Dungeons & Disciples

Josh Shaw 0:19
Welcome to episode two of dungeons and disciples.

Tony Benda 0:24
That's crazy saying that it's still surreal.

Josh Shaw 0:27
The feedback we have gotten, just from episode one in the trailer alone has been incredible. For those listening, if you've either talked to me or Tony, I want to start by saying thank you, when you begin to go down this journey about what God has called you to be, or called you to say something regarding the gospel, it can be a really, really difficult journey. But all we were met with was Love, excitement, generosity, care consideration, and it has been on telling you what listeners it's been crazy. So we want to thank you for those who are listening. Literally all around the world, we can actually say that we can we literally have looked at the analytics.

Tony Benda 1:12
I knew of the first country and then when you were praying before we started recording, you had mentioned the second country. I knew the first one was Norway. We had a listener in Norway, which is really cool. Hello, listener in Norway. I hope you keep listening. Yes, thank you. And then you said I think it was I thought it was Singapore is Singapore. I told you I knew it. I love Evers listening in Singapore, you rock you literally, rock. Honestly, if you are the person listening in Singapore, shoot us a message. And yeah, we'd love to hear what you have to say. Yeah, we'd love to chat. Because like, that's incredible. We're in North Carolina, and somebody said, I'm gonna listen to this in Singapore. I don't even know how it reaches. I don't either. I don't I don't get it. Man. It's cool. But yeah, thanks, everyone who's who is listening and has been listening. Got a lot of really cool feedback, like Josh was saying, and one that really stuck out to me was someone sent me a message on Facebook and said dungeons and disciples is an answer to my specific prayers. Wow. That's crazy. That was not something we were you know, seeking out specifically to do is answer someone's prayer, but I'm glad we are. Yeah, didn't go into it thinking that we will be that but it's cool. I literally went into this thinking that maybe onesies or twosies would listen and this would be like a fun. Like my brother literally just started d&d group and listen, be it for people we love. Yes. You did. So sweet honey. That was such a nice show. Look at my beautiful sweet. I you know, why did I do that? Why did I send you in? My mom's from New York? She's from Arizona. It's Sorry, mom. Anyway, no, but yeah, thanks again, everyone for the feedback. It's been really cool so far. And so for those who have not listened to Episode one yet, go check it out, or even the trailer just to kind of get a hint of who we are and what we're doing. Obviously, my name is Tony Benda, and this is Josh Shaw with me here. I love episode two. It is exciting. And today, we're going to start by recapping episode one. And we talked about quite a few things and did some fun statistics rolling last time. And I did, I did hear one interesting thing that we should do. For every guest that comes on. Let me hear a couple of people. One person suggested it to me. And I'm gonna call him up because his name is Kenny and I love him. Yeah, it was Kenny, Kenny and saber. Okay, both suggested this. And he's great. I Kenny. Hey, Kenny. Both suggested the same thing as she is great. Which spoiler alert, we will be we will have our first guest very, very soon. So stay tuned. But he suggested they both suggested that every guest that we have on here rolls for their stuff like we did, like goes into their own little version of their testimony. Because I mean, when you think about it, that's what we that's what we're doing. We're bringing forth our testimony, Revelation 12, verse 11. Yeah, that's what we're doing. So having each guest role, just like we did, that's cool. I think it'd be cool. I like that idea. So Tony, read. Take me this recap a little bit. Okay, well, episode one. We kind of talked about how we are blending a bit of, you know, the TTRPG world, specifically Dungeons and Dragons, which is a game that Josh and I both play together. We play almost every other week consistently for the last like, what, year and a half, two years almost almost been two. That's insane. Anyway, d&d is one of our favorite games, and we've talked about how, yeah, while there is a darker stigma to the game, it doesn't have To be dark and it doesn't have to be evil or bad. It's it's what you make of the game. It's it's the choice of the DM and the choice of the players to honor each other's boundaries. And I guess backgrounds and you know where each person has come from and to play into their strengths, and avoid kind of the weaknesses is the goal and you know, be collaborative with it. It's storytelling with some of your favorite people. And it's great. But yeah, we tried to blend d&d and Christian values. Josh and I are both, you know, believers. And we've talked a little bit about our testimonies playing d&d. We'll talk more about our, you know, whole life testimonies at some point during the show or in person or whatever. Yeah, we're resources for people. Absolutely. So that was a little bit of episode one. And then we've also talked about building our character sheets, and we rolled a bunch of dice. Yes, not all the time in our favor. There was like two good rolls there were like, if I recall, I think it rolled three sixes for my character. Yes. So that was not fun. But anyway, yeah, kind of organizing the stats is is a fun thing to do as you're setting up your character sheet. And like I said, three sixes is not the greatest thing to have on your character sheet. But the Lord can use three sixes.

