Living Reconciled
Living Reconciled, hosted by Mission Mississippi, is a podcast dedicated to exploring reconciliation and the Gospel that enables us to live it out. Mission Mississippi has been leading the way in racial reconciliation in Mississippi for 31 years. Our model is to bring people together to build relationships across racial lines so they can work together to better their communities. Our mission is to encourage and demonstrate grace in the Body of Christ across racial lines so that communities throughout Mississippi can see practical evidence of the gospel message.
Living Reconciled
EP. 74: Finding Joy in Suffering with Smiley Abrams
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In this heartfelt episode, Jason “Smiley” Abrams of InterVarsity shares how his father’s suffering and steadfast faith redefined his view of Christianity—from performance to relationship. We explore how authenticity, not polish, is the key to reaching younger generations, and how genuine relationships rooted in the fruit of the Spirit can bridge even our deepest racial and generational divides. Tune in for a powerful reminder that suffering can birth purpose, and real connection begins with being real.
Special thanks to our sponsors:
Nissan, St. Dominic's Hospital, Atmos Energy, Regions Foundation, Mississippi College, Anderson United Methodist Church, Grace Temple Church, Mississippi State University, Real Christian Foundation, Brown Missionary Baptist Church, Christian Life Church, Ms. Doris Powell, Mr. Robert Ward, and Ms. Ann Winters.
This is Living Reconciled, a podcast dedicated to giving our communities practical evidence of the gospel message by helping Christians learn how to live in the reconciliation that Jesus has already secured for us by living with grace across racial lines. Hey, thanks so much for joining us on this episode of Living Reconciled. I'm your host, brian Crawford, hanging out with my friend Austin Hoyle, the good doctor, sir how are you doing?
Speaker 2:Well, I'm good. I got my tea. It's Monday afternoon, just trying to, trying to get back into the swing of work after a weekend of relaxation trying to get back into the swing of work after a weekend of relaxation.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and of course, we're not video, we're audio podcast, so people don't get a chance to see what I see, which is the good doctor with a good doctor's lean. You have the posture today of a good doctor holding on to a cup of tea, leaned and lounging, like you're preparing to say something profound and deep, and so it's good man, it's good. Looks like you're preparing to say something profound and deep, and so it's good man, it's good.
Speaker 2:Looks like I'm preparing to say something profound and deep. We'll see if that happens.
Speaker 1:We'll see if that happens.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, absolutely. Hey. Also thanks to our good sponsors. We are so incredibly grateful for all of you, folks like Nissan, st Dominic's Brown Missionary Baptist Church, folks like Ann Winters and Robert Ward. Thank you, guys, so much for what you do. It's because of what you do that we're able to do what we do, and today, what we are doing is talking to an incredible friend, an incredible leader, an incredible thinker, a gentleman by the name of Jason Smiley Abrams. By the name of Jason Smiley Abrams, he is an inspirational speaker and poet, currently lives in the Mississippi and serves as the area ministry director for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, where he supervises college ministry in the entire state of Mississippi, memphis and West Florida.
Speaker 1:Jason has been oh, smiley has been involved in full-time ministry since 2008. Um, he is the co-founder of the Andy Abrams Foundation, which is a nonprofit in honor of his late father. Smiley is a prolific uh author. He is a prolific thinker, uh spoken word artist. Um, you, you, even again, for those of y'all who can't see the video, if you saw the video, you would know that we were in the presence of an artist just by looking at his rig and we got a goodness. It's set up, his podcast set up, and so we are incredibly grateful to have uh smiley um on living reconciled today. Smiley brother, how are you doing?
Speaker 3:it is good to be here. Thank you so much for the invitation and the introduction. I really appreciate you reading my bio from my website.
Speaker 1:So that was good. That's right, Absolutely. It's a good bio brother.
Speaker 3:It's a great bio. I appreciate it. Yeah, I was like I don't know so much about. Oh yeah, so my, it's my website, so yeah, public information.
Speaker 2:I just Googled.
Speaker 1:It is publicly accessible. It's publicly accessible, man. Let's start by just talking a little bit about Smiley Abrams. Man, why don't you tell us a little bit about your story, how you came to faith in story? A lot of it has come from the origin of my name.
