Autoshop Ministries Episode 5: Stop Worrying About Tomorrow: Be Fully Present Today

What's up, family? This is Joe Adams with Adams Automotive, the number one shop in America. This is Master Tech to Millionaire, presented by Autoshop Answers, where we talk about the transition from technician to business owner CEO. We're here today with Pastor Devontae Tidwell for another episode of Autoshop Ministries. Happy Sunday. Devontae, how you doing? I'm doing great, man. It's a great day. I can't complain one bit. I'm happy to be back here with everybody. So how are you? I'm doing good, man. And we had our, we wrapped up our second key to key weekend with AutoShop Ministry Sunday service. I thought it went pretty well. How'd you think it went? Man, I always think it goes well when people are giving their life to Jesus and people are getting prayed for and people are being encouraged. So, you know, I have no complaints when it was really cool to see so many different people engage, not just with the message or everything that happened,

but with one another, you know, and even seeing some new faces that weren't there for the first one. I thought that was cool, too. So listen, I want to invite everybody. You know what I mean? Meet us there. Meet us there. Like, I promise you, it's worth the early morning every single month. That's right. Sweet. Well, man, what are we, what are we getting into today? You got a message for us today? Yeah, I sure do, man. I want to get into being fully present because I think it's one of the most underrated things that we can do in this entire, not just. Life and existence, but I think it's that we walk with Jesus as we're trying to get closer to him, as we're trying to engage with community. There's nothing worse than like being with somebody and being at dinner or being on a date and being like, you know what? Well, are they really are they paying attention? Like you're repeating details or, you know, they got their phone out the entire time.

Like they're just not present. You know how that feels being out there. But imagine us taking that into our faith, into our journey with God, because we do. And one of the things that we do when we're not fully present is that we take our focus off of Jesus, off of what we already have, because we're looking at tomorrow. We're looking at things in the future that are scaring us or that we're worried about or taking our time and our attention. It may not be a physical phone, but it'll be a tomorrow problem or a deadline or a project or something like that. And scripture actually speaks to this. I want to read it. It says this in Matthew chapter six, verse number 34. Here's what it says. It says, do not be worried about tomorrow because tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble on its own. Like, I'm going to say that one more time. Do not be worried about tomorrow, for tomorrow will take care of itself.

Each day has enough trouble on its own. Think about that. You know, there's this term in psychology called awfulizing. Have you ever heard of this word? No, I haven't. Okay, so it's literally the word awful, like this is trash or this is bad. But it's literally awful with icing on the end of it awfulizing is this they they you create the worst case scenario, in hopes that you avoid it in your head okay, so what what happens is like a lot of people who do this they'll try to think about tomorrow or again like we talked about that project or that bill that's due or that issue that comes up and they're they come up with a scenario in their head to be as, bad as earthly possible. So that way they're not surprised by it. And they do it because they're hoping that. It doesn't happen. It's like, well, if I expose myself to it in my brain, then nothing, everything else under that has to be easier. And honestly, that takes a toll on your body. Like, just imagine thinking that way all the time.

And a lot of times when people are talking about being worried about tomorrow, they aren't thinking about being worried about tomorrow in a good way. It's not like, oh, I want to make it to tomorrow because I can't wait to get up and make my bed. Like nobody's ever said that, right? It's, I'm worried about tomorrow because I don't know if I'm going to be able to, you know, meet this quota, or I don't know if this meeting that I'm having is going to go well, or it's going to be bad. Are they going to drop us? Are they going to pick us up? Or we're going to land that contract or whatever it may be. It always is skews negatively. And what you did instead of avoiding the problem is you already pre-exposed yourself to it. And here's what the Bible is saying, because the title of this whole passage, If you go all the way up, I love like in the Bible, if you have a Bible or you have the Bible app, each section typically has a title that helps you understand what that section is.