Josh Shaw 6:22
I heard somebody, somebody reached out to me and they said, when they listen to the podcast, they rolled all their numbers, the for the total amount of categories. They rolled them and they had the they were a married couple, they gave each other the numbers, and they put the numbers in for their for each other step that is fascinating. So not only they were able to discuss why they feel that way, but their weaknesses and how they can grow. That's, it was an incredible, incredible idea. And in the d&d world, obviously. You know, that wouldn't work that way. But when you roll for those stats I mentioned we rolled for D six. And then you get rid of the lowest number and you take the three and that's your stats. When I say when I say 46 I'm obviously talking about a six sided dice, six sided dice. And that's for each step. Charisma, dexterity, strength, all these things intelligence, wisdom, and when I miss constitution, constitution, that's the one I always miss. So glad I got it. Thank you. My normal playing character is not does not have a great constitution. No, it does not. So anyway, mine doesn't die when we played last night. I know it was a little scary, so frustrating. But with that, as well. We had talked about as you build your character backgrounds, after you roll for your stats, how that kind of looks, what does it look like to build your background? How do you use your stories. And with that, we talked about kind of like our own testimonies and applicable to that like building our own character background sheets. And as you build your character background, you know, that's a chance to get creative with it. It's a chance to explore what you want your character to be how you design them to be and you can be as fun and creative and wild as you want to be. Because it's kind of like our stories as well. Our own testimonies we've been through so much our stories are so wild, sometimes on believable, but kind of like DM how they uses how a DM uses your your background in the campaign. If they're really really good DM God uses our God uses our faults. God uses our sin. God uses the messy parts of our story for His glory. Yeah, so check out Episode One, because it is absolutely powerful. Yeah. Oh, I wanted to mention resources. Tony said we're obviously a resource. Yes, drop us a DM.

Come to us any questions that we can help answer we want to guide you not only through the walk with Christ, but how you can play d&d And do both at the same time. Couple of resources for those who may be new players or for those who are even experienced players and they may not know about these resources. A great resource it's going to be in our show notes is a link to a website called d&d beyond. I learned about this website later into my d&d Walk Believe it or not, I was using like physical paper copies, which not a bad thing to do that to use them. But d&d Beyond is a really good collaborative source about how you can build your character sheet if you visit d&d beyond.com or we'll have the link to the website in our show link. You can go on there and you can click create a new character. And it'll go step by step with the character creation process. I will I will forewarn that there's a quite a bit of reading to it and a step by step process. But if you do it, you're gonna find so much success and it is a truly fun process if you have the time dedicated to doing it. Also on d&d Beyond there's tons of resources when it comes to books and dice rolling character, so much stuff that you can go ahead and explore and other things as well. I even just did like a quick Amazon search this morning just to look if you want to get started into the d&d world and just get a basic package, I mean, you can go on Amazon and look up a d&d, d&d dice and you can find very big packs of very inexpensive dice and even what we call roll trays, that kind of help you get started with that process. We'll put the DND beyond link in the show notes, like I said, but I just encourage everyone to go on Amazon and take a look at that as well. Definitely. Our main man just called us in the middle of it. Hello, sir.

Jarek Partsch 10:37
Going on.

Tony Benda 10:38
You're literally live Jared. Can you believe that? So folks at home I just got a call from Derek who is one of our our buddies are our d&d Playing friends. One of the craziest the craziest Leoneans I've ever met. Seriously, though. So Derek, you're, you're on our podcast right now. Do you have anything to say?

Jarek Partsch 10:59
I appreciate it. This is this is exciting. And I'm you know, I wish it was there at the moment. But you know, me

Tony Benda 11:06
too. We'll have you on.

Jarek Partsch 11:10
Entertain You guys. I'm not sure we guys are in the midst of talking about but I'm glad to be here

Speaker 1 11:14
yet. We actually just wrapped up the session one. Recap. Jared, you called it the perfect time. Jerrick. Actually, I got I got it for you. Can you answer me a question?

Jarek Partsch 11:25
Yeah, let's do it.

Josh Shaw 11:26
Live testimony. How did you What did you think about the first episode on us thoughts?

Jarek Partsch 11:33
I think we're starting something. I think when I say we, as a whole collective group with Stephen getting all of us together and forming this group and having you guys run off onto this podcast, it is trying to extend extended fire oh my god to be able to continue what I was doing in the d&d world.

Tony Benda 11:53
Yes. Love it. Yes. Well, so I will call you back personally, a little later. That's all good.

Jarek Partsch 12:01
All right. Love you guys. Love you.

Tony Benda 12:03
Real quick before you leave. Jerrick. So for those listening at home, Derek and his wife, Hannah, they have a podcast called The Tales we tell. What is your tagline? It's a show about

Jarek Partsch 12:15
buki stories, unsolved mysteries and local lore and with the co host, Katie by Hannah side. You can't go wrong.

Tony Benda 12:23
That's right. So Jarek produces that show for the ladies. And it's fantastic. So go check that podcast out as well. And Jarek will talk to you soon, bro.

Jarek Partsch 12:32
All right. I'll talk to you guys.

