One of the best pieces of advice I got in life was hot dogs. And it came from a pretty unexpected source. Stick around and I'll tell you about it. Hey friends, welcome back to another episode of Shankatification, where it's all about golf, grace, and the beautiful struggle for perfection. My name is Mark, and this is going to be a little bit different this time because it's not necessarily about golf. It's about a four-year-old. It's actually my four-year-old grandson who plays golf a lot with me, who's eat up with it, who loves going out there and tearing up the course and driving the golf cart and asking me questions, and it's a learning experience for him as well as me. So uh, other than that, it's really not golf-centered. But I think what I have to say, or should I say, what he had to say, is pretty life-changing, or at least it was for me. My wife and I were headed to church one Sunday morning and I was teaching a class, and it was around the holiday season. And my question for the class was, what stresses you out about Christmas? And of course, there's family tensions, there's travel, there's money, expectations, all of these things. And he's kind of sitting in the back seat by himself in his car seat, just minding his own business, and just for fun, I look back and I said, Hey buddy, what stresses you out most about Christmas? Knowing that he had no idea what stress or anything meant. And he kind of thinks, and I'm looking at him through my rearview mirror, and he looks at me, and with the sternest voice and the most serious look on his face, he said, Hot dog. That's his biggest concern. And man, I thought, what if that was us? What if we trusted Jesus so deeply that our biggest worry in life was hot dogs? But let's be honest, our hot dogs aren't hot dogs. They're finances, health, marriage, uh, kids, job security, relationships, our future. And those things feel real, and they are real. But here's the question underneath it all. Why do those things carry so much weight in us? Because we feel like it's all on us. We carry it, we control it, we try to fix it, and when we can't, we just panic. There's a moment in scripture that exposes this perfectly. In Matthew chapter 4, there's a scene where Jesus and his disciples go out on a boat at night, and this is what happens. Starting in verse 37, it says, A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him up and said to him, Teacher, don't you care if we drowned? So here's the scene. Jesus tells his disciples, which by the way are really good in boats. That's what they did before a living. But he tells them to get in the boat and go to the other side. And while they're out there, the storm hits. Not a drizzle, not a little bit of wind, a full-on, life-threatening storm. Waves crashing, water filling the boat, lightning striking, cold, windy, rocking all over the place, the boat is starting to fill up with water, there is chaos everywhere. And where is Jesus? Sleeping. Just sound asleep. So they go and wake him up and say, Teacher, don't you care that we're perishing? And that line always got me. Not just help us, but don't you care about us? And here's the tension. Why wasn't their biggest worry something small? Why wasn't it hot dogs? Because in that moment they forgot who was in the boat. They saw the storm, but they lost sight of the Savior, and we do the exact same thing. We know who Jesus is, we've seen him move in our lives, we've experienced his faithfulness. But the moment the storm hits, we act like we're alone in the boat, and nobody cares. Now what if the story sounded different? What if Bartholomew was soaking wet, scared to death, cold, shivering, baling pails of water out of the boat, and Simon walked up and he's like, Hey man, what are you doing? And Bart said, What do you think I'm doing? We're about to die. I'm trying to save us. What are you doing? What are you worried about? And Simon just looks out at the horizon, at the storm, hanging on to a mast that's about to break in half, and he says, You know what I'm worried about? I'm worried about hot dogs. And Bart looks at him and says, What are you talking about? We're all about to die. Why don't you lend us a hand? And he said, No, no, I'm I'm worried about hot dogs. Bart said, What about hot dogs are you worried about? And Simon just kind of goes into this diatribe of, man, I know the way I eat hot dogs. In the south of Galilee, we put mustard on them and cheese, and that's kind of about it. But have you ever wondered how the rest of the world eats hot dogs? I mean, do you toast the bun or do you not toast the bun? What about the Chicago hot dog? What about the Philly hot dog? What about the hot dogs on the West Coast? I mean, they put pickles on them, they put tomatoes on them, they put chili on them. Like I've never had a hot dog with chili on it. What would that taste like? Would I like it? Would I hate it? Is there a footlong hot dog? Is that overrated? Is a let me ask you this, Bart, is a is a corny dog a hot dog? Because it's still just a weenie wrapped in bread. Is that a hot dog or not? I don't know. Do we boil the hot dogs or do we grill the hot dogs? What's the difference? I'm so confused. I am so stressed out by hot dogs. And Bart looks at him and says, Man, we're we're about to die. And Simon looks back and says, Man, do you not know that the creator of the universe is about 10 feet away from us asleep? Why in the world would you worry about your life? Worry about something fun. Worry about hot dogs. And that's how the story should have gone. That's how our story should go. But we go back to the real story, and Jesus gets up, they wake him up, and in verse 39, it says, He got up, rebuked the wind, and said to the waves, Quiet, be still. Then the wind died down, and it was completely calm. So he speaks to the wind, he speaks to the waves, he says, peace, and instantly everything calms down. And then he turns to them and asks, Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith? Notice what he didn't say. He didn't say that wasn't a big deal, or you shouldn't feel anything, or don't be so dramatic. He asks, Why are you afraid when I'm right here? The issue wasn't the storm, it was their trust, and Jesus knew it. So let's bring this back full circle. What if we trusted Jesus so much that the storms of life didn't dominate our thinking, that we didn't spiral every time something went wrong, that we didn't live our lives in complete anxiety about what might happen? What if our confidence in him was so deep that our biggest worry really did feel like hot dogs? Not because life isn't hard, but because we know we are not alone in the boat. So next time you feel the storm rising, ask yourself, am I staring at the waves or trusting the one who controls them? And maybe, just maybe, you can let go of some of that weight and trust him enough to worry a little less about hurricanes and a little more about hot dogs. My name is Mark. Thanks for listening. This is Shanctification and Keep Chasing Better.