Here's what it says for this section, which is verse 25 through 34. The title sometimes is preaching to us, too. This is the cure for anxiety. Isn't that crazy? The cure for anxiety is to not worry about tomorrow because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble on its own. And what what this is saying is anxiety is essentially fear of a future that you cannot even control. And here's what we have to do. We have to let tomorrow be tomorrow because tomorrow's not even promised. And we're so focused on the future. We're so focused on the next thing that we look over the beauty of the now thing. That's why I say we have to be fully present, Joe. We have to, because we're gonna, one, tomorrow's not promised. So if tomorrow's not promised, neither is the thing we're scared of. It may not ever even show up and you spent all of today stressing about it, worried about it, losing sleep. You didn't eat. You got cold sweats.

You're not even focused. You can't play with your kids. You can't hang out with your coworkers. You can't laugh. You can't tell a joke. It robbed you of today because you were focused on the negative potential that tomorrow would have. And a lot of times, the thing that we were worried about never even shows up. Does that make sense? Yeah, it totally makes sense. It's funny you bring up Matthew 6. My favorite verse, like probably my favorite verse ever, and we didn't even plan this, is Matthew 6, 28. He's talking about the, you know, Jesus is talking about the birds of the air. It's like, look at the birds, you know, they don't gather food, they don't store seed in the barns or whatever it says. And, you know, yet the Lord feeds them every day and he cares way more about you than he cares about the birds, you know? And it's, I don't know if I'm paraphrasing that for sure, but I think about that all the time. Like I'll be just massively

stressed about something and you kind of zoom out. And it's like, wow, this is like, not to like invalidate our sufferings or our anxieties, but to be like, wow, like, he's got me. God's got me, like we're gonna get through today. And what you were saying that stuck out to me was like, oftentimes that thing doesn't even happen. Like what if something really great happens? You know, like I try to be more optimistic, but for sure, having anxiety, especially when you're trying to run a business or be faithful in your career is something a lot of us have to overcome. It is. And I think, you know, and I'll read it for people just because I think that is another one of those just brilliant, brilliant scriptures. And I'll back up to verse number 27, since I'm already got my Bible open and we're here. It says this, and who of you by being worried can add a single hour to their life? And why are you worried about clothing observe how the lilies of the field grow

they don't toil nor do they spin yet i say to you not even solomon or all his glory clothes himself like the lilies, but if god clothes the grass of the field which is a lie today and tomorrow thrown into the furnace will he not how much more would he clothe you. Think about that the birds are there they gather they don't gather they if his eye is where it comes from where if his eye is on the sparrow than I know that he watches me, right? Do not worry about what we'll eat or drink. What we'll wear. But seek first the kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you. And then it says, so do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will take care of itself. Each day has enough trouble on its own. Isn't that special, man? The birds of the air. They don't sow. They don't reap. They don't put anything into barns. Yet your heavenly father feeds them every single day. And are you not worth more than them?

Yes. I mean, it's we are. But here's the thing. I love that you said this, too. It's like, man, what if something really great happens? What I typically find, Joe, is that, again, it only is the negative and people never give the positive a fair fight. Like like what if what if tomorrow the meeting goes better than you expected and it's the thing that launches your career what if tomorrow, it it says hey you know what like we said that we wanted to do this but like now we in this conversation we've thought of some more other opportunities for growth that we can partner with and now that contract you were expecting is now double the triple right or what if what if you ask the girl on a date and she says yes, you know what i mean Like, what if you ask her and she goes out, now, now five years down the line, you're like, man, if I, you know, if I would have just been in my head about it and stayed with the anxiety, I wouldn't have my wife.

Right. So these are things that we never give space to. And I want to give you another scripture that points to this. John 10, 10, Jesus says that the enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy. But I make, I have come that you may have life and life more abundantly. I don't know about you, Joe, but life and life more abundantly sounds pretty positive to me. I agree. Yeah. I received that. I received that too, because Jesus is directly given a juxtaposition. He's given a direct contrast between two things. He says, the enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but I have come that you may have life and life more abundantly. Don't lose the light of life worrying about tomorrow, because it's a tactic that the enemy will use. Because if he comes to steal, kill, and destroy, sometimes we're celebrating like, man, I just survived. I just made it through the day. I survived. I wasn't killed. I wouldn't destroy it. It's like,

