know, and we're playing. We're playing with them and I know you're playing with them, it's just. But he knows it partially, Partially but he's, but he goes for it, and Nader did the same thing.

Speaker 1: 10:41

Yeah, you know you, you and it's. There's something ingrained in the male psyche. I don't know how it is, for I don't know. Maybe we need to have our wives on here at some point in time have that conversation maybe how women go to women, other women into stuff. But for guys you know it's you challenge their yeah, you know, I think.

Speaker 2: 11:03

I think that's a vast difference between men and women is, is the gals don't really challenge each other the way guys do, because they don't have that same question.

Speaker 1: 11:11

Yeah, their question is not do you have what it takes? Yeah?

Speaker 2: 11:15

It's, it's, am I lovely, Am I?

Speaker 1: 11:18

Yeah, do you see me? Do you see me? Yeah, yeah, so yeah.

Speaker 2: 11:22

Because, guys, we will just, we'll just hack until we do.

Speaker 1: 11:26

If you've ever watched Duck Dynasty I've recently, I've binged a few episodes and what have you and that issue is central in that whole family dynamic. You know they get to doing some stupid stuff for no other reason than somebody challenged their manhood. Yeah, oh man.

Speaker 2: 11:50

Well, I was. Who was I talking to the other day? It was somebody was talking about. You know, all that took was a dare and my son goes. Oh yeah, you had to double dog dare and said you didn't have to double dog anything, you just make the challenge and I'm on it. When I was 12, 13, 15, 18 years old.

Speaker 1: 12:07

The double dog.

Speaker 2: 12:09

There was no doubling, you just just just check, check, see if I'll do it, and then, my golly, I'm in it.

Speaker 1: 12:15

That's that. That's that beautiful line from a Christmas story. A triple dog dared him.

Speaker 2: 12:21

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 12:22

He skipped all daring etiquette and went from the dare to the triple dog dare, completely skipping.

Speaker 2: 12:28

Right, is that the one where he's stuck his tongue on the bottom?

Speaker 1: 12:31

Yeah, Because of a because of a dare.

Speaker 2: 12:34

Oh man it also falls under the category of watch this. Yeah, hold my sippy cup, yeah.

Speaker 1: 12:44

That was Luke.

Speaker 2: 12:45

Yeah, that was.

Speaker 1: 12:45

Luke, hold my sippy cup, watch me drive this. Watch me drive this Gator Right, I'd love, I would love to know what kind of damage he did to the Gator and the truck you know where. Oh man, I have so many questions. Yeah, it's like did you have a seatbelt? I mean and I don't mean that and I don't mean this from a like a, a super like. I really care about your health and well-being, luke. I'm curious if we wore his seatbelt, to know whether or not he ended up making contact with the truck himself. I'm totally heartless, luke.

Speaker 2: 13:23

I apologize, yeah, I'll be repenting on Sunday.

Speaker 1: 13:28

I apologize for that.

Speaker 2: 13:29

So there you go. Oh man, those are good, good moments.

Speaker 1: 13:33

Oh man, I can't, I just. I mean, I'm just picturing that moment just kind of in slow motion, though Luke pausing turning around, you know, you figure, he's got this gloating look, and then yeah.

Speaker 2: 13:48

Yeah, oh man. I think when I was a kid it was always about jumping something on a bike. You know we were drilling junkies, so let's put a ramp on it and jump it. And I remember one Christmas we got a 10 speed. They didn't have 20 speeds back then, they had 10 speed.

Speaker 2: 14:07

That was it 10 was good, and I remember thinking well, it's not a BMX, it's not a ramp bike, it's got wheels, though. But my brain went there and it wasn't a week and a half. Two weeks later I tackled the tires because I had to put it in front of them. Let's go over.

Speaker 1: 14:33

I don't know that. I've ever heard that the thing is. I know exactly what you're talking about, but I don't know that I've ever heard anybody say that's a cycling term.

Speaker 2: 14:41

Taco the tire when the tire folds over, because it wasn't meant to do that.

Speaker 1: 14:47

Taco, the tire is not a nickname.