Speaker 1 12:34
Later, when I said that our first guest speaker would be on Stay tuned. That's not what I missed that when we had that in mind, but it was fun. It was perfect timing. Love you, Jerry. Wow, we got a really cool conversation today. We didn't know we planned out. I love it. It was so fun talking about this earlier and prepping. And we could have recorded probably straight in the cafe. Like when we were talking about it. I just just bring mics wherever we go. But no, microphones. It's a blast. Today, the topic of our show, what is the title of our show, Josh? A title for our show for today is playing the game. And check this out from meta to ministry you from meta to ministry. So I didn't think about that myself. Yes, Chad GPT shout out to the AI sources. Sometimes it's great. To tell me Well, it's hard when you're brainstorming ideas. Sometimes I will utilize every tool I can at my disposal to help think of some you know concepts or ideas and sometimes when it nails it, it just nailed on the head. I was like what I was my role the school though. So Tony, you defined it in the in the cafe we were talking what is what is like playing from a meta perspective, like in the game.

Tony Benda 13:53
Okay, so metagaming in a sense, or playing from a meta perspective, it kind of means that you're operating or you're working from a spot that you have you as a person has more knowledge than what your character would truly have at their disposal. So for example, I overhear a conversation that I'm not in the room to hear. But yet me sitting in the same room as we're playing together in a collaborative sense. My character doesn't hear it but Tony hears that. And I can't base my decisions in the game off of what I'm hearing someone else talk about, or someone goes to the shop and buys a potion of healing. Like if I don't hear from their lips that they just bought a potion of healing. I can't assume they have one in their in their kit like the character's lips. Yeah, like if someone goes Aaron, for example, goes to the store or the shop to buy potion of healing. His character does that. He comes back You can't be like, hey, hey, Edward. Can I Have that potion healing that you got? Because Tony knows that you that he bought it. Yeah, but your character does not. Yeah. And that's kind of like one of the most basic ways of explaining something like that metagaming at its finest is, is just knowing something that your character would not typically have knowledge of. That way your character would not make decisions based off of what you as a person knows, in real life. So that's kind of the overall concept or a very basic example of it. But if you want to learn more about like metagaming, go ahead into d&d Beyond like, oh, the resource that we pointed out, they'll probably have links in different forums about stuff like that. Or just Google what metagaming is because there's so many different articles and things and other nerds like ourselves have talked about it written about it, but it's really cool. It's a cool thing to avoid, I should say, yes. But you don't want to metagame because it could ruin a gate exam. That's, I'm so much so that and here's why. Yeah. So here's when you when you take the look of the meta perspective, go from this, think about it from this angle. How fun would it be to know like the hit points of the enemies that you're fighting? Exactly? How fun would it be to know the entire dungeon before you explore it? What's What's the joy in that it kind of loses its luster because like if you know if you know what's coming at the end of the game. Sometimes it's not even worth playing like, I don't know, why, why buy a prebuilt puzzle. It's called a picture. Well, exactly. You can either buy a painting, or you can buy a puzzle and assemble something and experience the joy of putting something together or being collaborative, like my wife and I have done puzzles together or she's done puzzles with her sister when her sister was stayed with us for a little bit. And they would just sit there for you know, an hour or two at a time. And the joy is in the journey. The joy is not knowing what to I mean, you know what the end result is going to be, you're still going to achieve this puzzle at the end of it, this picture at the end of it, but not knowing how to get there. Not having the pieces numbered is one of the most fun parts of it. Because you're you're kind of just making it up as you go. And you're figuring out how to put it all together. The joy is in the journey. Yeah, That'll preach. That'll preach. Yeah, truly. Like, me. You nailed it. You nailed it. Oh, no. Like, we know the ending. Yeah, like, we know that, you know, I mean, provided unless all the characters just get a TPK. And the campaign ends, which is sure, which is not the way the goal of our campaign is to just survive. Our our finished puzzle picture at the end of our campaign is that we all make it out alive. And we somehow become the heroes in the end or we you know, save the world. I mean, that's the goal really, right. Any d&d situation, unless you're playing, you know, another really cool variation where you're actually playing from the villains perspective, which is also a fun, that is a fun thing now, but yeah, we know the outcome. We're our goal is to win, we're gonna win. Our goal is to survive and to be collaborative and to make friends along the way and not murder every NPC, you know, that we come into contact with. And that's a whole nother Thou shalt not murder. That's right. Now, but I mean, even in our biblical lives, we know what the outcomes gonna be. Yeah. But we don't necessarily want to play from that meta perspective of like, yeah, we already know like, for those who are Christians, we already know we're saved. Yes, we already know that at the end, if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, and you have declared that and you've confessed and accepted and all of these things and repented, then in your, in your salvation, you're guaranteed to go to heaven, the victory seal, the victory is sealed. We already know the ending. And we also know like at the end of the ages, so to speak, and like, you know, Revelation talks about the Second Coming and the world coming to an end and the 1000 year reign and all of these things we know Christ is one of the end so the devil, you got nothing so bye, amen. That's not That's not the point. The point is, you still on a daily basis, experience the journey walking with Christ, you still experience the I don't know the the real life role playing, if you will, of, you know, still trying to live that Christian walk and be in the Bible and I don't know be Christ. Like that's that's the whole the point. I guess. It's the journey, that joy in the journey as we said,