yeah, but it stole something from you. It stole your rest. It stole your peace. It stole your joy. It stole your positive outlook. It stole your energy because you're focused on tomorrow. Now, now you don't have the energy to tackle your kids on the floor. And now you don't have the energy to be truly excited that, you know, your son hit his first homer. You know, now you don't have the energy to hear about how your daughter finally landed that position in that company that she was really hoping for, you know, after the internship. Because you've let tomorrow rob you of your rest, rob you of your joy, rob you of your peace. And that's no way to live. When you're trying to be fully present, bro, here's what I think we will see. The more present you are, the more fully present, let me go back and say that, the more fully present you are, because you can be present, right? Like you can be there, but not fully there, right? Like you can be sitting with

somebody, but not fully engaged, or you can be in the room, but not engaging with the room. So let me clarify, being fully present, the more fully present you are, the more you will realize you have a lot more to be grateful for. You'll stop trying to live in a place where you're trying to grab things to be grateful for. Grab things to be satisfied. Like, oh, I'll be happy when this happens tomorrow. Or I'll be finally happy when this comes through next week. Or I'll finally be happy when this comes through next month. No, you'll be like, man, when I'm fully present, man, I got great kids. I got a great friendship with my guy, Joe. Man, I got a great yard to go mow. I got some cool things. I got a great spouse. I got a great team around me. You know, I remember when my staff wasn't as strong as it is now. I am grateful that I got the staff that I have. I'm grateful that I have the admin and the assistant that I have.

Because I remember when my life was a mess because I am not good at managing my calendar. Like when you are fully present, Joe, that's what I realized is that you will default to gratitude and gratitude is the way that keeps you present. All right, I got a question for you. So, you know, Todd, I know Todd's listening to this. You know, he knows my personality is like, I'm not necessarily somebody who's like anxious that something horrible is going to happen. But I think I get anxiety that we're not going to like perfectly optimize everything, if that makes sense. Yeah, absolutely. One, I like to read Proverbs and one of my favorite Proverbs is something along the lines of like, Like, you know, we may make all these plans, you know, but the Lord orders our steps. So why try to figure everything out along the way? And Todd talks about it like this. You know, he's like, he's like, look, Joe, in my career, I've always just kind of like backed into success is what he calls it.

He's like, you're not really like, he's like, you just put your head down at work every day. And then you kind of like look up every now and then and you're like, holy crap, like what have we built here? You know and uh you're not necessarily so i don't know my question to you is like how do you how do you have like a healthy amount of like, not worrying but like uh concern like, i want to steward the business well and i want to like thoughtfully think through the way i do things but i think that sometimes that can manifest itself as like uh kind of like i'll get anxious that I'm not. That it's not going to go perfectly, that it won't be like perfectly optimized. And so I have to lean on scripture like this, you know, to make sure that I'm trusting that the Lord orders our steps and he takes care of the birds and how much more does he care about me? But anyway, that was a lot, but I'll pause there if that question makes sense.

No, that question makes total sense. And I think your answer is within the questions, you know, or within some of your response, because I think a lot of people try to separate the two, right? And I think the problem that the scripture for today in Matthew 6 is pointing out is the caveat is, today has enough trouble in and of itself. And it would have enough trouble whether or not you were a Christian. You still would, like Jesus also says at another point, he says, in this life, you will have troubles, but take part for I have overcome the world. That's the formula. Like you mentioned, it's okay. Yeah, there are troubles, but I have to trust that the Lord has tomorrow in the palm of his hands. The Lord is going to clothe the lilies of the valley. The Lord is going to feed the birds of the air. The Lord is the one who orders our steps. The Lord is the one who is stronger than my understanding. If he promises, trouble is not a possibility. It is a promise.

Jesus literally says in this life, you will, not you might, not you could, not you should have trouble. He said, you will have trouble, but take heart for I have overcome the world. He's saying, I am the solution. The more you lean on me, the more you don't have to worry about the trouble. It's the trouble that's the problem. I think there's a healthy amount of concern about the future. That's why I said the word concern. When you're talking about stewardship, you're saying, hey, I want to steward the business well. I want to steward these people well. I want to make sure that we are paying people at a place and at a pace that they can take care of their family and that they're not dreading coming to work because they have to. I want them to be there because they want to. That's being a good leader, right? The Bible also says that a wise man stores up an inheritance for his children and his children's children. That's future.

