Who Is Tata? (Tuesdays with Tata)

Good morning, my friend. I hope you're doing well. Dr. Lee Warren here with

you, and it is Christmas week.

I can't believe it. It's almost Christmas, and we are coming at you with Tuesdays with Tata today.

The caveat is Tata is out of town.

Our daughter had emergency surgery, as I told you the other day,

and Tata's down there and visiting family.

And I just got an email from a listener that said, hey, who is Tata? Tata.

So if you're new around here and you haven't been listening for more than a

year or so, you probably haven't heard us talk about who Tata is.

You may have noodled out that he's my father-in-law. We call him Tata,

but his name is Dennis McDonald.

And Dennis has got quite a story.

So we did an episode, season two, episode 90, way back in 2021.

And it was called Who is Tata? And that was in response to a listener question

who said, hey, who is Tata?

So I'm bringing you you back that episode today since Tata's out of town and

somebody asked, we're going to give you back Tata's story.

If you haven't heard that, it's been offline and unavailable for a while.

So this is a great little talk.

There were some audio issues and stuff as I discuss in a minute,

but it's definitely worth it.

If you are enjoying the Tuesdays with Tata episodes, you'll get even more out

of it when you know a little bit more about who he is.

But before we get into Tuesdays with Tata, I have an announcement.

Lisa and I and our whole family really are going to be at the

twig bookshop the twig bookshop in san antonio texas they've invited us for

a book signing event on thursday january 21st 5 30 p.m down at the twig bookshop

in san antonio that's 306 pearl parkway unit 106 in san antonio the twig bookshop 5 30.

8 p.m. on Thursday the 21st. We would love to meet you if you're in the San Antonio area

or anywhere close to San Antonio and you have a minute to swing by,

support the great folks at Twig, maybe buy a book, Hope is the First Does for

Somebody for Christmas, or the Hub and other books there and lots of other great

books in that bookstore.

And so if you have a chance, we'd love to meet you. Shake your hand,

take a picture, and have a chance to put a face to a name.

So if you are available and live close to San Antonio, of the Twig Bookshop, January 21st, 5.30 p.m.

We would love to see you. Hey, don't forget there are multiple ways you can support the podcast.

We'd love for you to pray for us, share it with your friends.

Be sure and subscribe on YouTube, at Dr.

Lee Warren on YouTube, and subscribe on Apple, Spotify, leave ratings and reviews. That all helps.

There are also some links in

the show notes where you can buy the books we mention in these episodes.

It gives us a little commission to help offset the cost of the podcast.

And also, there are some links to our affiliate partners.

With products that we use that may be helpful to you. And with all of that said,

be sure and check the show notes. There's always a transcript.

There's always links, and anything we mention in the show that you might need

is there for you, and I'm always happy to answer emails, but that work is already

done, and the show notes are very helpful.

We put them together so that you have all the information from the show that you need.

Check it out, and we would love to see you at the Twig in San Antonio,

5.30 p.m. on the 21st. Now, without further ado, I would love for you to get to know Tata more.

This is Dennis McDonald's story on Tuesdays with Tata from way back in 2021.

We're going to get after it in just a second. But before we do that,

I have one question for you.

Hey, are you ready to change your life? If the answer is yes, there's only one rule.

You have to change your mind first. And my friend, there's a place where the

neuroscience of how your mind works smashes together with faith.

And everything starts to make sense. Are you ready to change your life?

Well, this is the place, Self-Brain Surgery School.

I'm Dr. Lee Warren, and this is where we go deep into how we're wired,

take control of our thinking and find real hope.

This is where we learn to become healthier, feel better and be happier.

This is where we leave the past behind and transform our minds.

This is where we start today. Are you ready? This is your podcast.

This is your place. This is your time, my friend. Let's get after it.

Music.

I can't believe it, but it's already time for Tuesdays with Tata.

How are you doing, Tata? I'm well. How are you? I'm really well.

It's been kind of an emotional week with all the stuff that's happened in Afghanistan

and all around the world.

Yes, it has. It's been terrorizing and chaotic, to say the least.

Yeah. But we know one thing. God is still in control.

Amen. He is in control. And we've been praying for all those folks who are in

harm's way and the families of the people who died.

And it's just a tough situation. We'll keep that close to our hearts in the next few weeks.

So, Tata, I had a request from a listener who said, hey, I want to know more

about who Tata is. So this week is, who is Tata?

Good question. We're going to ask some questions. Tell us where you're from

and how you grew up and how you turned out to be Tata.

Well, I was born in my grandmother's house in Cuero, Texas. That's DeWitt County in south central Texas.

And I do not recall what happened or did I know what happened in my earlier days.

But I recall a couple of things that I want to make very clear.

One of the things that you need to know is that I was sent or saved by grace.

Amen. And I stand on that. And I'm so thankful for God's grace and the blood

of Jesus that cleanses me of my sins.

