Trump's Tariffs: A Christian's Perspective

The rapidly evolving trade war between the United States and China has many believers anxiously wondering how to respond. When former President Trump announced his sweeping tariff policies—imposing a 10% universal tariff on imports with even steeper rates for specific nations—China immediately retaliated with tariffs of their own, escalating to 125% on some American goods.

But beyond the political rhetoric and economic theories lies a deeper question for Christians: How should our faith inform our response to these developments? This emergency episode of Faith and Failures cuts through the noise to examine what Scripture actually says about trade justice, economic anxiety, and loving our global neighbors.

Drawing from passages like Proverbs 11:1, "The Lord detests dishonest scales," we explore how God views trade relationships while balancing the biblical mandate to love our neighbors—even those across borders. As believers, we must resist the temptation to copy-paste negative behaviors of a few onto entire populations or fall prey to politically-driven stereotyping.

The conversation moves beyond theory into practical wisdom for weathering potential economic storms. From establishing a proper budget to supporting American-made products, from serving vulnerable populations to maintaining peace when markets fluctuate, this episode provides concrete steps for living faithfully amidst economic uncertainty.

Most importantly, we're reminded that our ultimate provision comes not from global supply chains, government policies, or even American manufacturing—but from God Himself. As Jesus taught, "Your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need."

Whether you're concerned about rising prices, job security, or the broader economic implications of this trade war, this episode offers biblical grounding and spiritual perspective to help you navigate these challenging waters with faith rather than fear.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Trump's Tariff Situation
• 5:40 Understanding Trade Imbalance with China
• 10:45 The Christian's Response to Political Issues
• 15:16 How Tariffs Will Affect Our Economy
• 20:39 Biblical Principles for Economic Challenges
• 26:26 Practical Actions for Believers During Uncertainty
• 32:48 Budgeting and Supporting Local Economy
• 36:26 Final Thoughts and Closing Prayer

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

What is up? Welcome back to another episode of Faith and Failures. I guess I would kind of consider this podcast a little bit of an emergency podcast. If you listened to the last episode that came out the first Monday of this month. I am dialing back podcasts period and only releasing one a month, but hopefully with some good content.

Speaker 1: 0:26

But I've had a lot of questions, a lot of people kind of reaching out to me, asking me personally, one-on-one, what I think about a lot of the Trump tariffs that's going on. And here's what I think. I think there is a lot of people out there putting out Christian content that are wanting you to click and listen to a story or the clickbait with the thumbnail and they don't really give you any substance. So I kind of want to look at the terrorist situation, what's going on, and then I want to kind of as believers, I want to look at what does the Word say, what does the Bible say? How should we be viewing the things in our culture, in our world that is going on, because everything that happens in the world affects us Christians, because we're living in it. So on April 2nd so this is kind of a few days behind, but just a week or so ago that was considered Liberation Day President Trump signed an executive order imposing a 10% universal tariff on nearly every imported good, with steeper reciprocal rates for nations that restrict us products, which personally that makes sense, like if you're not going to allow us to bring our products into your world but you are charging us to bring yours into ours Kind of uneven, if you ask me. So the products 20% on the EU, 24% on Japan, 32% on Taiwan and 25% on South Korea. Now, what China did, most of you probably already know this, and so I'm not trying to be a news source, but I am trying to be a Christian that is concerned for our world.

Speaker 1: 2:27

And I believe sometimes, as Christians, we detach ourselves too easily from political issues, from political stances, and then we end up not really standing for anything. But this is my policy for my church I will preach against sin, but I will not preach against political parties. So it's my job to deliver the word of God, to deliver a message from God, and to give you the tools to make that wise God conscious, like you are aware of what God wants you to do by the obvious text in the word. It's not my job to tell you how to vote. It's not my job to tell you who to follow. It's not my job to tell you how to run your house, but it is my job to deliver the word of God and tell you that this is the example, this is the standard that the word says. Now, how you apply, that is completely your responsibility. What you do is not my responsibility. My responsibility is to show you what you are allowed, what you are supposed to do in your life, in your house and, yes, even in your politics. So this falls under that. That's why I'm doing this episode.