Speaker 3:So people often would ask me is that your real name, smiley? It is a name that I say, that God changed my name to Smiley and it's a part of my story, so that's the best way to introduce myself is by introducing you who I am, and so, really, I say that I'm born, raised and called to the state of Mississippi, and, just being around Mississippi all of my life, I know that I was. I grew up in a intentionally multi-ethnic community called Voice of Calvary. My parents were active leaders in that when I was like two, and so they were both active in the community, and so I grew up in that world, and but I think that I say that I used to think the world revolved around me. See, I'm the youngest, and I say they got it right the third time, and so I think that what happened, though, is I had a lot of self-righteous pride, and so I'm an achiever. I try to get you know all the best of competition in my top 10 is against me, and that whoever's in my class, I was like I got to get, I got to be the best, and I think that fed my pride and my ego.
Speaker 3:I believe those guys grace that allowed me to be a part of my family, and one of the things that really helped shift my mindset when the world stopped revolving around me was when my father got sick, and so it was about spring break 96, where he went into the hospital and was pretty much out for almost a week and his body just began to change. He went blind, he was diagnosed with diabetes, his kidney started failing, and all of that happened. He was in the middle, doing ministry full time in the community in West Jackson, and then all of a sudden he's basically bedridden, and so, in response, our family shifted things, and so one of the shifts was putting me in a homeschool, and so during that time sixth, seventh and eighth grade I was homeschooled and I spent time with my father because he was at home doing dialysis at home, and so I began to watch the power of God in his life, and I think that in the prime, pivotal time of a middle school age person, you know, unless you're 11, 12 years old, you're figuring out who you are, and as I'm figuring out who I am, I'm watching my father really wrestle with just sickness and just feeling hopeless of like. You know, I'm supposed to be this provider of my family and now my baby son is taking care of me and I'm seeing, at the same time, a peace in his heart because of his intimate relationship with Jesus, and it was like, ok, that's what I want. I want that for me, I want this peace, I want this, this intimacy.
Speaker 3:I knew God, I knew about God, I knew the books in the Bible, I knew I could quote, you know, scripture verses, since I was like two, three of those first words, like those are things that I knew. But relationship is what I saw when everything else was stripped away, when everything wasn't about performance, because I thought in my mind, I thought that my faith or religion was about performance, because I would, you know, in order to do all the good things and do all the say all the books in the Bible, do everything you perform. But now my father's at home and there's nobody watching him but me, and it's a relationship, it's something that can god be the one that gives you peace, even when the when the world is turmoil. And when I saw that, I was like that's jesus, I want to follow jesus and I fell in love with jesus, and so the response and reaction to that was um, really, and I would say, when I say god changed my name, it was a shift because, in response, I had this joy I met Jesus and I found the joy internally and I started expressing it outwardly by wearing smiley face paraphernalia, yellow t-shirt.
Speaker 3:I had yellow smiley face everything and honestly, I didn't even notice it too much. It just happened until someone, about three or four years later, because I'm wearing it every day all the time, I knew it was my favorite. But then someone said, you know, we're going to start calling you Smiley. And I was like you know what? It makes sense. I'm wearing a smiley face headband. You know I have armbands and smiley face T-shirt. You know lanyards, yellow pants driving a yellow car.
Speaker 3:Like you know people like, oh, we're going to call you Smiley. I was like, okay, that makes sense. And so I accepted it and I said that God was calling me that because of the joy I had in my heart, and so that was so that's that's me. And so I think that in I met Jesus in that time period and I started pursuing him, and so that's kind of that, that specific journey so around I would say, between that middle school time is when I really started pursuing Jesus and wanted to just keep going and wanted to do more. I can tell more about my, my calling in ministry as well, but I'll pause for a second to process with you guys what you as you're, as you're talking about my story.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I mean, I think the thing that I really heard most poignantly poignantly come from what you were saying. I I guess because I like picking up on the theological stuff but it's like you were able to smile even amidst the tumult of that period because of what you saw your father going through, that, uh, even though he had gotten sick, uh, and he was obviously suffering greatly, he was able to pass that on to you guys. You know, pass that joy on to you guys, that sense of peace on to y'all. I just found that just a remarkable aspect of your story.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because it's not just because you know. Sometimes, when we you know, when we hear of peace and joy, we think our circumstances have to be perfect or we think that it's just something of our own making, it's a mindset that we. But from what I'm hearing of your story, it's something that is just a gift from God that was able to be bestowed upon you, and you were able, and you were in a place where you could receive that.
Speaker 3:Absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, I'm, you know, first of all, smiley man.