Josh Shaw 19:32
I'm going to mount that. My mouth that I want to talk about, it's so bad. But I want to talk about other things first, when you said like the joy and the journey, and when we talk about this in the victory being sealed. One thing I've personally been reflecting on is how overwhelmed would we be if we knew the entire story of our life? How overwhelmed would it be if if God painted The entire picture from beginning to end. I feel like we'd spend our entire lives trying to live up to expectation we could never fulfill, and knowledge that we were never meant to have, like, look at the garden, Adam and Eve disobeyed the word that from God. But I think deeper to that, and I'm like, maybe he didn't want them to eat the fruit, because they couldn't handle it. Their life was simple. Work, what was given to them, multiply, walk with God, and leave the rest to him. But we so often take control, because we want to know the ending to the story. But God has like, you can't handle it. Because Because when you notice, when they protect the fruit, they gain the knowledge of good and evil. And they ran away, fleeing from God, naked, and afraid. Because of the knowledge they received. It's like, you want to you want to talk about the start of anxiety, and depression started there. Because they were so overwhelmed, because they couldn't handle the knowledge. Because God didn't want them to stay there. He didn't want you to stay there. But we're gonna hop to that a minute. That's just a foretaste. But I do I do want to talk about Tony, I want to talk about creativity within the game. So in order to not play from a meta perspective, you need to use your, like we talked about in the first episode, the roles that you got your roles, and all those, all those traits will determine skills that you'll get. And there's various skills that kind of we'll we'll address here, but those skills often determine how you play with creativity. Yes, right. So as your as your character goes, you play the character and how it was designed, however you designed it. And then as you walk with it, as you walk in the campaign, the DM will have you do some various things like let's let's talk about overcoming obstacles. And Tony I'm gonna put you on the spot. Okay. In our campaign that we're playing, oh, boy, what is some of the biggest and funniest obstacles we've had to overcome?

Tony Benda 22:18
Well, the biggest and funniest is well, one of the things for my character personally is that he's not very strong. He is a physically literally the weakest and he's the physically weakest of the party intellectually not so much. But physically, probably the weakest one of the party. For those at home my character is he's got an 11 in strength right now and that's with me taking so he's a level nine character right now. He's a level five wizard level four monk. So I'm a multiclass. And his strength is not very good. And that's even with me taking like a plus one or plus two to strength in as I've been leveling up trying to get a little bit more, you know, my statblock increased a little bit. And where are like, what level are we? We're total level nine. We're at level nine. And we started at level one. Oh, yeah. So it's been a journey. He has not progressed very far with string that was string. I started as a nine like, my character started with an A nine strength and this has been atrocious. Me trying to, you know, do certain feats of strength throughout the whole journey has been ridiculous. Anyway, but on the opposite side, my cars actually my constitution is pretty decent. My intelligence is is pretty decent as well. But I don't know some of the obstacles. What is one of your favorite obstacles?

Josh Shaw 23:44
I'm sure you have one in your head, one of my favorite obstacles. I vividly remember a time and it's so generic. And I'm thinking about Jarek because he called us I've I remember a time, Aaron's character his brother is his character's name is Elroy and we were on this island, his his family's home island. We had just gotten away from the encampment and just walking to the other side of the island. And I physically remember there was a 20 foot gap. Do you remember that? How many times we had the role to make sure we spent 35 minutes is ridiculous trying to get across this gap and finding ideas. Kreon which is sherex character said. Now I'm going to jump across it because he's a cat. Essentially. He's a Leonean. Yeah. So he so we're all trying to use rope and all this stuff to get across. And I hope you remember the story. So he makes it successfully across. Right? He's across the globe. Jared thing comes back. Jared jumps back across comes to the original side, the originals. And then jumps across and almost fell. The third kid is crazy. I'm telling you three jumps, he did three jumps when he could have just gone to the other side and been helpful and like tossed over rope knocked down or whatever. If I recall, we ended up almost like throwing a rope and tying it to a tree. And I think we balanced on it. I don't remember, I think we did something along that line, we did something dumb. It was it was, it was crazy. This was like 30 sessions ago, by the way, it was so long ago. But what he had done was Jeric had rolled various checks, yeah, to do it. So athletics, probably yes, most likely. So for those listening at home, when you create your character, all of the all of the the roles that you did when you originally create your character will give you proficiency skills. And they all apply into these big scale brackets that you will have some of the some of them include athletics checks, deception is a really fun one investigation, Perception checks. And all these checks can be used in various ways. So for example, Kreon was rolling for an athletics check. And when you build your character, you'll have like additional modifiers, and modifiers, or numbers that get added to the dice. So based on your proficiency, you'll roll a d 20. So if the DM says, you know, I want you to roll an athletics check to jump across the ravine, you'll roll a 20 sided dice a D 20. And let's say you get a 10. All right, I'm looking at my character sheet now. And it says my proficiency bonus is a plus seven. So I'd roll a 10, I'd add seven totaling 17. And from that point, the DM can determine whether or not he has there's there's a predetermined, you know, check to make it across, you know, a few or all of it.