Speaker 2: 14:48

No, no, no, it's a quack.

Speaker 1: 14:50

They just fold over.

Speaker 2: 14:52

That's not good. Wow, yeah, that was a challenge I had. My parents got me a 10 speed. I don't know how old I was, but I was excited about it, and then I jacked it up.

Speaker 1: 15:08

I jumped in a ditch one time on a dare like that. Let's just say if I was singing in the Christmas choir there'd be a section a few. I wouldn't have been singing in bass, I can promise you that much. Just say two I bent the handle. I stripped the handlebars out, bending when I jumped. That hit in such a way my body went forward fully hit handlebars. It stripped them out. It was just one of those cheap, cheap necks.

Speaker 2: 15:44

But you didn't take much. Strip it out, because they have teeth on them.

Speaker 1: 15:50

Yeah, they got those splines. Yeah, yeah, it took it. Yeah, it took its toll on me, though, I can tell you that much. Yeah, but anyhow, well, luke, I thank you for blessing us with a little slice of life in a. Luke Taylor household.

Speaker 1: 16:09

Oh gosh, nine year old it's funny about that is Ty's just a couple of years behind him and I'm like Ty could be doing something like that. I've taken Ty out in the pasture and I'll let him sit in the center console and drive around the pasture, and I'm like we've got some work to do with that one. Anyhow, oh man.

Speaker 2: 16:33

Oh gosh.

Speaker 1: 16:34

All righty. Well, there's story number two down and you got any other Christmas stories come to mind.

Speaker 2: 16:42

Well, off the top of my head, I'm not pulling up anything, they're just coming Just keep them coming, you know just keep blowing them.

Speaker 1: 16:51

So the first story was just kind of along the lines of you know, with all the hustle and bustle and the Christmas things at church and what have you, you know, just lighten up, have some fun with it and roll with the punches, get a squirt gun. Second story is how did Luke put it at the end of this? Someone important once said he who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. So this season, tomorrow, the story here is humble yourself or you will be humbled. Yes, either way you're going to be humbled.

Speaker 2: 17:27

You're going to be humbled, yeah.

Speaker 1: 17:28

You just might as well.

Speaker 2: 17:30

Murphy will show up at your house and park.

Speaker 2: 17:35

So I had a season one time as a gymnastics coach. I was coached at a club for several years and the gym had a secretary and now at the time I'm 20 something, I'm just a 20 something year old guy, you know and so most of the parents in the gym were, you know, late 20s, early 30s, you know that kind of thing and the secretary of the gym had students her kids were students of mine, and she was probably, I don't know, 33, 34, 35, but at 20 something. To me she looked way older, but that was because I was 20 something and I didn't understand. And so she was, you know, 30 something, and she had had a little extra weight around the waist, you know. And so I made the mistake of just before Christmas I thought she maybe was going to have another kid- and so I did it.

Speaker 2: 18:39

The words came out of my mouth. See, I said them and I could not pull them back into my face. I asked her are you going to have a baby? My 23 year old self, you know, was at least smart enough to know that was a dumb thing to say, because she looked at me. You know everything. We're kind of talking and joking and I said it and you know it was one of those moments where everything just kind of freezes. It was freezing and you just believe that it's, and there's a really awkward silence.

Speaker 2: 19:12

Oh man and she looked at me like no, why would you say that? And again, I could not pull the words back into my mouth and I couldn't fix it, and so suffice it to say that Christmas my secretary got a string of pearls for Christmas. I was trying to fix that dumb statement. Oh gosh, oh God, it was probably one of the dumbest things that's ever come out of my mouth. I've heard people do that before oh gosh.

Speaker 1: 19:51

And.

Speaker 2: 19:53

I learned never say it, never ask. Don't never ask.

Speaker 1: 19:59

Be as curious as you want to be, but never speak those words.

Speaker 2: 20:04

Even if you think, oh no.

Speaker 1: 20:07

Yeah, no.

Speaker 2: 20:08

Yeah, it was a hard. That was a hard lesson. She was gracious and she was. She actually had a pretty good sense of humor, so she was pretty gracious about it. Ultimately she threw it back on me and made a joke out of it for me. But I felt about an inch tall, it was pretty awful, oh man. She eventually forgave me.