Speaker 1:It's really the first time I've heard, of course, I understood the you know, the early passing of your father man, but it's really the first time I've heard you actually unpack it in this way.
Speaker 1:Um, and and I'm, I'm reminded of two things. One, uh, this quote that that I've heard um shared a few times, where, uh, where it says, out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls and the most massive characters are seared with scars, and that's one thing that stands out to me. But the other thing that really stands out to me, bro, is just how suffering has a profound, has a way of deep cause our faith to be diminished, and there's a sense in which it can. But I've seen the other side of this over and over again, even in my own story with my father, with my father's early passing, glioblastoma, brain cancer is that it had a way of deepening my faith in ways that I don't think it could have ever been deepened without the experience of suffering that I had to watch and observe and see the faithfulness, the faithfulness of my father to Jesus, even in the midst of his struggle. Right, right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:No, that's good, that's good. That quote that you shared was really interesting and it kind of it's. It echoes the quote. That quote from my father. In one of his sermons he preached. He was like out of your weakness comes strength, and out of our suffering comes power. And so thinking about Second Corinthians and seeing the just the powerful transformation of even Paul's thorn in his side is like. This is like if I'm a boast about something, I'm a boast about my weakness, and I think that's where we can see that our bodies are made to do that. Like no pain, no gain, like there's something about our physical bodies that God designed that allows literally the breaking of muscles to build them, like that's how it's designed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. My wife's favorite passage of scripture man is and of course passage of scripture man is and of course, for right reasons, she battles with a number of different ailments. But her favorite passage of scripture is that 2 Corinthians 12, man, where Paul says when I am weak then I am strong because of the power of Christ that is perfected in me through my weakness.
Speaker 1:And so then, like you said, then I'll boast in my suffering, because I know that Christ is present, I know that he's near and I know he's operating powerfully even in the midst of my weakness and my suffering, man, and so, yeah, that's incredible, brother, that's incredible Um. So you made a transition into ministry, um, and and, and. This ministry is primarily collegiate, but you had your own college awakening, so to speak. Yeah, that formed some of that ministry. Talk to us a little bit about that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think I mean specifically my, I would say, calling to ministry is interesting, and so a lot of people, and this is when I introduced myself. I say I'm born, raised and called to Mississippi. A lot of that's part of my initial calling. So just thinking about is a year after my father passed, and I'm asking the Lord. I'm 17 years old and I'm fasting and praying and I'm asking the Lord what do you want me to be when I grow up? It's like I was tired of people always asking me like, what do you want to be when you grow up? I was like I really want to know what the Lord wants me to be.
Speaker 3:And so, um, as I was sitting in geography class, uh, I remember, um, it just came to me like Isaiah 61. I'm think I'm studying Isaiah at the time and it's like Isaiah 61 was like a click, like the spirit of the Lord is on you, to preach good news to the poor, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives. I know like this is what I was supposed to do with my life. In the same time, I remember one of my mentors, dr Dauphus Weary, was speaking at a student council convention for the state of Mississippi and it was just a generic student council thing, not a specific religious thing, but just a generic student council thing. And I was a part of the student council.
Speaker 3:I'm figuring out what I'm doing in my life and he talks about his story and he says you know, most people in Mississippi you know success is leaving, and I know that I was thinking about that. I'm like thinking about my ticket out. You know, like figuring out how to get out of Mississippi that's really what most Mississippians think about. And so I'm like how can I get out Under a certain age?
Speaker 3:So yeah, and so how do I get out? But he said in his story, his book I ain't coming back, right, that's the standard, right, so it's OK. But he was challenged and he said and he challenged the entire group he's like if you don't pour back into the place that poured into you, then who will? And so at that point I'm really like Lord, like what do you want me to be? And I'm like, oh, okay, I need to pour back into the place that poured into me. Ok, I need to pour back into the place that poured into me. And so that was really my initial calling and I have held on to that since day one of college.
Speaker 3:I was looking for I preached my first sermon the day before I graduated high school. It was the baccalaureate service and I challenged the audience and continue to challenge, to find campus ministries, find mentors, connect with people, pour into people and have them pour into you. Like. I was like mentorship was a huge thing for me. And so when I went off to college I knew I was like I need to find a community. So before I even confirmed my major, I was looking for two things. On a college ministry, I wanted something that could develop me as a leader and I wanted something that was intentionally multi-ethnic and InterVarsity. Christian Fellowship at Southern Miss was that, and so day one. You know, it wasn't a debate, it wasn't a figuring out, it wasn't a you know, walk through, try it.