And for all of you out there that are in law enforcement or have been in law

enforcement, I am not in the Witness Protection Program, but I do have two birth

certificates and two names.

But the IRS and the U.S. Army know who I am. I'm sure the federal government knows who I am.

I know. That's correct. They do know who you are.

Yeah. They even know where we are. But at any rate, I remember,

I don't recall not being in church.

In fact, as I can remember, when my mother was baptized,

and I remember we had to sit on the front row, and some little ladies sat behind

us, and they had those fans, you know, the ones that all came from a funeral

home, and they'd whack you in the ear if you kind of nodded off.

But anyway, then that church had trouble.

It split and we left and I never didn't know why

to this day I do not know what happened there but we

another church was planted and I

can remember being in a revival that lasted one year Wow so we heard a lot of

preaching but the thing that's that I remember most of all was a dinner on the

ground at Rosebud Park there once a month and the little ladies all outdid themselves

of course but it It was a joyful time.

It was a good time being in that revival as well.

The thing that I remember most of all is I don't remember missing a service.

I don't even recall being sick.

Our whole family went to service there.

And I don't know what happened just right now. Now we just kind of went off

the air, maybe. I don't know.

But anyway, as I said, I don't recall not being in church.

And I remember growing up and trying to understand what to do next.

And I had trouble with that.

And so when I became a young person, a young adult, I decided that I couldn't please God.

And I decided that the only way for me was to run from him.

But he chose not to let me run very far.

But anyway, fast forward a few years, Patty and I, my wife of 57 years and I

were married and we had four children, two are with the Lord and two are here.

And so I count myself blessed, and I don't recall ever demanding anything from God.

I never did say to him, okay, talk to me. Help me understand why all of these things are happening.

But one of the things that I did understand was that I had to turn it over to

him. And so I turned over my grief and my guilt.

And then later, I turned over something that had plagued me all my life,

and that was not being kind to myself.

I preached that theory, but I did not live it internally.

I internalized very many negative thoughts.

And here again, I have no idea why that occurred or how it took place.

But one of the things that I've learned to do is trust God completely.

And one of the things that I did tell him after James was killed,

our son, he was 24 years old, and I told him, I said, okay, I get it. It's your plan.

It's your watch. Have your way with me, period. End of discussion.

And we've not had that talk again. but it is the trauma that you look at and

the trauma that we all experience will cause us to break into little pieces if we're not careful.

That's why we have to rely on God and that's the posture that I have learned

and I learned it I don't know when but and that is a posture of Thanksgiving.

When I open my eyes in the morning I don't say oh my god another day I say God

thank Thank you for another day.

And I thank him for letting me see the breaking of the dawn.

And then I thank him again when I see the sunrise.

So we count ourselves blessed and highly favored.

And we count ourselves blessed in abundance. We have more than we need.

And so that's where we have to be. So it all starts with us.

And I think we've talked about this before with Jesus' encounter with the woman

at the well, the Samaritan woman.

At the end of that conversation, the woman had a question.

She wanted to know where, and that's what she asked Jesus. But Jesus did not

answer her question. He told her who.

So it begins with us. And if we don't understand the relationship that we have

with God, then we don't have any place to go. So he is our Heavenly Father,

and Jesus Christ is our brother.

And Jesus came here to learn how we lived so we can be like him.

And because God wants one thing, he wants us all home. Amen. And that's where I rest.

Is it easy to do? No. Is it difficult?

Do I find myself in a state of desperation?

I really don't think so. So I think that whatever I was confronted with, be it tragedy,

be it a hard decision, and I'm trying to wrap my mind around one right now, but I did rely on God.

I didn't ask him to speak to me. I asked him for one thing, peace.

And Jesus said the peace that he gives is not the same peace that we have in

the world. And so that's where I rely.

I rely on Him. I rely on God. I rely on Jesus Christ.

And I'm so thankful for the Holy Spirit that lives in me.

And I tell God every day, God, I need you. I love you.

I can't do anything without you. And I tell Jesus, Jesus, I love you.

I can't do anything without you. Please help me. And the Holy Spirit,

I remind the Holy Spirit that I love Him as well.

And I ask the Holy Spirit to guide me and not my thoughts, not my hands.

And talking about that, I had difficulty for a long time.

The Apostle Paul admonished us that

he made a statement that he wanted men everywhere to raise holy hands.

And I looked at my hands and I thought to myself, my hands have picked cotton,

my hands have worked in the oil field, and that's how I got through school,

working in the oil fields.

And so I grew up in a company of men.

But that took me a long time to understand that being in Jesus Christ makes us holy.

Do we continue to sin? Of course we do.

How long will we continue to sin? As long as we walk this earth.

But every day we're learning more and more about how to avoid it and how not to sin.

And when we catch ourselves and all we have to say to Satan is get out of my

head, get out of my house get away from my family and he will,

he will flee from us now does he come back? Of course he does,

He comes back to torture us and torment us and remind us that we're not good enough.