Tony Benda 27:00
If it's a six foot gap, and you think if your character can reasonably do something like it would be a probably a DC 10. So the, the check would be you have to beat a 10. If it's something very, very simple and reasonable that anyone can do, if it's a little bit more difficult. Usually, the more difficult it is for a normal person under normal conditions, the number will increase by a certain amount. Sometimes most of the time, it's five is the standard. But a person can or the DM can kind of change that up as he goes. So like to jump 20 feet, most normal humans cannot jump 20 feet. So it's creative. So yeah, that's why you have to be creative with your skill checks. And my little three foot six character is not going to be jumping 20 feet, either someone's going to toss me, or I'm going to use a rope to get across or something to that effect, I could tell you, but each person is different. And that's why you have to use your skill checks. So my athletics is a plus zero is a plus zero, which means he would not add anything to the 20 sided dice. If I did not get a natural 20, you would probably correct. And I still don't think even with a net 20 That would be reasonable for me to get, like two three feet tall is Yeah, I would have to be like running in jumping and be thrown almost. Yep.

Josh Shaw 28:22
Let's see. So you can do other cool things like like that. That's just a minor example. But let's take the environment around that ravine, let's say, let's say you want to cut down a tree. You can, yeah. And then you can try to pick up that tree and throw it across. You know, various checks like that can work. Or let's say you want to find a tree that's already broken, that's stable enough to walk on. Maybe you roll an investigation check to say or maybe even a nature check, or perception, perception or whatever the DM would decide to roll, you can do that. But then so here's a fun question. What skill Have you never had to use in d&d? Oh, my. Or if you have used all the skills, what skill do you use the least?

Tony Benda 29:09
I think for Zook. Believe it or not, my little guy has Yes, he has used intimidation. I think once and it worked. I think it works. I would say for for my character either animal handling or performance. Because performance is more of like a bards character to try to do something. Most of the time, it's charisma based. And yes, Zack wouldn't be trying to do any performance. So I don't know if I've ever rolled the performance check to be honest. Maybe but probably not. I have never rolled a religion check. As as far as your character has any character I've ever. I've never rolled a religion check.

Interesting. I think for me, my character has rolled religion because of the campaign that we're playing right now. No, I think I've either had to do it for that character that we discovered under the water. I think I've had several religion checks for that. Your I know I've done Arcana I've done. You know, that kind of stuff history checks as well. But I don't.

Josh Shaw 30:15
Last night was the first time I ever rolled an acrobatics check really has any character and all the d&d play and all the d&d acrobatics. So tell me this though, and honestly, this is a genuine question because I think this is one I mess up the most. And if I'm messing it up, I'm going to naturally assume probably a lot of people mess it up. Well, what is the difference between a perception check and an insight check? Hmm. Okay, so, a perception check is wisdom based. And you said insight, and perception and insight. Okay, so they're both wisdom. They are both wisdom based perception for me.

Tony Benda 31:02
So like looking at what d&d beyonds as it says, Your wisdom or perception check lets you spot here or otherwise detect the presence of something. It measures your general awareness of your surroundings in the keenness of your senses. So like that, in itself, is more environmentally based. Whereas an insight I deity Yan says, Your wisdom check your insight check just decides whether you can determine the true intentions of a creature such as when searching out a lie or predicting someone's next move. So it's more I think you have to be reading intention or person or

you have to be really, I hate to say the word insightful. You would I? Well, it is what it is. No, I mean, even that's different than investigation. So like, if you're, I don't know, if you're spy versus spy, and you're trying to like, dive into a room and like, tear it apart to investigate or search for something. Investigation would be more the check than even a perception role. If you're searching for like some sort of thing in a room that you're trying to uncover investigation would be more

I guess applicable in that situation. But to answer about insight, insight is that you really have to know the core of someone or V, the intent, as d&d Beyond says, to then figure out you know, what a person or character or creature is going to do?