Speaker 1: 3:43

So China immediately retaliated. So this falls under that. That's why I'm doing this episode. So China immediately retaliated, of course, because they are one of the biggest industries that we I mean up to 104% and then later raised them to 125%, while it says they paused most other new levies for 90 days to give allies time to negotiate levies for 90 days to give allies time to negotiate. So markets dropped on the announcement by rebounding when the pause was revealed, illustrating the policy's high stakes volatility. So this is a big deal right now because we import so much from china, but china is such a import. So much from China, but China is such a beast in this area that they manufacture so much for cheap for us so that we can sell it. I think they really they know their power right now because they kind of have us backed in a corner because they're such a massive import company. Not export, import, they manufacture and we bring it over here.

Speaker 1: 5:10

Now, whether you call this economic self-defense or big government meddling, or either way, this has moved everyone's attention, especially those of us who see the world through scripture, which, as believers if you're watching this podcast, I hope that you do national sovereignty and personal responsibility. So we're going to walk through this a little bit and I want to break down what the word says of how we should be looking at things, because, I mean, some of us, some of you, may not have voted for trump. You, you may have voted for Trump. Some of you are like yes, finally, he's doing something. I think like in the mid 80s he has said the exact same thing. His parade has not changed. It's the same exact thing that he's been saying since he was on Oprah, I think, in like 1986. And so he hasn't changed a song at all. So he's doing what he said he thought the world should do Now, why he didn't do it the first time around, I don't know.

Speaker 1: 6:10

Maybe he thinks he can make more change and make more of a difference doing things like this. So if you don't know what a tariff is, it's pretty much we're being taxed one way or unequally than we are taxing them, like you have to pay to come into our country, or pretty much what that means, and so we vastly outweigh specifically China they are one of the biggest ones vastly outweighs on the one way street in their favor. So we have to pay more than they do in this exchange that we have of import and export with them. That being said, trump has definitely made some waves and personally I don't think Trump is going to back down. Now what I hope happens and what usually in situations like this, I think does happen when, uh, because there's always like that first, like blow, like you got the first hit, uh, and then you hit back, you like tit for tat, and I think cooler heads will prevail in that they'll understand that there's not a there, we can't. It's just going to keep going up and up and up and up and up for both sides and nobody's going to do anything, and that doesn't benefit anybody. So, eventually, what will happen? I think, honestly, trump's trying to make a statement. I think China's trying to make a statement, and what I hope and what I think is that they will all come to the table with something that will.

Speaker 1: 7:42

I know Trump now. I don't know if this is his bargaining chip, I know it's not his reason, but he had mentioned in an interview that something about TikTok. You know, there's a big stink about TikTok. A year or two ago, whatever that was they shut it down just for a small time, but China owned, so I don't know if he's trying to strong arm them into turning things. I don't know, as a believer, that, um. Does this worry me at all? Uh, we're going to look at some factors in a minute that it could cause some worry, and this is the main reason for this, for this longer video, or for this, uh, emergency video.

Speaker 1: 8:17

I wanted to get you to not be worried because here's what happened. Be worried because here's what happened. Here's what happens if imports stop. We saw this in 2020 with, uh, covid-19. If import and export stops, then that clogs up our money, that clogs up our way of life. Um, like, that's how the world functions. We all move in this kind of synergy type thing, where things are flowing in, things flow out and there's a healthy balance to it. But this will because China is such a massive piece of that flow it will definitely clog up the drain and, like I was saying, I think when they both come to the table and they sit there and they really hash it out instead of trying to win a pee contest, I think everybody will come out better because and Trump's not wanting to, from all that I've seen he's not wanting to stop export and import and working with them.