Speaker 3:I'm like.
Speaker 1:InterVarsity. This is the one I'm here and 21 years later, I that journey, that inner varsity I mean you spoke specifically about, like you said, being being present, being here, being in the state, remaining in the SIP, which I have an incredible appreciation for, and I and I even think about my own, my own story in college where I was like, yeah, you know, let's just, let's just graduate so we can make that leap, get out of here Right and and and yet there's, there's, there's some calling involved in keeping you where you are Right and so um and so I. I definitely that resonates with me deeply. But you mentioned InterVarsity, kind of uh, really kind of meeting you exactly where you needed to be as it relates to multi-ethnic ministry. Talk to me about what makes InterVarsity unique for you in that particular element of multi-ethnic ministry and work.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean I think the word, that what really attracted me was the intentionality, and so I think that InterVarsity at Southern Miss was actually the first in the sixties, when it first started, was like the first multi-ethnic anything on that campus, and so there was a fellowship and they were very intentional and I've had the honor to be able to connect with the, the, the people that were started that. So shout out to Bill Lowry and Melvin Miller who were part of that, randy and Kathy Pope they were part of that. Miller, he had to be a black man in the university to get to certain churches. He had to like see if he can even come. Oh, he can't. So he had to go and navigate and figure out another spot and that, right there, like knowing the history of that, I didn't know that at first, but that was how it was bathed, right, that's how it was birthed and so, so, yeah, so as a student, it was very intentional. I think one of the things that helped me as a student in just affirming my ethnic identity was the as the intentionality. It was also very important to understand who we are in our own ethnicity.
Speaker 3:I think that the scripture and one of my mentors he's got the book called being Latino in Christ, orlando Crespo, and he's a. He's a. He's on staff in the book he talks about he says. That passage that says love your neighbor as yourself implies something about it as yourself Love. You have to love yourself, love your whole self, and part of that is loving your ethnic self. That's who God made you. So love your neighbor as you love yourself. You have to learn how to love yourself so that you can be able to love others, and I think that's where the bridges become, that you're able to accurately build bridges.
Speaker 3:And so what InterVarsity did for me believe it or not was help me to be affirmed in my ethnic identity and as I learned who I was as a young Black man in America, I learned my voice is valuable and I learned how to be able to bridge conversations. That I don't have to not be me. I can be authentically me. But as I know my value, then when people, whether they like it or not, if they're different than me, I can embrace it, I can learn it, I can encourage it, and I think that's part of that process. And so, as a student, that's something that I learned from some national conferences and some, you know, continuing mentors that poured into me, like I mentioned. That helped me, and so that's just a value that I started bringing, as I decided to work full-time with InterVarsity.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I'm hearing a really neat theme.
Speaker 2:So you were mentored by a lot of people, multiple, multiple by so many people. And I could just see it, man, through time being at a place for 20 years, being able to see the value that the place you were at had for the decades prior to your entry ever into that particular ministry, man, and then you have also been able to be a mentor to numerous of other people, and I would just love to hear about that aspect of your ministry how you've been able to kind of take some of these kids I say kids, they're college students, most of them are probably adults, but you know these young people and just kind of mold them, some people who were maybe in a similar life pattern that you have been, maybe some cementees that you've had who were just, uh, that you've, you've. You don't know where they're coming from, necessarily from an experiential way, but you can still embrace them, um, as, uh, just participants in the kingdom of God. Yeah, so, uh, so how's, how's that particular aspect of your ministry, uh, have you seen that unfold?
Speaker 3:No, that's, that's a great, great question. I think that's where, uh, there has been so many different um generations over the last. You know, I've been full-time 15 plus uh, maybe like 16, 17 and uh in ministry in Jackson and, yeah, I've, I've seen a lot of different people over the years and so, uh, one of the things that I got, I think I recently, um, I was like I was watching or visiting the church once and I was seeing someone that was leading worship visiting the church once and I was seeing someone that was leading worship and I was like I remember conversations I had with this person when they were struggling on campus.
Speaker 2:That is awesome.
Speaker 3:I was just like I was. I was brought to tears just seeing them impact an entire congregation with their vulnerability, with their honesty, with their authenticity. And then I was scrolling on Facebook the other day and I saw another alum that was, you know sharing her story. It was a virtual church and they were screening I could see it virtually, but they were like just filming and so she was just about to teach a junior church and she was excited about pouring into the children and she was mentioning her impact and the impact that InterVarsity made on her life when she was a student and I remember when she got saved. It's like I remember that. And so you know, yeah, it's so much like I don't always get to see the results.