Josh Shaw 32:34
Already to get deep. Let's go. It it just came to me after those definitions. Do you think we live our life in Christ? Trying to role perception checks for insight checks most? Hmm. I don't think we go about our lives trying to get a perception about anything about what's around us. But we put ourselves in the meta perspective, and spend too much time rolling insight checks, we spend so much time presuming things, or trying to get the insight about everything going on, and trying to spend so much time when God says, I need to draw the perception check and perceive the world that's already around you, and perceive maybe what's going on in yourself. That's good. We put ourselves in the gods situation, that we put it from a DVS perspective, we're just the players and God is the DM. Quite literally, yes. We spend so much time trying to figure out the campaign. When God is just trying to saying just just stay right here in the moment that you're in. Gotta let us know what what check we need to use. But we're trying to insert our own insight into situations and all these things. We're not asking for insight. The proverb says, to ask for knowledge, ask for wisdom. We're not asking. When I go to Steven, and I'm trying to rule for some, I have an intent. I'm asking him, I'm confused. I'm like, hey, what, what role do I need to do? I'm kind of confused. And he provides me with the answer. Instead, I'm like, I'm gonna go roll inside check. And then half the time it's like, it's not an insight, it's perception, or it's not perception is investigation. I'm assuming the role that I have to do, and I'm not allowing the DM or God to speak into it. Instead, I'm assuming Well, I like that. I like that too. which encourages that. So let me get let me give a brief encouragement to listeners. Think outside of the box. Use your God given creativity in your daily life. And when you're playing d&d, think outside of the box, going from one side of the ravine to the other can look can you can do so many things. You may not have wings, and you say I'm going to try to fly across And you can roll in that 20. And somehow the DM has to figure out a really creative way that you're going to fly within certain reason, of course, within certain, within certain reason. But there's so many ways you can do something creative in your campaign. That makes it fun. That makes it unique that makes everybody laugh. It doesn't have to be, there is no one solution. I mean, there might be the dams like this is probably the most recommended way to get across. And at the end of the session, he might be like, You guys made that so complicated. Yeah, like, wow. But that's the fun of it. If you looked 20 feet to your right, you would have seen through a bridge or something, you would have seen the lever that would have popped up to the for the staircase down, you know, but it's your choice. You could be a bridge in front of you. Yep. And you can say, No, I'm not walking across that and make it so much more complicated. But that's the fun in it. And our daily walks with Christ. Use your creativity. Use us the Lord your God given us your God given identities, God given abilities. Stop trying to seek to know everything about your like the things that you're doing, just rely on God to provide the answer. Because when you're called to something and you feel the Lord calling you to something, you don't have to figure out the whole calling right then in there. You just need to go to the one who called you and trust that where he called you, He will guide you. We all have callings. We all have purpose. And that's actually something we're going to talk about. Next. What's good? Tony said something inside of the cafe that literally rocked my soul. He's He's waving his eyes like, oh, no, please don't do. You see, and we talked about a little bit before See, we know the ending to the story, right? According to the word, this is according to the Word of God, the enemy will be defeated in the New Kingdom will indeed come. In fact, the enemy has already been defeated. Jesus Christ rose from the dead went down to the depths that grabbed the keys from hell and came back up and said You are redeemed. Love the song sin has lost its crimson stain. It's washed white as snow. That's the story. And that's a praise from God. But what about everything in between? You know, when you read the Bible, and we say God has the victory, shouldn't that bring us confidence? Instead, we walk life and we're like, it's so hard. And this I don't I don't know what the end of the story is. I don't know. I don't know what's what God has prepared. For me, the thing we need to have confidence and lean into is the fact that God will always hold the victory, no matter what Jesus Christ has victory in his hands from the cross. That no matter what you're going through, turn to Jesus because the veil has been torn. And he's not on that cross anymore. He is raised up sitting at the right hand of God, and He can do that he can guide you through any situations. But Tony, I want you to talk about it. What is a god to your viewpoint? You burst that term, God tear it. viewpoint. And it's so good. Talk about talk to me. You're funny. No. So we yeah, we were sitting there and just talking about like the whole meta perspective. And we only see, we as characters really only see what we have in front of us. We have a limited knowledge base, we have limited, you know, visuals, sometimes. There's only so much we can see at once. So the god to your viewpoint we were talking is is how God sees us spoken versus how we see ourselves in our current situations. And there are so many like scriptures or you know, music that references switch, references scripture about like, you know how God sees us. I mean, Psalm 139 13 says, for you were created in my inmost Being You knit me together in my mother's womb, yes. John 112 says yes to all who did receive him to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. Second Corinthians five says, God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. So there's so many different things that the Bible talks about so many different titles that we as Christians, we as children of God, co heirs with Christ, if you will. This is how God sees us and not all the time do we as Christians recognize that because we choose to live with our limited viewpoint sometimes in either stay stuck in it situation or we're stuck in, you know, unhappy where we are all these different things. But if we started, you know, using that God to your viewpoint to see where you know how God sees us, that could totally change our outlook and how we live life on a day to day basis. I think about this. When I talk when we talk about that mental perspective, think about these things. And ask yourself these questions. Is it healthy to try to set ourselves on God's throne? Can we handle that knowledge if we try to sit on that throne? In fact, would that encourage us to stay in the Word? Or would we actually flee at all the things we may not understand? We talked about the garden a little bit ago. The Word says, When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. And she also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate it was in Genesis chapter three, verse six. But then after that, God comes searching for them. And he asks, and I, I've been reflecting on this, so much, God asks two very important questions, the first two questions that are out of his mouth are where are you seeking them? And I love this one who told you that you are naked? I really think about this. asking where are you as saying, Why are you hiding from me? I want to be with you. God trying to bring relationship to us. But then that question, Who told you were naked means that the enemy was trying to give them an identity that wasn't theirs to begin with. They acquired this knowledge, they couldn't handle it, they found out they were naked. And now that they know this, they may have born an identity that was never meant for them. So God said, Who told you you're this way? Who told you that? Because God created us. Birth does purpose is for so much more than just living this. This fact that we're naked gods like you're focusing I know you've you've partaken in the fruit. And now you're seeing the wrong thing.