Speaker 1: 20:34

Eventually, especially after the pearls, after pearls man, if you had to cough up a set of pearls every time you said something stupid, I'd be broke. This is what I'm thinking.

Speaker 2: 20:48

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 20:50

Thank God for forgiveness. Yes, yeah.

Speaker 2: 20:53

Oh man.

Speaker 1: 20:55

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 20:55

That was a rough one. That was a really rough one.

Speaker 1: 20:59

Oh man. So how does this relate to Christmas? Can we laugh at things?

Speaker 2: 21:09

Oh gosh, yes, we have to.

Speaker 1: 21:11

You've got to be able to laugh at things and laugh at yourself a little bit, oh yeah, otherwise you just go nuts, I think.

Speaker 2: 21:19

Yeah, yeah. Life is too short to take it off, so seriously, yeah.

Speaker 1: 21:23

I mean, it really is.

Speaker 2: 21:24

We. There's too many horrible things on the planet happening to not find a place to laugh somewhere. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 21:35

It gets dangerous for me to have conversations late at night because the joke between Jamie and I is hey, your filters off.

Speaker 2: 21:43

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 21:43

Yeah, yeah, there's another segment of this world that would talk about the filter being off when they drink.

Speaker 2: 21:54

Yeah. Yeah, it's, the filter is off, the more tired I get.

Speaker 1: 21:58

And I'm staying up. But you know the self control to keep those thoughts, you know, trapped inside your head Right.

Speaker 2: 22:07

Well, you know, they have that, the old saying that you know time heals all wounds. In the theater there's a you know, there's a rehearsal technique of you know if you're delivering a comedic line, as you're rehearsing that, you would say you know, pause for laughter. You know. And so you'd say the joke and pause for laughter. And sometimes in really poorly delivered humor, you have to pause for like 10 years. Yeah, deliver the line, wait a few years, then it'll be funny.

Speaker 1: 22:39

Yeah, you know, I wonder if this Christmas would be time where people can kind of look back on some things.

Speaker 2: 22:45

Finally, oh yeah.

Speaker 1: 22:47

And just say you know, hey, this, yeah, this thing might have zamed a little bit a while ago, or what have you. But you know, maybe we can look back on it. And yeah, I don't know what In the big picture it really was kind of funny yeah. Yeah, what are the odds that this would have happened this certain way or what have you?

Speaker 2: 23:04

In the moment it was tough, yeah, but in the longer range.

Speaker 1: 23:08

You know I think about guys like you know, luke and his cousin. You know, in the moment, if I was a cousin man I'd be hacked. Oh yeah, you know, punk kid, you don't crash into my, you know, of course, never mind the fact that he goaded him into it.

Speaker 2: 23:22

Yeah, right right.

Speaker 1: 23:23

But now you can step back with, you know, with Luke writing that story out like that, and you can say okay, we can laugh at this now. Right right, it's okay to laugh at this now.

Speaker 2: 23:31

Nobody got hurt and in the end it was just a car it's just a car with a dent in the side of it. Yeah, that I asked for.

Speaker 1: 23:39

Yeah, yeah. Or you'd be like my dad and the guys in the drama and the orchestra and what have you that are in the midst of the monotony or the stress of it looking for a way to you know.

Speaker 2: 23:52

Hey, right, have a good time with it, you know well, even even in the story of the gal having getting ready to have a baby, you know, real life happens, yeah, and it's dramatic in the moment. But the drama eventually becomes funny because of the way we respond to it. Yeah, we have our crazy responses, thinking this is the only natural response, and then we look back with maturity and go, yeah, that was pretty dumb, that was just pretty dumb.

Speaker 1: 24:18

Yeah, oh man.

Speaker 2: 24:21

Well, I'd like to say it's maturity, but I could be there, our six, our sense of humor got a little bit more sick.

Speaker 1: 24:26

I don't know the second twist. It's a humor.

Speaker 2: 24:30

It's probably a, probably a mixture of the two.