And that's where he's wrong. Because we are good enough. And we were made good

enough by Jesus Christ when he died on the cross.

And we were redeemed. God bought us back from sin when we had no hope.

And through Jesus Christ's resurrection from the dead, we have even greater hope.

Because Jesus overcame. He overcame sin, death, hell, and the grave, and so can we.

All we have to do is follow him and ask him to help us he's waiting.

And so for many many years I was a song leader in little churches and one of

the songs that just runs through my head constantly is Jesus rescued me,

when I was lost he rescued me and that's one thing I thank God for saving me

from myself and getting me out of the grasp of Satan, rescuing me.

And so that's where we are, and that's where we have to be.

And so my suggestion to you is this, no matter where you find yourself,

or no matter what kind of place you find yourself in, and no matter how hard it is, cry out to God,

and ask him to help, and ask him to be with you. And that's what I've learned.

Amen. So that was 10 minutes and 24 seconds of Dennis McDonald sharing his heart with no notes.

That was, that was all just who he is. That was amazing, dad. Thank you.

So I, I, the reason we did that friend, um, the reason we did that and we're

having a weird problem with the microphones today.

So I'm sorry about this. We're going to troubleshoot that and and solve it.

But the reason I asked you, asked Dennis to do that is I just wanted you to see his heart.

Like if you can talk for 10 minutes without notes about your faith journey and

cover that ground so well, then that means that's really out of your heart.

Jesus said out of the man's heart, so he speaks, right?

Exactly right. That's right. So no pretense. The most important part,

I think of what Dennis said is that when in the, in the Genesis account of creation.

We, we, we hear all the things that God did and he said, and it was good and

it was good and it was good.

And the last one, he said, he made man in his image, man and woman in his image.

And then he said, it's something different. What did he say?

It's very good. So here's what you need to hear a friend.

If you're covered in shame, if you don't feel valuable, if life has put labels

on you. Here's what you need to hear and know.

Nothing changed about your inherent goodness because you were fearfully and

wonderfully made in God's image.

The only thing that changed was sin.

So the diagnosis is not that you are unlovely, not that you aren't good.

The diagnosis is sin separates us from our father.

And I think one of the things you said too, is that when you grew up,

you hit a wall and you ran away from God for a while.

What was the nature of that that great divorce, if you will?

Well, I came to a conclusion that, because we were in an environment where we

had a lot of rules to follow.

And I came to a conclusion that I could not follow them. And I came to a conclusion

that I couldn't please God.

And what followed was even worse. I didn't even know who he was.

And so, but when I finally stopped and said, I can't do this anymore.

I cannot do it by myself, by my hands, by my might, by my strength,

by my ingenuity. I cannot do this by myself.

I wasn't made to do this by myself.

And that's where he broke me and brought me to my senses.

And I'm thankful for that because that was a hard journey.

That's beautiful. I don't know if you can hear, but Harvey and Lewis are outside

the window, and it sounds like they've gotten themselves entangled in something.

So we're going to skip the prayer wall tonight.

You go to we1md.com slash prayer and join us with prayer.

And we are praying for everybody on there. Together we're praying for you all, and we are with you.

You also spend some time in prayer for our fallen warriors and the families

and the Afghans and all the difficult situation that's going on over there in Afghanistan right now,

that there will be extraordinary God-given wisdom on behalf of the leaders who

are having to make decisions,

that they would make them out of what's right and not out of any type of political

agenda or anything else, that God would just deliver that situation.

We are grateful for you, Fran. We're We're grateful for Tata being here with

us in Nebraska. How are you settling in, by the way, so far?

Well, I feel welcome. I feel part of the family.

I feel like I have as much privilege as Harvey and Lewis.

I think you have a little more. Listen, friend, we love you and we're grateful for you.

And if you're having trouble, just turn back to the one who always thinks you're

good, who's just waiting for you to say, I want to come back.

I want to come back like he did, like Dennis said.

Hey, it's your way. It's your watch.

Have your way with me. End of discussion. And when you get to that point,

the only time you need to start, Dennis, is when? Today. You start today.

Music.

Hey, thanks for listening. The Dr. Lee Warren podcast is brought to you by my

brand new book, Hope is the First Dose. It's a treatment plan for recovering

from trauma, tragedy, and other massive things.

It's available everywhere books are sold, and And I narrated the audio books.

Hey, the theme music for the show is Get Up by my friend Tommy Walker,

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They are supplying worship resources for worshipers all over the world to worship the Most High God.

And if you're interested in learning more, check out TommyWalkerMinistries.org.

If you need prayer, go to the prayer wall at WLeeWarrenMD.com slash prayer,

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And go to my website and sign up for the newsletter. letters,

self brain surgery every Sunday since 2014, helping people in all 50 states

and 60 plus countries around the world. I'm Dr.

Lee Warren, and I'll talk to you soon. Remember, friend, you can't change your

life until you change your mind. And the good news is you can start today.

Music.