Talk Stigma

Hello, everyone. I wanted to welcome you all to Sunday's livestream. My name is Pastor Seth Perry and this is my live stream that I call Talk Stigma. And I'm a pastor, but not only that, I'm in recovery from addiction and I live well with bipolar disorder. So I just wanted to let everyone know I'm not in my office. Sometimes I do my live streams from my office. Jules, hello. I'm glad that you're joining today. Say hello. I'd love to hear how are you doing? Tell me how your Sunday is going, because I'd love to hear that and tell me what you're up to today.

So welcome, Jules. So I decided, well, why not? Why not? Good afternoon to you, Jules. Why not just do it in front of one of the stained glass windows here at work? So our church service ended, you know, a few hours ago, and I decompressed a little bit and here I am. So this is myself on a regular Sunday afternoon. And I said, might as well just bring it into the sanctuary where I normally am on Sunday mornings. Because this morning it was wake up early. So I was up at 5:30. I was at work by 6:30 and off to the races.

I had a great morning. I felt really. Sometimes it's tough, but not today. Like it was not tough. I was awake. I was ready to go really early. You know, I don't know, maybe it was extra strong coffee, something like that. And the two services went well, and I'm very happy about how things went. So today I have this in my hand. Maybe dream big 30. Welcome. And let's see, Jules is baking macaroon brownie cupcakes from scratch. You just made. Wow, Homemade pizza. I love homemade pizza. For five, five team kids.

So dream get big 30. Hello. Say hi. Let us know where you're tuning in from. Dream big 30. I want you all to guess what's in here because this is something that I used today in my children's lesson and I asked the kids to guess what was in here. So I'll let all of you guess from what's in here and I'll talk a little bit. And so dream big 30. You're in Minneapolis. Hello. I live in St. Paul. I work in Scandia and I'm at my church here in Scandia. And dream big 30. If you don't know who I am, my name is Pastor Seth Perry.

I'm in recovery from addiction and I live well with bipolar disorder. And I talk about faith. And you know, I also, you know, I talk about institutional trauma Religious trauma and stigma within institutions. And that's what we talk about on Sundays when we talk. So you thought maybe there's a speaker in here? Okay, good. Jules, do you have a guess what's in this little case here? Because I'd love. I'd love to. For you to give me a few more guesses. So anyway, for this. For this service today, I was talking a lot about anxieties that a lot of people have when they look around the world and they see a bunch of very challenging stuff happening, like war and famine and disasters, and trying to maybe bring that into perspective for people.

Because when you look over history, over history, there have been cycles of war, There have been famines that have happened quite regularly over the last 2,000 years. We've had so many horrific disasters happen in this world. Oh, you think candy bars might be in here? Hmm, yeah, maybe I still have some. Some. Some candy bars from Halloween. Okay, last chance for everyone to guess what's in here. But. So I wanted everyone to kind of have. Have a little bit of a perspective on, you know, on what has happened, those big tragedies that have happened.

Because that's what a lot of what I was teaching on today was. And I have to use my example of what's in this box now. So I got it out of the box. I have binoculars in this box. So one of the examples that I was using when I was teaching the kids was using these binoculars. So let's say we're talking about things that are going to happen in the future that we might be worried about, and this works for us here on Cadre because a lot of people here are here for, you know, personal development. A lot of people here on Cadre are looking for spiritual solutions for their everyday, you know, what's happening right now.

And so I just want to present this as, you know, maybe a little bit of a lesson for everyone. So things that worry about. Sorry, things that worry us, they may be coming at us from the future. So we might want to use binoculars to look and find out about those things that are coming our way. Right. We might want to use binoculars to see what's coming down the road. Right. And sure, binoculars are good. In some circumstances, binoculars are good tools for us to see something that's happening far away from us.

Right. But I also am concerned as a pastor and as someone in recovery about what's happening in the here and now. So I asked the kids this morning these questions. Would I drive my car home using my binoculars? No, I wouldn't. Or maybe this. Would I make breakfast for my wife tomorrow morning? Because Monday I do like to cook. Right. So would I walk around the kitchen with the binoculars on? No, I don't think so. Yeah, or maybe today I gave people communion. Would I serve communion with the binoculars on?

No. I'd probably spill stuff all over the place. Binoculars have a purpose. Looking far ahead of us, there's a time in our life where we have to see what's on the horizon. Absolutely, totally. That's totally valid. But there's also time that we need to see what's right in front of us. And that's what I think is really important for us here on the Cadre sphere is that if we are anxious, if we are worried about what might happen, if we are worried about tragedy and calamity, I think that we need to put the binoculars away and focus on what's right in our field of vision.

What can we see that's right in front of us? And I know that a lot of people are concerned about what's happening in the world right now and I am one of them. But I think that right now I'm called to see what's happening right in front of me. What are the things that I can do? Who's hurting right in front of me? What are the people that are reaching out for help, that need help, that are right in front of me. What do I need to do to take care of myself in the here and now, right now? Right. So that's my thought and my lesson for today.

And I'm grateful that you're all here on the Cadre Sphere and Dream Big. 30. Thanks for joining us today because I always love sharing with people what's going on in my life and I'm here every Sunday at 1:00 and you can see me in the chat on some other wonderful Cadre live streams. I often check. JC Leopold Lippold. Lippold. JC Lippold JCL JC's Morning Cadre Cadre Live Spheres. Live Streams. Cadre Live Streams. I check out JC's stuff so you'll see me there in the chats. Dream big. Thanks for the smile.

I also appreciate that. And yeah, I just wanted to say have a wonderful Sunday. Have a wonderful Sunday afternoon and a good start to your week. Just remember that you're worth it and just pay attention to what's right.