Speaker 3:Ministry is tough, it is not easy, and I think you know many people. Often you know we would joke around it's like I just basically quit every day, like it's like, you know, I've, I've been stood up, I've been rejected, I've been, I've been, you know, tried and tried and like, okay, figuring out. I remember just like Lord, why'd you even call me to do this? Like, oh, my goodness, and I mean I've been, I've seen.
Speaker 1:Yeah, dude, I asked that question like yesterday.
Speaker 2:It's that question within this conversation Like oh my goodness.
Speaker 3:So much, and so you know I think it, but it does warm my heart when you know, when I have the honor to be able to see an alum pour back out into other people, that's really what it's all about for me. Like I think that you know Jesus, his interest in and I was sharing this with students. Actually, we did a leadership training Saturday and I was training some leaders across the area and was reminded of when Jesus we talked about Jesus washing the feet of the disciples and he specifically said, in the same way, you see me, wash your feet, wash each other's feet the image of Jesus was he poured out into those 12 and he want them to pour out, and they pour out and they pour out and like even Jesus, like feeding the 5000, it's like you give them something to eat, like there's an idea of him empowering other people to do the work and to serve and to love, and it's a deep level of leadership and discipleship. And so, like my, what encourages me the most is not someone saying Smiley told me this.
Speaker 3:What encourages me the most is someone else teaching someone else what the Lord said, and I'm like I remember the conversation we had about that. So, like that's the kind of like. I'm like, oh man, this is, this is encouraging to me. So, so, yeah, I can, I can give you stories. I won't give anybody's names, but that's definitely encouraged by that.
Speaker 1:Hey, staying in that vein, man, talk to us about what you see as the next generation, their movement towards reconciliation, work, pursuits in unity. I mean, it looks different.
Speaker 2:It looked different in my generation, generation to generation.
Speaker 1:It looked different in the boomer generation. Obviously it looked different, but the work continues and it's ongoing.
Speaker 3:So talk to me a little bit about what you're seeing as that unique space that they're involved in as a relation to reconciliation, has seen the rigid lines of division and basically want to blur them as much as possible, because they see how much, how much polarization hurts, and so their active response to that is let's blur the lines as much as possible so that we can figure out how to not be so divided. They ultimately don't want to be divided, that's that's it Like, and I think that's what I'm seeing, and I think that the church has an answer to that. And but really, Really, I believe the church has an opportunity to learn something from this generation. This generation, because they're doing something that you know we will immediately reject for whatever reasons, like well, they're not following Jesus this way. But there's something, there's some truth in what they're, what they're desiring to do breaking, breaking the dividing wall of hostility. I think that's in the Bible. So there's something there's something that this generation is doing that.
Speaker 3:I think that's in the Bible, so there's something that this generation is doing that I think is biblical, that the church can learn from, and so they're doing it. I think that some of the things that when they don't see it in the church which that's the challenge, because I think that, in essence, the church wants to be united the challenge because I think that in the in essence, the church wants to be united.
Speaker 2:Like.
Speaker 3:I don't think anybody wakes up and say I don't want it, I don't, I don't want to just be united. I think that it's just that word that I told you earlier. Intentionality, Um, that's key, and I think that when we don't have that intentionality, we just naturally go to our polar opposite worlds and so um. So yeah, I think that in the that, as far as this generation, they're making attempts, they're figuring it out and they're not necessarily looking at the church to do it. But I do think that it's an opportunity where we can, as a church, can come with an open arm and with, like Jesus said to the disciples, like no bag, no clothes, like no spare, know no food, and eat what's set before us. Can we, as a church, eat what the generation sets before us and become community and connect? That? There's an opportunity where that's how we can evangelize and connect with this generation.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, hey, along that line, smiley as we turn the corner, man, and kind of kind of wrap this thing up, help, help the church in the sense of can you give us a few tangible ways that the church can really connect to the next generation in a healthy way? That will, that will lead to us leaning into these opportunities versus versus. Squandering is, uh, squandering.
Speaker 3:No, that's a great question, uh, and you know, I think that you know, I think someone asked me a while ago. I was like, do they care if I'm too old? Like, do college students think, you know, if I got, do I have to be younger for them to connect with me? And honestly, um, it doesn't matter how old you are, uh, what matters is authenticity. Uh, the thing is, this generation can fact check you in two seconds, like two seconds.