Speaker 1: 9:19

He's trying to make a point like if, like they won't even let american products into their country, but yet we, then there's no telling what they, what they let in their products. Uh, when they bring them in, like we don't, I'm sure they, you know, do their due diligence and and all that stuff. But like what? How much? Even with the phones, with all the stuff, like, how much can they spy on us? We know facebook does. Like you talk about something and your phone will pop up an ad on something that you just talked about. We're being spied on constantly.

Speaker 1: 9:52

Now, this is not a conspiracy theory podcast, but I'm just saying, like as a believer, we need to be aware of things and not stick our head in the sand and not pretend like, oh, surely they and this is is so naive and you can say truth without being like a jerk they listen to what we say. They are a hundred percent paying attention to our lives. You can say certain, probably certain phrases, or on an open I know in an open phone line you used to could I don't know about cell phones, but they probably got that tap too and people probably will show up at your door. I'm not going to try it. I mean, I don't encourage you to try it either. So it's the government first of all.

Speaker 1: 10:43

I don't know what the end result is going to be, but I do know this that, as believers, whether you like Trump, whether you don't like Trump, in the new presidential Oval Office situation, you probably didn't know that the tariff situation was so unevenly balanced, and we have been. I mean the deficit that America has. We will never be able to pay it off and the people in charge continue to spend all of our money and we get taxed on every little thing and they can just buy and do whatever they want. It is such a jacked up, unfair system. So why do I think that tariffs will be good? Here's what I know.

Speaker 1: 11:38

In the beginning stages of pivoting and correcting things, it usually makes life pretty difficult and hard and it can feel like you've made the wrong decision. Understand the concept that if we stop going outside of the country and start producing and manufacturing here, it will help have jobs but at the same time things will rise in price. It's not all things, but some things because now they're being made in America with American wages, which cost more, and so the product may end up costing more. Now, if we're having the same stuff the product is made out of, it may be just a wage side that makes it a little more expensive, but it shouldn't increase it that much Because the price they put on things I used to sell at a company called ETX Apparel and I would buy things wholesale and sell them for retail and my wife was so upset of how much I could charge for something from the price that I bought it. A lot of it would be China stuff.

Speaker 1: 12:55

So I don't know exactly how that's going to affect the economy, but I do know that bringing jobs back to America and getting things in-house is a lot healthier for us to not be dependent on others and that will keep it to where we can. I mean, there's nothing better than being able to actually do stuff in-house, because you don't have all the extra junk that you have to go through and red tape. House, because you don't have all the extra junk that you have to go through and red tape and there's no hangups because it's all flowing inside of our house instead of trying to get people outside to get with us, especially with the culture barrier and everything else. So a couple of things I have written down here is that in this whole process, the same when we had wars in Iraq and we were all the people over the Middle East, and I remember it was 9-11. I had a friend in high school that he's half white and half Egyptian and his and I thought it was so weird. You know I didn't understand anything. I thought it was so weird that his dad when it happened that day, like him and I, always hung out and we'd run around together. But that night after it happened, he made my friend come home and stay home. I don't remember if you made him stay for multiple days or what it was, but I know that night he could not come out because he was afraid somebody was going to come and attack and like, we copy and paste a culture's bad behavior or a specific sect of a culture, their bad behavior, and we copy and paste it on everyone who looks like that or is from that area.

Speaker 1: 14:34

It's just like the radical muslims. People automatically assume that if the women are walking with a thing on their head or a guy's got a turban, he's a terrorist, and that's not the case. What you're doing is you're you're copying and pasting other people's bad behavior on people that have nothing to do good people and it's going to be easy to do in this whole tariff thing. And we do the same thing in politics. Oh my gosh, we always talk about like other people, like you, you immediately assume if somebody says a democrat that they think abortion is right and that's not the case, always can be. It's a majority of their little. You know the trans thing and all that cutting and mutilating kids and that's kind of their. That's been their song for the last four years heavy, um.

