RADIOJanuary 13, 2023

Glenn: Why I’m 'FULL OF JOY' despite my family’s DARK year

Glenn’s family has had a tough year, he says. His children are facing difficult battles, and as a parent, it’s easy to feel helpless. But, despite it all, Glenn says he’s still ‘FULL OF JOY.’ Why? In this clip, Glenn explains the two reasons he’s still able to find happiness despite all the difficult times. He explains why it’s vital to not just remember the good times, but to savor the bad ones as well: ‘Remember, the storm will pass.’

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: So I want to -- I want to talk to you here philosophically. And then we'll get into all the news of the day. And it all kind of ties into this. And that is the collapse of trust.

I used to call it the implosion of trust. I said, it was the last thing, before the world had to be reset.

And that is, people in every institution, have discredited themselves and the institution. So much, that no one knows who to believe or how to get the truth anymore.

And that's where we are. And a society doesn't last long, when there is no truth. That's why they're confusing our children with sexuality and everything else. There is no male or female. You might be a furry deer. That's a lie.

And we must not allow lies into our life. Because our children won't have anything to trust. Because we don't have anything to trust. And if we follow down the road of society, our children won't be even able to trust us.

Now, our society, if I -- well, I did. When I told you, that everything that you thought was solid, would be liquid, and the world would be turned inside out. And you wouldn't know what was up or down anymore. Most people didn't believe me. They thought that was hyperbole. But I said that for 15 years. That that time was coming. I think we can all agree, that time is here.

And has been here for a while.

We cannot be people that are looking to go back. Because what are you going back to? The 1990s? The 1970s? '80s? The 1950s?

Those were all not utopian times. Those are things that we should not go back to in whole. There are some things from our past, and this is what a conservative does. They look at all of the things and say, what works, and what didn't work? What's good, that we should conserve and save? And what can we throw out?

And we need to have a vision of the future. I want to boil this down to you.

And me. This is really kind of my philosophy and my life right now.

We don't want to go back to the way things were. And we can't go back to the way things were. There's something better on the horizon.

Right now, our entire western society, and I think us, as people, are just being beaten on the rocks.

You feel like that?

You feel like you're in maybe God's wash tub. And he's taking you on the wash board, and you're like (sound effect). That's the way it feels, right?

Mountain spring water is so pure and fresh, and it's beaten on the rocks. Okay? I don't know how that works in Fiji. I think that's just seawater with dolphin pee in it, but everybody thinks it's great. But the mountain freshwater is purified and it is beaten on the rocks all the way down. So let's look at the good news of this.

The faster we get it. The closer we will come to the still waters. And this analogy, I guess, when we get there, then we're sucked up, bottled, and shipped up to some distant place, where we're all consumed.

But let's let the analogy stop there, before we get to the pool.

What I'm trying to say to you, is we are being prepared for something. And we have a choice. We can either hang on to the things that were of the past, all of it. Or we can look for those things, that we must have in the future, i.e. the truth.

And be excited about the next chapter, that we're in. It's really frightening. Totally frightening. And to be beaten across the rocks.

I -- I want to -- I have alluded to some of these things in the past. In the past year. This has been a very difficult year for my family. My immediate family. We had a suicide attempt. We've had three of my children, I have taken to the hospital for depression.

My -- one of my children going through life-changing strife right now, that is the roughest road I think anybody can walk. And it -- it just -- the family is on fire.

But I know they're going to make it. Earlier this year, I was really beating myself up, because I'm like, what have I missed? How did I miss that stuff? Remember those days, Stu. I'm just the worse. How? What?

And I came to a place, to where I realized, you know, I can only do what I can do. These are his kids too. They were his kids before they were mine. He alone gave them to me. So I could raise them to the best of their ability.

At some point, when you get there, you just have to say, hey, these are your kids, man. I know you care about them, just as much as I do, if I can understand your kind of love. It's probably a lot bigger than mine. So these are your kids.

And I can't do it. And then you just have to trust. Because there is.

And I have felt guilty, I have felt worthless this year. I have felt completely out of control. Just despair a lot of the times. My wife and I -- my wife and I just hanging onto each other.

My older kids have told me for years, you know, dad, when we were growing up, you weren't around. And that's true. I wasn't around. It left a mark. And then my younger kids, now as we're having family therapy and everything else, which, by the way, we're the best family ever. Anyway, you know, my younger kids have said to me recently, you know, Dad, you weren't always there. And I'm like, are you kidding me? I have tried to be super Dad. My kids were homeschooled in the office next to the studio of mine for a while.

I mean, I am there for them as much as I can. And then that -- that's what teenagers will say. That's what teenagers will do.