Speaker 3:You preach a sermon and you say something wrong. They will, they will be able to find the answer in two seconds and give you a whole explanation of how it's wrong, you know. And so I think that's where it's like, you gotta be real, and I think that, um, that's so much more valuable than trying to look right, trying to look polished, you know, and I think that, like the millennial generation, we, we cared about more of the polished. That's my generation, like's kind of that. But this generation, the most viral videos aren't the ones that are the most polished, they're the ones that are hands on the phone, talking and telling a real story, because they care about the real, authentic. So my challenge to the church is be real, authentic and, you know, not try to pretend, not try to be fake, and a way that we do that is by being vulnerable by, you know, and I think in those, you know, nonjudgmental spaces and conversations, that's where people care and that's where they have value, and you go where they are like, you connect and so, like there there's. We had an opportunity just last week at jackson state where um I partnered with um, the uh lynch street coalition of um, bridging the gap, um in ministries, and so we invited yeah yes, shout out, uh.
Speaker 3:So we, we grabbed, we gathered churches from all over the Lint Street corridor and a few others and just I brought them on campus and was like get a tent, share, like connect. And students after and during was like can we do this more often? How often can we do this? Like they were so excited about the opportunity to connect with others that are outside of their fellow, outside of the campus, and it was like the church, there's love, there's peace, there's the fruit of the spirit. That's there and I think that is where we can be authentic right. That's the example, fruit of the spirit. If we can show love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control, then that's how we connect to this generation that that's my best advice.
Speaker 3:I don't got nothing else.
Speaker 1:That's really good advice, brother. That's really good advice, man. I'm reminded of another quote. It's amazing how many quotes I'm reminded of while I'm on a podcast with Smiley and Austin. You guys inspire me. But I'm reminded of another quote that's been shared often in spaces, been shared often, um, in spaces that I frequent, and it's this uh, authenticity is the apologetic of the day. Um, that, that, that for this particular day, that oftentimes what they need to see, um, um, above a lot of things, what they need to see is an authentic portrayal of a Christian. You know just somebody that that has a real Christian life. It's not, it's not an excuse to just kind of, you know, fumble around and live, live and live in unrighteousness and squalor just for the sake of living in it. Right, but it is an invitation to say, hey, I don't have to have all the answers, I don't have to have all the polish Um, and so sometimes it's okay for me to say I don't have to have all the polish.
Speaker 1:And so sometimes it's okay for me to say I don't know. Sometimes it's okay for me to say yeah, yeah, I struggle there too.
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:And Jesus is at work in me there and I'm pursuing his, I'm trusting in his righteousness while I'm continuing to pursue holiness in that space, you know. But they just need to see a real example of a Christian and it seems to be resonating more than ever, and so thank you for affirming that brother for us, man, it's been incredible. Man, how can people keep up with Smiley Abrams, man?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, you can look me up on Instagram SmileyJason. Underscore my website, smileyjasoncom, or my other, my other, my nonprofit that I started in honor of my father, the Andy Abrams Foundation dot org, so wwwAndyAbramsFoundationorg or that you can just follow that on Instagram as well. So that's the best way. And you can look me up on different books. Smiley Abrams on Amazon is four books, five almost. I got another one coming out soon, so Fantastic man, fantastic.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for your time and thank you to all of our listeners and supporters of this podcast. Feel free to share it. You can go to Living Reconciled on any podcast app and you'll typically find us Living Reconciled by Mission Mississippi. Feel free to like, subscribe, share with friends and family. If you would like to support the work of Mission Mississippi or this podcast, feel free to go to Mission Mississippi dot o r g. Again, mission Mississippi dot o r g. Click on the invest button at the top right on the website and that will get you to the right place so that you can support this continuing work of reconciliation in this state of Mississippi and beyond. Again, smiley, it's been incredible man. Thank you so much, brother.
Speaker 3:Thank you, it's an honor.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and on behalf of myself, my good good friend Austin Hoyle. This is Brian Crawford signing off saying God bless, god bless, thanks for joining, living Reconciled. If you would like more information on how you can be a part of the ongoing work of helping Christians learn how to live in the reconciliation that Jesus has already secured, please visit us online at missionmississippiorg or call us at 601-353-6477. Thanks again for listening.