You're all you're seeing is that you're naked before but prior to that all you are seeing is me walking with you in the garden. The partaking of the fruit gave us this identity that we were never meant to bear. And I, I think about these scriptures, and I want to encourage those and Tony feel free to chime in with just other Scriptures with it. But I put some down. We are His children. We are as children, we have been adopted into His kingdom. The word says in Galatians chapter four, verses three through seven. In the same way we also when we were children were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts crying out Abba, Father. And this is that key part of the verses so you are no longer a slave but a son and a son than an heir through God. listeners were so much more than what we perceive we are children of God and if we are children, we are heirs to his kingdom. We talked about before you are called for a purpose. God designed you for it. Ephesians 210 says, For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Tony said that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. For you formed my inward parts. You wove me in my mother's womb, I will give thanks to you. For I am fearfully and wonderfully made Wonderful are Your works and my soul knows it very well. In fact, are designed for so much more as well. I talked about anxiety and how we we live in that so much for those struggling with anxiety for those struggling with depression for those struggling with hard situations in their life Can I can I tell you that you are designed for more? Luke chapter 12 verses 29 through 32 says and do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink nor be worried God's saying Don't worry about the things of the world for all the nations of the world to seek after these things and and he says in your father who was in heaven knows that you need them. What is Jesus called to us? He says, instead seek His kingdom. And these things will be added to you. Fear not little flock for it as your Father's good pleasure to what give you the kingdom. And I love this. I actually I preached a message a couple of weeks ago and I included this scripture. If all that doesn't make sense, can I can I tell you that you're called to walk with God, not with the world, you are called, to do so much more in the garden of life than to walk in sin and shame. The word says in John chapter 15, verse 19, if you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. It doesn't, it doesn't desire you let God desires you. We try to play life from this meta perspective that we need to control everything we need to know the outcomes, we need to know the endings. But can I just assure you that just walking with God and knowing who you are, truly, you don't have to live in the nakedness of sin. You don't have to live in this identity that somebody else is trying to give you. You can walk in confidence about who you are in Jesus. And the way we find that is through his word. Got anything with that, Tony? No, I'm just soaking it all in. It's good. And I had reminders for us to like, and I was just about to say that that's this doesn't come from a place that we know everything. This we have to we have to tell each other the scriptures all the time, texts back and forth saying hey, I love you. You're fearfully, wonderfully made. Hey, I know you're struggling with this situation. But don't walk in the world walk in Christ. Hey, I know that you're really struggling with this sin and there is absolutely there it is biblical to confess our sins to one another. And saying I'm struggling with the sin and saying, I love you, bro. Just remember that. You don't have to stay there. Man. I get emotional when talking about the Bible. Well, it is a living breathing text. That's right. That's right. So Tony hearing and soaking all that. For those listening at home, no, now we know there are a lot of people listening. How can they integrate these insights into their walk with God and fulfilling their purpose and calling?

Tony Benda 47:44
I think it's about intentional intimacy with the Father. Oh, that's good. There are so many things happening in each one of our individual lives. We're all using that term busy. And it's my friend tuck put it one way. He says the him and his wife, Chelsea, they started getting rid of that word busy. And started looking at it from a perspective of they're living full lives right now.

Josh Shaw 48:15
Oh, that's so good.

Tony Benda 48:18
And we have to decide if our lives are currently busy. Or if our lives are full, if they are busy. How do we change them from being busy into being full, full of God, full of the Spirit full of biblical things as we still go about our daily lives, because you know, the world is never going to stop or we're constantly going to be doing things and going places and working and going to church and doing all this stuff. But with the limited time that some of us, you know, devote to our daily walk, there are those out there and I'm guilty of it too, we can all find better ways of increasing that time, even if it's just another two minutes to our daily devotions or prayer time, or whatever this is find a moment to just take a pause throughout the day, reflect on the scriptures reflect on what God has, you know, telling you in your personal lives or just spending another minute or two in prayer. And it doesn't have to be anything elaborate. It can be while you're driving, turn off, you know, the rock radio for a minute and just you know, sit with sit with God. Just say thanks for another day of you know, being on this side of the Earth and like just these little things. It doesn't have to be anything crazy.