Speaker 1: 15:21

So when someone that's why you have people that are Democrats, politicians that are Democrats, that they are defecting over to the conservative side because, like when JFK was president and things, I think a lot of it was flipped. I don't know much about the Republicans back in that day but I do know that, like Stephen A Smith, people like that he said I think he said his mom was a Republican but she would vote Democrat. She was a quiet, which I don't know why. Like it doesn't, it shouldn't matter, it shouldn't make you lose friends or gain friends. It shouldn't make people hate you or love you Like it shouldn't be. We have created this culture in our own system and it's severely flawed to where we think strictly in politics or church denomination. Like you got to take a side. It's so stupid, it's ignorant, is what it is anyways, get off of that. But we must remember in this process and all this stuff going on, whether whatever side of the aisle or maybe you're in the middle of the and I have a lot of conservative viewpoints and I am a registered Republican, but I am not so foolish enough to think, because someone is a Republican, that they hold all the values that I do and call themselves Christians, like I see all the time online.

Speaker 1: 16:42

There's one, there's some blonde girl. She's always like wearing I think she's big on Twitter or X, whatever. I don't get on there anymore because they house porn on there. But she calls herself a conservative. She's outspoken, she's a big boobed blonde girl. She's always wearing revealing stuff and I'm like like, don't call yourself like a Christian when you dress like a hooker. Like those two things shouldn't be in the same room together. As far as like the way you present yourself and so stuff like that really frustrates me and so I don't that she says she's a conservative, but to me I'm. I'm old school when it comes to that kind of stuff. And I say old school, I'm biblical.

Speaker 1: 17:24

You should cover your body. You should cover up. Your boobs shouldn't be hanging out. You shouldn't have cleavage. Get a bigger shirt or wear a undershirt that comes up tight. They sell them. Don't wear leggings and stuff that shows your woohoo, and then you blame the guy for being a pervert when you're the one showing it off. That's all I'm saying. Remember to love your neighbor.

Speaker 1: 17:47

Okay, we cherish the borders. That's a big thing, a big topic right now. We cherish borders and the sovereignty of those borders rightfully so. But we can slip into dismissing the welfare of foreign people, like, like immigrants affected by those policies. For instance, like I just said about the Muslims a minute ago, sometimes we take the border issue, and especially being a white American or even black American, because you usually don't have black people trying to come to the border. It's hispanic, um, the, the medium-toned skin stuff, and you got people that are just like, yeah, get them all, throw them all back, and that and it's it's really hard to decipher who's good, who's bad, who's trying to do what? If they're smuggling and drugs, are they? Are they killing and raping? Are they doing all these things? It's hard to decipher that, but it is our job as Christians to not immediately go down that rabbit hole of they are all rapists, they are all murderers, they're all gang members, because they're people just like we are. So we have to remember to love our neighbor and do it with justice, with justice in mind god is just but also through the eyes of mercy and grace, and I like to. What I like to do is is take, take their situation and put myself in it. That helps me think about the whole thing differently because, like, for instance, you have a family who's actually excuse me, coming here for, like, trying to be refugees, and they're trying to do it the right way. Well, some people will just take those people, group them in with everybody else who's doing something bad and just say send them all back, when in reality very few of us are original uS people.

Speaker 1: 19:42

Another issue that we can run into and this happens a lot, it happened a little bit well, a lot of it in COVID that we get fear driving our hearts and our minds take place and things begin to slow down and normal everyday items that we had at our fingertips now are no longer available to us. It could kind of fear, a fear could grip us and drive us into that scarcity mindset where we got to get, get, get, get before anybody else so that I don't lose. We experienced that with toilet paper. Higher prices can nudge us towards a hoarding mentality, forgetting that God not global supply chains, but God is our provider. We can survive without China, we can survive without all these other people that the terrorists may make them not want to work with us anymore or not want to deliver to us anymore.