And let me just tell you: There is no such thing as balance in life. There is no such thing as enough time for your children. There is no such thing -- children as a perfect childhood, all of it leaves marks. All of it leaves marks. Life is imperfect. Life is hard. Then you die.

But it's worth the journey. It's in the journey. It's in between the hard part. You know, we have a chair in my house, and my -- my second eldest hated it.

Because we had chairs around our kitchen table, that had a virtue on the back of every chair. One of them is forgiveness. And if somebody was holding a grudge about somebody, I would say, you need to sit in the forgiveness chair and eat dinner. Remember that virtue.

Well, the one that I would assign from time to time, was endurance. You need to sit in the endurance chair. You just need to get through it.

Oh, my kids have hated it. Hated it. They have all come back and said, I'm sorry, Dad. You were right. Endurance. They thought, life -- you just make life sound so tough. And I'm like, it is. A lot of it you just have to get through.

And now they -- now they get it. Now they get it.

But do we remember that?

Because sometimes, the kids get so dark for us. We're like, I can't -- I don't -- I don't know what to do. I am completely at a loss. First of all, if you don't have faith, you need to find faith.

You need to find faith in bigger -- something bigger than people, and certainly not the collective.

You need to find faith. I don't care if it's the universe. I don't care what it is. But you must have faith.

In something that is good. Humanity has made it through everything. Not the dinosaurs, I will remind you.

But we went through absolutely everything.

And it does get better. One of my children's doctors called me and said, I can't say anything.

You know, I can't talk about the things that I probably don't want to -- you know.

And he said, but I had to call you. He said, because very rarely have I sat in a room, with a child, that admires their father as much as your child does. And he said, you have done something right.

I was like -- and it was my day yesterday. I got that phone call. And I'm like, oh, my gosh. And the sun is beaming down just on me, as the clouds start to part. I'm like, it's over. No, it's not. No, it's not.

But I had a great day yesterday. My daughter is in the musical freaky Friday, and I've been trying to teach her something about acting. And it's hard. And she's like, I don't want to do all that. That's not going to make a difference. And because she's now the lead role in this musical, and it's really difficult. The director was coming to her going, what are you doing? What is that? Why? How did you make that choice? She's like, I don't know.

And I said, well, you wanted to do that, if you would have done that hard work. And I've been talking to her for about four years on this. So she finally did it. Because she was broken.

She had been beaten on the rocks. And so she was like, okay. Maybe I should do this hard stuff. She did. She comes back home. The directors -- pointed her out to everybody and said, you know, what she's doing? She's doing this acting technique. And you guys should look into it. Because he looked at her and said, you're doing, what?

How do you even know that?

So dad gets credit all of a sudden.
(music)
The clouds will roll in, and it will be a dark, dark tornado hurricane kind of raining fire. What do they call that thing in California?

The river in the sky, or whatever. It's going to come again. It might be today. But last night, yesterday was glorious, glorious.

Make a note of that. So I can go back and look at it and go, oh, remember that good day? That will come again. Because it will feel again, that you won't get past the dark spot. But you will. The good times will pass. Bad times will come. Savor them. Write them down.

Know that today, in one of the darkest periods of my life, I'm really full of joy.

And I -- and for good reason. It's not like I'm manic. It's not like, hey. I think I'm going to win. Let's go to Vegas today.

No, no, no, no. We're still struggling. But today is a good day. And I'm full of joy.

And part of the reason -- the biggest part of the reason is because I have faith. I know who God is. And I know who I am to him. And who you are to him.

If you don't, you need to find that. But the other reason is, I married for all of the right reasons. I mean, first, smoking hot.

So we were polar opposites there, you know what I mean? Opposites attract. She was smoking hot, I was me.

No. I married her. Yes, she was smoking hot. But I married her, because we both knew who we wanted to be. And that's what got us through everything.

She was kind, loving, centered, balanced, nothing earthly really matters. She is so -- I was going to -- I was going to the governor's swearing in, Ron DeSantis, sat at his table. Didn't know that at the time. Sat at his table. I took my son, because Tania was just not impressed. She's like, oh, so I can fly across the country, sit down at a table of a bunch of people, who don't know me. Really don't care about me. And I'm not going to really care about a lot of the political stuff. Gee, that sounds like fun. I've got laundry to do. I love that. She knows who she is. I love that.

Know who God is. Marry right. And remember, the storm will pass

Shocking train video: Passengers wait while woman bleeds out

Surveillance footage of the murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska in Charlotte, NC, reveals that the other passengers on the train took a long time to help her. Glenn, Stu, and Jason debate whether they were right or wrong to do so.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: You know, I'm -- I'm torn on how I feel about the people on the train.