I don't know my grandkids yet. I don't have any, but that still is a concern about the future. And that shows that you can steward things for the future without being worried about the future. That's the difference, right? There's a level of concern that goes with stewardship because that means that you're a good leader. That means that the people that are listening are good leaders. They are, hey, I want to make sure that tomorrow the lights still come on. I want to make sure that you know, six months from now, we're not blowing through reserves because of something that we didn't price properly. You know, that's good stewardship. But the concern happens when it's a worry as if it's, you know, almost kind of a reverse engineer. The question is if this doesn't go perfectly, does that make this or me a failure? And I think that's what's at the root of it for a lot of people where they say, man, it has to go perfectly because that's the way that I attach my identity.

It's not God's doing. It's not the Lord's work. It's Devante's work. It's Devante's effort. It's Devante's ability. And this is what it's saying. What are you worried about? If you trust in the Lord with all your heart and you lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge him, Proverbs says, this is Proverbs 3, verse 5 through 6, says, in all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your path. The path doesn't end today. If he's going to direct our path for tomorrow and the next day and the next day and the next day, it allows us to be fully present in two days. And right now where we get to say, yeah, God, hey, here's this concern. I'm going to bring it to you because I am a good steward. I am thinking about the future. I'm thinking about tomorrow. I'm thinking about my employees, my techs. I'm thinking about my admins. I'm thinking about my office staff. I'm thinking about my coworkers. I'm thinking about my peers,

my family, my kids, but I'm to bring it to you because I know that you can handle it a lot better than me. Yeah, it's, you know, because I think about this a lot. It's like, there's not a lot of Fortune 500 CEOs who probably, you know, their business plan is to just like, hey, we'll just let God handle it. You know, we'll just figure it out along the way. And so I think about that all the time. I'm like, well, what am I, you know, how do I fit our business and my career into God's word? And I think you kind of just answered it. It's like, you basically just, you do all you can, but you just don't let it ruin your life. Like you just, at a certain point, there is a unhealthy amount of anxiety where you are not trusting that God is going to provide for you and your family. And that, because God wants you to do your part. I firmly believe that, you know, he wants you to sow seed and he wants you to water it and he wants

you to, you know, harvest it. But, you know, staring at the seed and, you know what I mean? Like 24 seven isn't, he wants you to sleep and rest too. You know what I mean? I don't know if that made sense, but. That's a perfect analogy. You can overdo it for sure. That's a perfect analogy, Joe. I think that because the Bible talks a lot about farming and uses agriculture, you know, not just as symbolism, but, you know, for us to look at. So I love that you talk because let's talk about that for a second. Imagine planting a seed and you have a whole field and you want to, you know, you want to grow orchard apple trees, right? You want a bunch of apple trees, whatever. Well, if you go out there and you plant the seed and you do all the backbreaking work that it takes to plant that seed, to make sure that it's covered, to make sure the soil is the right pH, all of the stuff. If you know anything about, you know, about planting crops, right? Great.

Imagine coming out there in six hours being like, man, I sure hope did the seed go down far enough? Let me get my ruler and like, let me dig beside the seed and try to see how far. Oh, no, it's not that. Now you're obsessing. That's the problem. Anxiety is the obsession over the future that you cannot fully control. It's the obsession that's wrapped in fear. There's so many different layers that make this anxiety that that's a little different from the concern. That's why I said, I want to make sure that the words have the proper power because you can be concerned about tomorrow. There's nowhere in the Bible where it says, you know, don't fully be concerned. Don't don't plan. Don't write it. The Bible talks about setting our eyes on things above. That's the future. That's heaven. That's when we get to the end of our says that, you know, in the parable of times we talk about well done, good and faithful servant, which is the goal at the end of life.