Speaker 1: 20:55

Don't think and we do this with our spiritual walk we will bend to certain things because we think we can't do without and we don't want to do without. That's not the case. Another one is delegating virtue to government. Now think about this. People did this with Trump, and then the other side did it with Biden and probably Harris too. Another did it with Obama. We may assume that tariffs alone will fix the injustice and balance the scales when Scripture calls us me and you may assume that tariffs alone will fix the injustice and balance the scales when scripture calls us me and you to act justly and generously, in spite of whatever Washington is doing.

Speaker 1: 21:36

So I understand that sometimes it could feel, and I felt this way before. You feel like you can't do anything because you're just a person out in the world Like you. Just you feel like you can't have, you don't have a voice, you feel like you can't really speak up. You could do what I do. If you have a phone, you can do what I'm doing right now for free and voice your opinion, get the word out, and it's it's very easy and simple to get the word out to people that you will never meet or see. But the virtue, the honor, character, morality, it should never come from or be the source, should never be our leaders, it shouldn't be from the White House, it shouldn't be from your pastor. It shouldn't be anywhere, but from God and from the Word and from the Scripture. So what does the Bible say? Well, let's read some Scripture that I hope will leave you with a little bit of encouragement. So Proverbs 11, 1, of encouragement. So Proverbs 11, 1,.

Speaker 1: 22:45

The Lord detests the use of dishonest scales, but he delights in accurate weights. Romans 13, 1 through 4,. Everyone must submit to government authorities for all authority. This is hard for some people, especially when you don't like the person that's in power in place, for all authority comes from God. The authorities are God's servants, sent for your good, but if you are doing wrong, of course you should be afraid, for they have the power to punish you. 1 Timothy 5.8. But those now, if you want to, what we just read in Romans about authorities being over you and stuff, if you would like an episode specifically on that and when is it okay and when is it not okay according to scripture, of when we are allowed to retaliate and when we are allowed to buck up and push back, that would be a good episode. So if you're interested in that, drop a comment below and let me know you're interested. 1 Timothy 5.8,.

Speaker 1: 23:37

But those who won't care for their relatives, especially those in their own household, have denied the true faith. Such people are worse than unbelievers. That's pretty intense. Matthew, chapter 6, 31 through 33. So don't worry about these things saying what will we eat, what will we drink, what will we wear? That's import, export, if I ever heard it. These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers. So it's saying like if we are believers and we trust we truly trust in God, we lean on him. Then we don't have the same worries and struggles and anxieties that the world does, because we understand where our supply comes from. These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers. But your heavenly father already knows all your needs. Seek the kingdom of God above all else and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. Deuteronomy 24, 14 and 15,.

Speaker 1: 24:52

Never take advantage of poor and destitute laborers. Pay them their wages each. So it's talking about if you owe somebody, if somebody's worked for you, pay them. Don't hold back on that. So you may be. People do this with their tithes and they're giving at church. You may think, well, I have this over here to take care of, so I can't do that right now. Put it on credit, you know, put it on my tab. But it's saying take care of your debts. If you owe somebody, pay them. If you promise the Lord you're going to do something with your tithes or offering, do that. Don't have control over it. Don't try to manipulate or control what it does, but do what you promise and what the word says that you should do with your money.

Speaker 1: 25:37

So let's talk about some actions we're about to wrap it up. Some actions, some common things that you can do that will help you. And sometimes, like, we have things like this a lot, especially with the new turnover of a president, because that's probably the highest it's definitely not the highest controlled, but the highest ranking office, I guess, in the world or in the United States. So how should believers handle things like this, not only this, where we're not sure how things are going to go. China bumped it up even more, from 104 to 125. How do we continue to keep our mind right?

Speaker 1: 26:23

So one big thing social media is amazing. It keeps us connected, even at great distances. It allows us to see into the lives of others and we can be a part of each other's lives. My grandparents can see my little baby girl, even though we're miles away. My dad we can get on the phone with FaceTime and we can show the baby to my mom and my teenager and let them see each other, even though we're not in the same room.