Because my first instinct is, they did nothing! They did nothing! Then my -- well, sit down and, you know -- you know, you're going to be judged. So be careful on judging others.

What would I have done? What would I want my wife to do in that situation?

STU: Yeah. Are those two different questions, by the way.

GLENN: Yeah, they are.

STU: I think they go far apart from each other. What would I want myself to do. I mean, it's tough to put yourself in a situation. It's very easy to watch a video on the internet and talk about your heroism. Everybody can do that very easily on Twitter. And everybody is.

You know, when you're in a vehicle that doesn't have an exit with a guy who just murdered somebody in front of you, and has a dripping blood off of a knife that's standing 10 feet away from you, 15 feet away from you.

There's probably a different standard there, that we should all kind of consider. And maybe give a little grace to what I saw at least was a woman, sitting across the -- the -- the aisle.

I think there is a difference there. But when you talk about that question. Those two questions are definitive.

You know, I know what I would want myself to do. I would hope I would act in a way that didn't completely embarrass myself afterward.

But I also think, when I'm thinking of my wife. My advice to my wife would not be to jump into the middle of that situation at all costs. She might do that anyway. She actually is a heck of a lot stronger than I am.

But she might do it anyway.

GLENN: How pathetic, but how true.

STU: Yes. But that would not be my advice to her.

GLENN: Uh-huh.

STU: Now, maybe once the guy has certainly -- is out of the area. And you don't think the moment you step into that situation. He will turn around and kill you too. Then, of course, obviously. Anything you can do to step in.

Not that there was much anyone on the train could do.

I mean, I don't think there was an outcome change, no matter what anyone on that train did.

Unfortunately.

But would I want her to step in?

Of course. If she felt she was safe, yes.

Think about, you said, your wife. Think about your daughter. Your daughter is on that train, just watching someone else getting murdered like that. Would you advise your daughter to jump into a situation like that?

That girl sitting across the aisle was somebody's daughter. I don't know, man.

JASON: I would. You know, as a dad, would I advise.

Hmm. No.

As a human being, would I hope that my daughter or my wife or that I would get up and at least comfort that woman while she's dying on the floor of a train?

Yeah.

I would hope that my daughter, my son, that I would -- and, you know, I have more confidence in my son or daughter or my wife doing something courageous more than I would.

But, you know, I think I have a more realistic picture of myself than anybody else.

And I'm not sure that -- I'm not sure what I would do in that situation. I know what I would hope I would do. But I also know what I fear I would do. But I would have hoped that I would have gotten up and at least tried to help her. You know, help her up off the floor. At least be there with her, as she's seeing her life, you know, spill out in under a minute.

And that's it other thing we have to keep in mind. This all happened so rapidly.

A minute is -- will seem like a very long period of time in that situation. But it's a very short period of time in real life.

STU: Yeah. You watch the video, Glenn. You know, I don't need the video to -- to change my -- my position on this.

But at his seem like there was a -- someone who did get there, eventually, to help, right? I saw someone seemingly trying to put pressure on her neck.

GLENN: Yeah. And tried to give her CPR.

STU: You know, no hope at that point. How long of a time period would you say that was?

Do you know off the top of your head?

GLENN: I don't know. I don't know. I know that we watched the video that I saw. I haven't seen past 30 seconds after she --

STU: Yeah.

GLENN: -- is down. And, you know, for 30 seconds nothing is happening. You know, that is -- that is not a very long period of time.

STU: Right.

GLENN: In reality.

STU: And especially, I saw the pace he was walking. He certainly can't be -- you know, he may have left the actual train car by 30 seconds to a minute. But he wasn't that far away. Like he was still in visual.

He could still turn around and look and see what's going on at that point. So certainly still a threat is my point. He has not, like, left the area. This is not that type of situation.

You know, I -- look, as you point out, I think if I could be super duper sexist for a moment here, sort of my dividing line might just be men and women.

You know, I don't know if it's that a -- you're not supposed to say that, I suppose these days. But, like, there is a difference there. If I'm a man, you know, I would be -- I would want my son to jump in on that, I suppose. I don't know if he could do anything about it. But you would expect at least a grown man to be able to go in there and do something about it. A woman, you know, I don't know.

Maybe I'm -- I hope --

GLENN: Here's the thing I -- here's the thing that I -- that causes me to say, no. You should have jumped in.

And that is, you know, you've already killed one person on the train. So you've proven that you're a killer. And anybody who would have screamed and got up and was with her, she's dying. She's dying. Get him. Get him.

Then the whole train is responsible for stopping that guy. You know. And if you don't stop him, after he's killed one person, if you're not all as members of that train, if you're not stopping him, you know, the person at the side of that girl would be the least likely to be killed. It would be the ones that are standing you up and trying to stop him from getting back to your daughter or your wife or you.

