Everybody, what is going on? You know what time it is. You're listening to join the Journey podcast with your host, Emma, daughter.

Thanks for joining. Today, we are continuing our Advent reading plan with Luke 2, 1 through 7. And all month long, we are having young adults on the podcast, kind of taking over, if you will. But if you are just now jumping in to join the

journey this Advent season, please know it's for anybody. You don't have to be a young adult to

listen. And we will be continuing reading the Bible together in January, 24, kicking off the year

with the book of Proverbs, just one book a day, Monday through Friday. I'm sorry, one chapter

a day. Well, one book. That would be a lot. And here with me today, you heard him laugh at me.

It's Will McElroy. What's up, guys? Did I say your last name, right? Yeah, you did. You said

right. Thanks for having me on here. Hey, I'm glad you're here, Will. For those, you've been here before. You've interviewed some high school students. You've done some takeovers. But now you're just here as a Watermark young adult, a normal guy.

Come on. And I think the people would love, Texas, which is about an hour west of Watermark

here. And it's a, it's a smaller town, a little older town. I grew up with two great parents,

and we went to this Methodist church where I tell people I was probably the one of two kids that

were under the age of 50 there. It was me and my sister. I'm being extreme there, but that's what it felt like. Youth group was me and my sister on That's a, I'm being extreme there, but that's what it felt like.

Youth group was me and my sister on Sunday mornings pretty much. And I had loving great parents.

They were pretty strict and just growing up in this older denomination at this older church, church was never fun to me.

And so when I went to college and got away from my strict parents, I was like, I want to have what is fun, you know?

And so that ended up looking like I went to UT Tyler.

So I went to East Texas and went to go run track and cross country there and just set my hope in the world of just a girlfriend, partying, wanted to be the fastest guy on the team, the most liked guy. And

long story short, things just began to fall apart. I began failing some classes. I got injured.

My girlfriend, I found out that she had another boyfriend. It wasn't that deep looking back.

I was like, we were dating for two weeks, but at the time,

18-year-old world was, it felt big. I was, I was, man, failing, injured, and heartbroken at the time,

and was just devastated. And then one day, this is super random, but it's Lord's Providence. I was,

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