Josh Shaw 49:31
It's it's relational. It's not. Yeah, I'll just leave it there. It's a relationship. It's not a it's not a ritual. So I heard this thing on a podcast one time, he was talking about how we communicate with God. And he said, How successful would your marriage be? If you only talk to your wife for 15 minutes one time a day? How successful would your friendship be if you texted them and said I love you. I thank you. Once a day, let me add this. How successful would your relationships be? If you only talk to them because you needed something from them. We always ask God because we need something. I would challenge every listener when you pray when you seek relationship, just do it because you love him. We think we need so much in our lives, but all we need is his presence. It will solve everything. That's what relationship is. You don't have to need everything. And you don't have to know the outcome either. Oh, yeah. That's that's next thing. How do you steer clear of this mental perspective? Hi, steer clear of trying to take control and just trying to know the outcomes rather just knowing God? Well, we also know that Tomorrow is not promised. So that's, I think one of our key ways that we can stay grounded where we are is to is to recognize that tomorrow's not promised and that we have to live today and live for him today. Beyond that, I mean, we can't do it ourselves. So that's good. Walking by yourself is lonely. Sometimes you need to, to get your mind right. But that is our goal with this podcast. Yeah, that's literally in our mission statement. Build a Christ centered community. In conjunction with those who play d&d, if I tried to play in d&d, a d&d campaign by myself, it'd be pathetic. But to play with Tony, and other my other brothers, and sisters, even, it's a lot more beneficial. It's a lot more fun. So there's a lot more healing to it. We went through a lot today. We did. It's good, though. It was so good. It was so good. So just just as just as a recap, you know, for those who need to, if it's still kind of ambiguous about what a meta perspective is, I encourage you to go online and to look it up and to kind of study in fact, even just DM us with questions, you know, if there's something we didn't explain, right, feel free to reach out to us. We'll we can help explain it in any kind of way possible. You know, we encourage you guys as you play to use that creativity that you have, every every one of us has it. As you walk into a campaign, whether you're an experienced player or a first time player, walk into your campaigns, using the creativity that God has given you with that creativity. Bring yourself into the word word of God. learn who you are, learn who God has called you to be who you who you what your identity truly is in. And when you begin to learn that and submit to the to the will of the Father, He will reveal even more of the journey that he has you on. The campaign is not always clear right at the beginning, but the farther you travel in a and listen and obey and surrender to the will of God, you will begin to learn that and it will become so much more clear. And there will be a lot of ups and downs. A lot of fights a lot of struggles, but that's why I opened it Tony, I knew I would need it. I knew I would need it for this. I was actually reading this today. It says in Second Corinthians chapter one starting in verse eight. Paul is saying this to the church at Corinth. He's saying for we do not want you to be unaware brothers, of the affliction we experience in Asia. Check this out. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired life itself. And D we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely on not ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and He will deliver us on him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. Take heart, take heart believers. Take heart those who are even just trying to understand who God is. Paul is saying we struggled and we were in despair and art. It was not fun. But their hope was on gone. Their hope was on him. Take heart. Don't live in the meta walk in the ministry. Well, anything else Tony? I think you nailed it. No, I think that's great. I'm very excited with today's episode. Because we did cover a lot that's that's cool stuff though. And no We who we are, as God sees us is vital. In our Christian walk, we have to understand that and if you don't talk to your pastor, reach out to us connect, find other believers. Because it also helps to have that affirmation from fellow believers as well sometimes. Yeah, I'm not all for those. What are they called? Words of affirmation and all that kind of stuff. Love Languages, words of affirmation is not my love language. Not that I'm a huge love language person. But there are people that do need to hear those affirmations and be reminded sometimes, and I mean, I personally need to be reminded sometime that you know, I am a child of God, and that I am fearfully and wonderfully made, because we all go through stuff. So yeah. If you're feeling discouraged, feel free to reach out. And we want to thank everyone for for joining us today. It was such an incredible conversation. And we have social media, like us on Instagram, Facebook, share with your friends, share with your friends, to all your nerdy communities, to everybody around you share and anything that you're listening on, you know, if it's apple, podcasts, Spotify, Spotify, anything, leave us a comment, leave us a review. So that way the word can go out more, because we don't want the word to just stay contained within the place where recording, we want the word to go outside of this recording studio, and out to everybody Yep, around you. And just to kind of reiterate the same thing, we're on Facebook as dungeon disciples with the word spelled out and dungeons and disciples, also on Instagram with that same thing dungeons and disciples all spelled out. And then our email if you wanted to reach out to us through that is dungeons disciples@gmail.com There's no end to that one. So dungeons disciples@gmail.com Well, my goodness, I love it. Do you want brass out? Sure. Let's do it.

Tony Benda 56:59
Father, God, thank you so much for being with us today. Thanks for today's conversation in how we're able to not think of ourselves from our own perspective. But think of us how you see us. I pray that as we go forward this week, in the next couple of weeks, God that we continue to live a more intimate relationship with you. I pray that we're able to be that light to our friends and our family God and that those who are struggling with identity or seeing themselves from that God to your viewpoint, that they'll recognize who they are in Christ and can come to a better understanding of you and pray all these things. Amen. Thanks for listening.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai