Ep 95: Groundhog Day

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What can Groundhog Day teach us
about discernment?

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Let's take a look at that in
just a SEC.

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Welcome to the show.
I'm Daniel Dalp, and this is for

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your Sunday morning drive with a
short podcast with a goal of

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providing some motivation, some
drive and encouragement and

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helping you recenter your mind
on those spiritual things on a

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hectic Sunday morning or
whenever you listen.

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And I certainly hope that
whenever you listen, you're

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having a great day, whether if
that's at the start of this

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Lord's Day or if it's throughout
your week.

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I hope you're having a good one.
And if you enjoy today's

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episode, so please share it with
a friend.

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That's a great way to help us
grow, and I really appreciate

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it.
Today's episode is a little bit

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more lighthearted than most, and
that's because the theme came

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from a pretty silly place.
But the message I'd like to

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think is pretty important,
especially in the world we live

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in today.
Anyway, let's go ahead and get

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the show on the road this
morning.

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This is episode 95, Groundhog
Day.

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Let's go to church.
Are we there yet?

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Monday was Groundhog Day, a day
that inspires some good fun and

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doesn't take itself too
seriously.

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And rightly so, especially when
the whole premise of the holiday

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revolves around beseeching the
wisdom of a rodent and asking

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that rodent to predict the
remaining length of the winter

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season.
And after doing some digging

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into the holiday, it seems to
come out of a German tradition

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called Candlemas, which was
marked by what they called

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Badger Day.
Long story short, they bring it

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to America.
It pops in Pennsylvania Dutch

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communities, first appearing in
records as Groundhog Day in the

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1840s.
And where, you might ask, was

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the first record of Groundhog
Day?

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Well, not surprisingly, in
Punxsutawney, PA, where the most

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famous of the weather predicting
woodchucks lives, Punxsutawney

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Phil.
And yes, you heard me right.

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There are other animals used to
predict the weather.

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In fact, there's over 88 of them
and the majority are groundhogs.

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Some of them are tax, so I have
no idea how that works.

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One of them is a Prairie dog
statue and another one is a

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tortoise.
Now I'll let that sink in for

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just a moment, but I would be
remiss if I didn't pull out some

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of my favorite names that I
found while doing some research

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for this episode.
Some of these groundhogs go by

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the names of Dunkirk, Dave,
Buckeye, Chuck, and of course

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General Beauregard Lee.
Now with all of these critters

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specializing in meteorology, you
may be asking how's their

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accuracy?
Well it like the location of

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these woodchucks gone weatherman
is all over the map.

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Some get it right more often and
some get it wrong most of the

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time.
Our dear friend Phil only has a

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38% accuracy rating in the last
20 years.

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Again, not surprising, he's a
Groundhog, but still, even with

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the variance in accuracy and
even with the truth that, yes,

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they are groundhogs, every one
of them still has a following.

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Now, you may be asking, Daniel,
what are you getting at?

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You can't seriously be trying to
squeeze a spiritual lesson out

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of a Groundhog.
Well, dear listener, that's

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exactly what I'm doing, so let's
get to it spiritually.

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This is a similar picture of the
world that we live in today.

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You see, we are surrounded by
voices, by opinions,

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predictions, advice, beliefs,
pressures, agendas, each one

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claiming insight into what's
coming next next, or what God's

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will is.
And the sheer number of voices

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can feel convincing.
After all, if that many are

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speaking, if there is that much
noise, surely one of them must

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be right?
But here's the thing.

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Volume is not the same thing as
truth.

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And it's a good reminder that
accuracy, that truth matters

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even when tradition is popular,
even when agenda is prevalent.

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You see, some animals and people
have a long track record of

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being wrong, yet people still
TuneIn.

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Why?
Because familiarity is

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comforting, even when it's
unreliable.

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And there's a spiritual warning
in that Scripture repeatedly

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reminds us that sincerity and
popularity and volume do not

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guarantee truth.
In fact, God often calls his

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people to resist the crowd and
test what they hear.

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John writes in first John 4
verse One, beloved, do not

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believe every spirit, but test
the spirits to see whether they

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are from God because many false
prophets have gone out into the

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world.
And testing means asking,

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asking, does this align with
God's word?

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Does this produce fruit over
time?

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Does this lead me closer to
faithfulness or does it just

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make me feel more informed?
And does this push an agenda or

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does it glorify God?
And there's another lesson we

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can draw from these 88 Groundhog
predictors.

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And it's this.
They don't all agree.

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Some call for an early spring
and others predict the long

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winter.
And the result isn't clarity,

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it's confusion.
Scripture is clear.

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God is not a God of confusion.
So when voices conflict or they

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get louder, that's not a sign to
listen harder to all of them.

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It's a sign to return to a
single reliable source.

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God, his word and His will.
The question isn't whether there

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are many voices.
The question is which voice do

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we trust?
So today, maybe you smile and

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you laugh at this idea of these
88 animals predicting the

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future.
But let it also remind us, truth

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isn't crowd sourced.
It's already been revealed, so

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read it.
And wisdom doesn't come from

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listening to everyone.
It comes from listening

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carefully to the One who has
never been wrong.

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And in doing so, maybe we stop
lending our ears to the noise of

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this world and incline our ears
to the truth of heaven revealed

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in the Word of God.
Well, those are my thoughts for

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your Sunday morning drive.
Now it's time to hear yours.

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Our discussion questions for
this week are which voices do we

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tend to listen to when we fail
to listen to God?

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In what ways do we truly test
those other voices to see if

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they are godly, and what lengths
are we willing to go to to drown

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out the voices that distract us
from the goals of the Master?

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A Thank you for listening.
Thank you so much for being a

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part of our little show.
I hope you have a great week.

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Test those voices, open up your
Bibles, take refuge in God's

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Word, and I'll see you Sunday.