JASON: There was a -- speaking of men and women and their roles in this. There was a video circling social media yesterday. In Sweden. There was a group of officials up on a stage. And one of the main. I think it was health official woman collapses on stage. Completely passes out.

All the men kind of look away. Or I don't know if they're looking away. Or pretending that they didn't know what was going on. There was another woman standing directly behind the woman passed out.

Immediately springs into action. Jumps on top. Grabs her pant leg. Grabs her shoulder. Spins her over and starts providing care.

What did she have that the other guys did not? Or women?

She was a sheepdog. There is a -- this is my issue. And I completely agree with Stu. I completely agree with you. There's some people that do not respond this way. My issue is the proportion of sheepdogs versus people that don't really know how to act. That is diminishing in western society. And American society.

We see it all the time in these critical actions. I mean, circumstances.

There are men and women, and it's actually a meme. That fantasize about hoards of people coming to attack their home and family. And they sit there and say, I've got it. You guys go. I'm staying behind, while I smoke my cigarette and wait for the hoards to come, because I will sacrifice myself. There are men and women that fantasize of block my highway. Go ahead. Block my highway. I'm going to do something about it. They fantasize about someone holding up -- not a liquor store. A convenience store or something. Because they will step in and do something. My issue now is that proportion of sheepdogs in society is disappearing. Just on statistical fact, there should be one within that train car, and there were none.

STU: Yeah. I mean --

JASON: They did not respond.

STU: We see what happens when they do, with Daniel Penny. Our society tries to vilify them and crush their existence. Now, there weren't that many people on that train. Right?

At least on that car. At least it's limited. I only saw three or four people there, there may have been more. I agree with you, though. Like, you see what happens when we actually do have a really recent example of someone doing exactly what Jason wants and what I would want a guy to do. Especially a marine to step up and stop this from happening. And the man was dragged by our legal system to a position where he nearly had to spend the rest of his life in prison.

I mean, I -- it's insanity. Thankfully, they came to their senses on that one.

GLENN: Well, the difference between that one and this one though is that the guy was threatening. This one, he killed somebody.

STU: Yeah. Right. Well, but -- I think -- but it's the opposite way. The debate with Penny, was should he have recognize that had this person might have just been crazy and not done anything?

Maybe. He hadn't actually acted yet. He was just saying things.

GLENN: Yeah. Well --

STU: He didn't wind up stabbing someone. This is a situation where these people have already seen what this man will do to you, even when you don't do anything to try to stop him. So if this woman, who is, again, looks to be an average American woman.

Across the aisle. Steps in and tries to do something. This guy could easily turn around and just make another pile of dead bodies next to the one that already exists.

And, you know, whether that is an optimal solution for our society, I don't know that that's helpful.

In that situation.

THE GLENN BECK PODCAST

Max Lucado on Overcoming Grief in Dark Times | The Glenn Beck Podcast | Ep 266

Disclaimer: This episode was filmed prior to the assassination of Charlie Kirk. But Glenn believes Max's message is needed now more than ever.
The political world is divided, constantly at war with itself. In many ways, our own lives are not much different. Why do we constantly focus on the negative? Why are we in pain? Where is God amid our anxiety and fear? Why can’t we ever seem to change? Pastor Max Lucado has found the solution: Stop thinking like that! It may seem easier said than done, but Max joins Glenn Beck to unpack the three tools he describes in his new book, “Tame Your Thoughts,” that make it easy for us to reset the way we think back to God’s factory settings. In this much-needed conversation, Max and Glenn tackle everything from feeling doubt as a parent to facing unfair hardships to ... UFOs?! Plus, Max shares what he recently got tattooed on his arm.

THE GLENN BECK PODCAST

Are Demonic Forces to Blame for Charlie Kirk, Minnesota & Charlotte Killings?

This week has seen some of the most heinous actions in recent memory. Glenn has been discussing the growth of evil in our society, and with the assassination of civil rights leader Charlie Kirk, the recent transgender shooter who took the lives of two children at a Catholic school, and the murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska, how can we make sense of all this evil? On today's Friday Exclusive, Glenn speaks with BlazeTV host of "Strange Encounters" Rick Burgess to discuss the demon-possessed transgender shooter and the horrific assassination of Charlie Kirk. Rick breaks down the reality of demon possession and how individuals wind up possessed. Rick and Glenn also discuss the dangers of the grotesque things we see online and in movies, TV shows, and video games on a daily basis. Rick warns that when we allow our minds to be altered by substances like drugs or alcohol, it opens a door for the enemy to take control. A supernatural war is waging in our society, and it’s a Christian’s job to fight this war. Glenn and Rick remind Christians of what their first citizenship is.