Speaker 1: 24:32

Yeah, oh man.

Speaker 2: 24:34

We become more cynical in our old age and humor becomes more dark.

Speaker 1: 24:38

Yeah, Any last thoughts?

Speaker 2: 24:41

You know, I think that you know this time of year is just the best time to to laugh, because, like I said, there's so much already happening in the world that's rough and hard and difficult and painful that I think the Christmas season is the most incredible season to be able to put a smile on your face, because this is where our hope comes from. We, we have hope because of this season that we talk about and so, yeah, laugh Life's too short Laugh.

Speaker 1: 25:13

You think the shepherds would have eventually laughed at their responses.

Speaker 2: 25:17

Oh my gosh.

Speaker 1: 25:18

You know what I?

Speaker 2: 25:19

mean.

Speaker 1: 25:19

I mean I don't know. I mean I'm just speculating, because on the one hand, you've got angels showing up that this would have been a traumatic experience. Yeah, yeah, I mean I, I, I don't know of any other way of approaching that. I mean, every time you see angels interacting with humans in the Old Testament, it's not.

Speaker 2: 25:44

Well, think about the old. Who's the who is it? Was it Jacob, whose name is? Laughter means laughter. Yeah, yeah, because she was too old to have him right.

Speaker 1: 25:55

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 25:55

So I mean and, and Jacob being part of the lineage of Jesus, she began to realize that God has a sense of humor. Yeah, you know, this old woman's going to have a baby.

Speaker 1: 26:06

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 26:06

And now we jump ahead to Jesus. Now this virgin girl's going to have a baby. Think God doesn't have a sense of humor. Yeah, Completely.

Speaker 1: 26:17

everything is completely outside of the expected norms, right, and, and I? And so back to the the shepherds. I think to myself I'm just thinking out loud here but the idea that how would you respond? I mean, I don't even know how I would respond.

Speaker 2: 26:35

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 26:35

But I would imagine you got a bunch of guys together and you have this going on and I'm guessing that these guys did not respond in a dignified, shepherdly manner.

Speaker 2: 26:49

After they changed their shorts, of course.

Speaker 1: 26:51

Well, commando and Jericho, right yeah, did you just see that I don't know.

Speaker 2: 26:58

I didn't see that.

Speaker 1: 27:00

You get to a place where you're looking at that going. You remember what you did. You remember.

Speaker 2: 27:05

You know anyhow.

Speaker 1: 27:06

I don't know. I just I. Those are the things that I wonder about, but without question, I understand the serious, serious nature of Christmas, the severity of it, in fact, lest anybody think that we're taking this too lightly, please listen to the previous episode, because that's not the case. Right At the same time. I've talked before on the podcast about you know, we live in a world at war and the devil just does not want. I mean, he's got a target on your back, If and so, to that end, this should be a moment that we celebrate, and all of this trauma and drama and saying stupid things that you shouldn't have said and doing things, like Luke, that you shouldn't have done, or you know, and all these things happen and they're exacerbated in this season, and so the idea of us talking about laughter and enjoying this I hope it brings people back to that place of this is a profound season and hopefully we can laugh and enjoy it without being insensitive or irreverent.

Speaker 1: 28:20

And if you can balance that, if you can find that, I think we find ourselves in a great place to enjoy the season and to create some great memories with our families.

Speaker 2: 28:30

Well, it's that place of joy. Joy is not. You know, when I think of the idea of joy to the world, I don't think of everybody put on a serious face for the world because God's done something good. You know the sad face or angry face or stern face. No, no, joy means laughter. It means realizing that there is so much more than what we can understand or see. It was for the joy set before Jesus that he enjoyed the cross. There is joy to the world when Jesus came into the world. Joy is a powerful thing that causes us to smile and giggle and laugh and tell stories and be thankful to God for his blessing.

Speaker 1: 29:13

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 29:14

That's powerful.

Speaker 1: 29:15

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 29:15

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 29:18

So, everybody, I would wrap it up with that have a Merry Christmas. Catch up to you next week. Merry Christmas, everybody. God bless.