Speaker 1: 26:50

Technology is amazing, but pray before you post on social media. You need to take a. I tell my leaders this all the time. If I get in an issue with somebody or they upset me, I tell them. If I fall off the map for 24 hours it's because I'm thinking and praying about what next I need to say to you, because I don't want. God values relationships so much. He values a reputation of a church, of a body, of a person so much, especially when we say we represent him. We need to take good, tender care of that reflection, of that portrayal of God.

Speaker 1: 27:33

Pray first, post later before celebrating or denouncing the tariffs or a president or whatever. Democrats, republicans, before doing all that junk, if you got stuff in your personal life, before you post it everywhere, pray about it Because, listen, it's better for you to face your problems and Facebook them. Nothing is ever solved from you ranting on Facebook. It just it doesn't solve anything. And actually, nine times out of ten, probably ten times out of ten it makes you look like the aggressor. It makes you look angry and it will damage the testimony and all the good God has done in your life because of the way you appear online to people who really don't even know you. So pray and then post, or or you know what I usually find out Sometimes, if I just pray, I end up not posting.

Speaker 1: 28:31

Pray Romans 13 over your leaders. Then speak with grace and speak with truth. Okay, it's okay to have an opinion, but don't be so quick to run out there with your opinion to try to slaughter other people in front of other people. You know what I mean. Like it'll make you feel good in a moment, but it can damage the reputation of God and believers and your church and your house and you in front of other people because you are slandering or trying to digitally murder somebody or a group of people in front of strangers or people that know you and it may make them not want to be around you because you're damaging, you're sounding mean, you're sounding rude. So pray. Pray before you post.

Speaker 1: 29:21

Another thing that a lot of people don't talk about in church audit your budget. If you're worried about how this is going to affect everything, if it's going to make things more expensive. Start, fine, tuning your money. Where does your money go? If you can't answer that question and I'm guilty of this too I'm listening to the account and I'm like, oh, we're doing good. And then I realized we didn't pay our mortgage yet. And I'm like, why did we not pay the mortgage? And I'm like, wait a minute. If the mortgage comes out, where did all our money go? And so I started paying attention to what in the world is going on. Why is our money disappearing so quickly?

Speaker 1: 29:57

Sometimes it's just that time of the month where you end up spending more than you normally would. If you get groceries at the beginning of the month to kind of span out, or you have people come over there's things that always. But you need to know where your money goes. And when you have control of your money and you're more aware of your money, your money doesn't control you. And so when times get tough, you have a nest egg. When times get tough, you have backup money. You have funds. Like, if you, every few months, need to ask help for money, then your budget's not, or you don't have a budget at all. Budget is not a bad word, it's parameters where you can know what you can spend and you know what not to spend. So if you save, you tithe, you give and you spend All these things, things.

Speaker 1: 30:41

Spending is not bad, but spending like you're in congress or like you're one of the people on capitol hill, you're gonna run out of money and you're gonna end up in debt and you're gonna get deeper and deeper and deeper, because if you borrow five dollars and you put 25 interest on top of that and you can't pay it off every month, now you have a accumulative debt that keeps piling when all you wanted was this little thing right here and it costs you so much more. That's why, if you can't handle credit cards, you need to pay them off and cut them up and do not use them again until you have the. I use credit cards, but it is rare. We have one Discover card that we pay off every month and that is like for bigger purchases. We'll do that, but if we don't have the money to back it up, we don't use it. Does that make sense? So it's like I'll get the points and all the little things they try to hook you with and so you can get this many rewards and this and that, all the miles and the cash back, blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 1: 31:38

And if you do the math on what the cash back is, you will be so mad at yourself for thinking you're getting a reward for using their money, especially when you can't pay it off and it ends up stacking up because that cash back ain't going to do nothing for you. Five percent you know what five percent is? Let's do it like this you spend a hundred dollars, ten percent is ten dollars, five percent is five dollars. So out of spending a hundred100, you got $5. Just do the math, it'll make you mad. So, rising cost tighten up your entertainment. What are you spending money on every month that you really could do without? Could do without.

Speaker 1: 32:31

So another thing you can do and this is kind of hard because sometimes american made stuff is poo-poo but try to buy american made things like kind of seek that out. Um, etsy is a good place if you need stuff like it's people in america. They're, they're making things, they're, they're, um, actually themselves. A lot of them are manufacturing it themselves and making it. So support local produce. Local produce, uh, local businesses. We have a few of those in tyler here. We have a few of those in longview here. So instead of doing the big chain thing, which is mostly china stuff they buy for cheap and they come and sell it to you for triple, quadruple, a hundred times the price and they have it as luxury. But if you buy American, if you buy what you know that is a local place, you will be supporting local things and so that pours money back into the local economy. So that's how that whole system I was talking about earlier, that's a flow in, flow out. If we do it locally, just like Trump is trying to do I believe he's trying to get things and do it locally that right there will stimulate money through the system and that's what we want. That's what keeps that even flow going in and out, in and out, and we have consistency.

Speaker 1: 33:46

And another thing you can do advocate for honest trade. Write your representatives urging them to pair protective terrorists with transparent metrics so dishonest scales can't creep in anymore. Can't creep in anymore, okay, which I think that's a lot of what Trump is doing. He's bringing a lot of light to things that nobody even knew existed or a problem that nobody even knew was there. Another thing you can do is serve the vulnerable. If you have more money, help others that are below you that can't manage the money they're always needing help. Help them get on a budget, help them understand how to make their money work for them.

Speaker 1: 34:21

This is a part of discipleship that I think the church sometimes disconnects from is the money talk. We don't want to talk about people's money, we just want them to give it, and I think that cuts our own throat. That really messes us up where we could have had a lot more success, but instead we ended up just not wanting to touch on a touchy subject, and that's why you have churches that don't talk about sin. They don't talk about a lot of things because they want you to just to give and you to feel good about where you are instead of actually challenge you to become disciples of Jesus Christ and for you to actually want to change and want to get closer to God instead of pacifying you. So you can start a benevolence fund at your church. Benevolence means the people that don't have like. We have one in our church, so if people can't pay their bills or something like that, we pull from that account and I have a certain amount that I just say hey, write a check and we'll give it to them.

Speaker 1: 35:16

So, uh, cause there's going to be people that may be laid off, there may be a supply chain issues, there's going to be blowback, there's going to be issues and ripples when the pebbles thrown in the pond Like you can't. You can't change anything without it not affecting anything where it's not really changed. It's the same thing. So think about it in a logical standpoint. Don't get upset, even even if it's. You know. If you're, if you aren, you aren't a, a trumper or whatever. You're not a conservative. Um, just think logically about what's going on. Like in reality, we do need more jobs here in america, we do need more things to be american made so that we can be self-sufficient, and I think that's really what trump is trying to do.

Speaker 1: 36:00

But overall, the overwhelming thing that I want you to get through your mind is don't let these swings and pendulum swings and all these things manipulate you into anger, get you frustrated. A lot of things will work out if you just ride it out. So don't blame one person, don't blame one party, don't get angry at a group of people and label everybody as the same and this and that. Just be mature. Don't let things get you so upset. Don't think about the things so much down here, but just think about heavenly things, and that will keep peace when there's chaos around you. Peace and joy in your mind and your heart, and you will be able to get through it because you know where your supply comes from. It's not from China, it's not from Trump, it's not from the White House, but, as a believer, it should be from the Lord.

Speaker 1: 36:57

So thank you so much for joining me today. I want to say that I appreciate all of you across all mediums. If you have TikTok, you can follow me, stephen Tillman, the same with Instagram, and we also have a Faith and Failures. And if you're watching on Rumble, make sure you subscribe thumbs up. If you're watching on YouTube, the same applies. I appreciate all of you. Thank you, god bless, and I will talk to you later. Faith and Failures.