You know, Paul talks about, you know, I haven't reached it yet, but I'm pressing on towards the prize of Jesus towards the future. Like there is more language to suggest that you should absolutely be concerned about the end in mind, the future in mind. But imagine going out there every day with a ruler and saying, ah, was the seed deep enough? Did the seed crack a little bit? Is there, is the sprotling going to come up today? Is the seedling going to come up today? Is it going to break the ground today? What about today? No, what about today? Today, like you would be waiting for years. You know what I mean? And then because of the amount of obsession that takes, excuse me. Think about all you miss. You don't have time to do anything else because you have to now go back out there with a ruler. Let me go out there and feel the soil. Let me test the soil again today. Let me watch and hope the seed comes up.

Let me see. OK, the seed is coming up a little bit. Let me make sure. Now let me hold my arms out around the perimeter so nothing comes to eat the fruit that's growing on it. Now you've missed dinners. You've missed sleep. You've missed time to connect. You've missed tea times. You know, I had to throw that in there because I'm obsessed with golf now. You've missed tea times, you know what I mean? You've missed all of these things because you're obsessing over this one thing being perfect. And that's the idea. If we're using the analogy for people who are listening, think about anxiety or being concerned about tomorrow and not being fully present in today, with going outside and checking to see if the seed is good every single day. You physically, literally would not have enough time in a day to do anything else. No, you're speaking to me, man. I literally, you know, if Todd's listening to this, he's gonna be cracking up because I'll get so obsessed.

I'll get like so distracted with all the details of like, hey, if we make this decision like five years from now, this is good, the outcome is gonna be. And like, here's the point. Or like, I'll just get so in the weeds, which is kind of like, it's one of my superpowers is I'll get really fixated and obsessed on like a certain, like, I don't know, bottleneck in the business or a problem we're facing. But then like kind of one of the side effects of that is I will literally stare at the seed and be like thinking about how much water we need to put on it. And like, I will get so distracted that I'll miss stuff. And it's like, there's an opportunity cost to everything. And I could have been spending that time doing more useful and profitable things in the business or just in my own life. So that's for sure. That's basically the analogy. It's like sitting there and staring at the plant and instead of just trusting that God's gonna do his thing and he wants you

to do your part, but he's going to do his thing and just being like, man, what's going to go wrong? Like trying to helicopter over it. So that's it. It's good stuff. Yeah. Because there's so many elements that we don't have control over. Even if you stared at the seed, let's go a little deeper into the analogy. You couldn't make the sun come up. Right. You couldn't make the wind blow. You couldn't send the rain. So even staring at the seed, all of the elements around it, that still are a necessity for this to be successful are out of our hands. And I feel like that's a reminder for some people today. And I hope that anybody that's listening feels the same thing that I know it's not just Joe. I've dealt with it and I deal with it, too. I always say like it's almost like the curse of being a strategist. Right. Like you you can see kind of things in the future. You can see problems before they happen. But at the same time, you can you can obsess over them.

So for everybody listening out there, you know, I want to encourage you with this before I give you our challenge for the week, which I hope that you've bought a journal because I love that we have talked about a journal every single week on the show, especially because today is going to hit. You have to release the control. All anxiety is, is a symptom of needing more control. I have to release the control because even if I stared at that seat, I can't make the sun come out. I can't move the clouds so that these plants get a little more sunlight. I can't make the wind blow so that it gets the right amount of oxygen. I can't send the rain and I can't send enough rain. Even if I could send enough rain today, hey, I can't send enough rain for it to continue to grow tomorrow. Like there's so much that's out of my control. But the part that isn't my control is putting the seed in the ground and trusting

that God is going to do the rest. I'm going to plant the seed. I'm going to scatter the seed. I'm going to make sure it's covered with the soil. I'm going to make sure that it gets down in and it's the perfect amount of space away from where the next one needs to be. So they have space to grow up side by side. And I'm going to do that part because that's my responsibility. That's the responsibility God gave me. So for the sake of the analogy, I'm going to hire the right people. I'm going to bring in the right team. I'm going to develop them and instill and install culture that's going to outlive us. I'm going to make sure they're compensated well and taken care of and check in on them and know about their family and know about their kids and know about what's important to them. But I'm going to promote. I'm going to market. I'm going to do all the things that I need to do as a responsible steward. But there is still an element of control that I will never be able to hold.

And the way that I do that is be fully present. So for the challenge this week, I want people to get out their journal. If you haven't gotten a journal, go get one. I'm sure you got notepads or something laying around somewhere. And there's a man that we both know and love well and mentioned something that was life changing. And in this journal, he actually writes down the things that he's grateful for. Calls it like his gratitude journal. And what he does in it is literally just moments and things that he can think of. And it could be minor, it could be major, but what it ends up doing over time is it makes you a lot more present in today. And it makes you a lot more grateful for what you already have. It makes you content, not satisfied, not settling, but it just makes you content. We say, you know what, man, I'm happy with the life that we've built so far. I'm happy with the business that we've built so far. I'm happy with the culture

and the reputation that we have. I'm grateful that we got Techs that have been a part Of Adams Automotive For 20 years I'm glad that we've got People that, Still can feel like This is home And want to show up To work early every day And stay later And don't feel like It's a burden Because they actually Have found community In our company Like that's the That's the kind of space That you get to be, In when you stay grateful So I hope that To this week Starting today I don't want you To start tomorrow You got a notepad Somewhere if you're listening I bet there's one Within five feet of you and a pen, go grab a notepad and just start writing down things you're grateful for. I bet you would run out of pages before you run out of things. That's right, man. I love what you said about you have to release the control. You know, it's like, especially if you're a Christian, you know, for those of you that are listening to this that are a believer already,

it's like, if you've heard God's promise and then, you know, I don't want to invalidate suffering people that have anxiety, but like, if you've heard his promise and you just, it's like, you literally are choosing not to believe it kind of in a way like, hey, like, I hear you God, but like, I don't believe you. Like, I'm still going to work. I'm still, I'm still going to worry until midnight about this, this, and this. That doesn't make it any easier. Don't want to victim blame or anything, but I've certainly felt that way. It's like, have I not proven it enough? It's sometimes... Because, I've been in this six years now, and it's like the most... And I hope there's somebody listening to this that this resonates with them. Growing a business and running a business is the most sanctifying experience of my life. Because it is so far reaching now and beyond my control that I literally have no choice sometimes in order to cope with the anxiety of it all other than to

just trust that God's going to take care of our family. And my dad, I talked to my dad about this. He's like, you just get used to it after a while. He's like, I don't know anything different. I've been doing this 40 something years. At a certain point, it's just beyond what you are capable of handling and you just have no choice but to trust that God's going to take care of you. That's great. Cool, man. And also, man, thank you for your transparency, man. I appreciate it. I hope it's going to help a lot of people that are out there listening. Yeah, a hundred percent. So I think that, I think we're up on time. So Devante, you want to, you want to pray this out as we go into the week? Yeah, absolutely. Father, in the name of Jesus, thank you so much for this incredible week. God, I thank you that we will be fully present today. God, focusing on today, knowing that you clothe the lilies of the valley,

Lord, you feed the birds of the air and we matter so much more to you than that. God, I thank you that we will worry about today because today has enough trouble. God, but ultimately, Father, I thank you that everybody that is dealing with some level of mental health or anxiety or anything like that, God, that you would heal them. Heal them with your word, with your truth, knowing that you have them in the palm of your hand, that you have everything under control. God, be with them this week in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Well, this has been another Sunday with Autoshot Ministries and Devante. We're going to read our favorite verse, which is number 624 through 26. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. And may the Lord turn his face towards you and give you his peace. Devante, it's been great. Let's go have a great week. Happy Sunday, everybody. We'll see you all next week.

See you soon. For more information, reach out to Todd Westerlin at 925-980-8012 or visit autoshopanswers.com. You can get more information about Key to Key to Callbacks, Courtside. We have a VIP Rack Attack Day where you spend an entire day in the trenches with our team, learning this perfected business model. We offer leadership classes. We have an AI academy. And also get more information about auto shop callbacks. We have auto tech training. We are literally your one-stop shop. Once again, that number for Todd Westerland is 925-980-8012.