Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Seph Schlueter joined the LifeSongs Morning Show where he crushed the LifeSongs Lightning Round, geeked out about Lord of the Rings and offers some lovely encouragement on trusting Jesus. Thanks Seph – for great songs – and a new friendship!
It’s the LifeSongs morning show, and if you have listened to LifeSongs any over the last several months, you have heard Counting My Blessings by Seth Schlueter. You’ve also heard me accidentally butcher Seph Schlueter’s last name multiple times, but I’m so excited to have Seph here on the LifeSongs Morning Show with us. How you doing, man?
I am so good, dude. And common, common problem. I, I did it to myself. The last name, man. It’s rough.
I love Counting my Blessings. I was looking at your website earlier. You’ve got another song you just did a video for. That song is even better. Like it’s so good, dude.
It is so funny because like, all of these songs were written like two years ago, so it’s funny that they come out and I’m like, oh yeah, I forgot, like, I like this one, you know? But also at the same time, like really excited because I’m like, I’ve been writing so much in those two years and I have new stuff that I’m even more excited. So it’s just funny how that all at all pans out.
You know, you’re a really great songwriter and it’s awesome to play you here on LifeSongs.
Thank you man I super appreciate it.
So tell us about the song that has introduced you to the LifeSongs family. Tell us about Counting My Blessings.
Yeah, man. Counting my Blessings. Like I said, I wrote it like two years ago. It was me and two friends, a guy named Jordan and a guy named Jonathan. We were talking about life, talking about just like all the things going on. And it was this really cool moment where like, for all three of us, the way we phrased it was kind of like we were living in the answer to prayers that we had prayed years ago. You know, like years ago, we had prayed for this to happen in our families, this to happen in our lives, this to happen in our careers. And it’s like, whoa, we’re living in that. And so often we’re so focused on like the next big dream, the next big goal, the next upcoming thing that we just forget to pause and just thank God for, like what he’s done. We wrote just from that place of wanting to give God gratitude and just fix our eyes on Him, because, you know, there’s going to be easy moments and there’s going to be tough moments. It’s like not everything is perfect. But in those moments, if you pause and look, you can always find a reason to be grateful.
I get messages all the time from LifeSongs listeners that are like, I was having a rotten day, and then you played that song from Seph and I started Counting My Blessings, started listing them out, and it completely changed my outlook on the day.
Oh praise God, that’s so cool. That’s what I love to hear. Like, that’s that’s the reason I do what I do. And I know why you do what you do. So, like, that’s so cool.
We’re talking with Seth Schlueter on the LifeSongs Morning Show. Seph, who are you? Like, give us a little insight into to. You know, you were born in Pennsylvania, grew up in Ohio, but, like, tell us about yourself. Let us, let us inside the mind of Seph Schlueter.
Scary place. Born in Erie, Pennsylvania. Moved to Ohio when I was 13. I’ve been here since. Worked as a missionary, grew up in an awesome Christian family my whole life, but really gave my life to the Lord as a as a sophomore in high school. Just it’s where I really encountered him. And it wasn’t in like a big, powerful moment. It was literally just coming to Him day to day in prayer. And just He became more and more real to me and I wanted to give my life to Him, wanted to serve him. Ministry and music is the way that He’s called me to do that. So I’m just so blessed that I get to do this, you know, full time that this gets to be what I love to do. I’m a nerd. I love superheroes. I love Lord of the Rings, I love Star Wars, I love reading I love exercising. I did a marathon and a half marathon last year. I did a triathlon. I just got married six months ago. That’s the most important thing. My wife’s amazing. Yeah, man. Life is beautiful. I’m so blessed.
That’s awesome. You look like a Lord of the Rings fan. Like you’ve got the Legolas hair.
I’m, like, trying to be like Aragorn or Legolas, you know, just like, give me a sword and, like, medieval garb, and I’m ready to go.
True story. I just saved this on my Instagram feed. It was a REEL of someone getting a tattoo of literally just the map that Tolkien had drawn of middle earth all. It was like a full sleeve up his arm, and I’m like, that’s the coolest tattoo I’ve ever seen.
That is epic. There are people who have, like, learned the whole Elvish language. Like, I’m not quite there, but I do respect it.
You said you were into running. You know that they have this running club that you can be a part of that tells you the distances and the topography to run, to go across Middle Earth.
That is crazy. It never ceases to amaze me. Like how far people will take like their their fandom. Yeah. Like that is that is next level. That’s so funny.
So let’s have a little fun with the Lightning Round. I’m just going to give you some quick yes or no. 1 or 2 options. You just fire off your answers as best you can. If we get sidetracked, that’s cool. Ready? All right. Lifesongs lightning round with Seph Schlueter. Coffee or tea?
Coffee.
Correct answer. Summer or winter?
Summer.
Okay. So you like the beach or mountains?
I like both of them a lot. The ideal is like, right in between. I can be on the beach, and then all of a sudden I turn around and I’m right there on the mountains. Yeah.
So like California.
Yeah, we we had our honeymoon in Costa Rica, and that was kind of like it too. Like there was like mountains right there. And then also like beach right there. It was crazy.
So you have grown up in the era of social media. Do you have a preferred social media that you use, or are you on the other side of that now? And just like I’m out.
I like have such a love hate relationship with social media, Instagram is the one I use the most. I don’t really do TikTok except to repost the things that I’m posting on Instagram. I actually find LinkedIn is kind of fun. I feel like LinkedIn provides the most value out of any social media that I’ve like, been a part of.
Is LinkedIn a social media thing? I thought it was just where you posted your resume?
No. People post things like, you know, business hacks, life hacks, whatever, all sorts of things. So that’s kind of fun. There’s so much negative things with it and it’s so draining, you know. So I think it’s like one of those things where I see it being used for so much good, but also you just have to have a lot of really good boundaries and discipline with it, because otherwise it can it can drain you in so many ways.
So very wise. All right. Dog or cat?
Dog.
Early bird or night owl?
Both actually, which is a dangerous place to be, but I typically try to order my schedule so that I’m more of an early bird and less of a night owl.
That’s hard to do, though, with your career. Like you perform mostly in the evenings, right?
I know, I know, and I’m intrigued to do it, to see how it all plays out because I’m about to go on tour, so it might shift a little bit, but typically I try to be up every morning by 540 and I try to go to sleep by like 1040. So it gives me like seven hours of sleep.
That’s that’s good. That’s really healthy. Very again, very wise. That’s very wise. Is your wife gonna get to go on tour with you or is she going to be working?
She’ll be able to come to some of the dates, but she’ll be she won’t be, like, on the bus with us, so.
That’ll be hard.
I know. Now, the nice thing is, it’s only like four day stints, so it’ll be like, I’m gone for four days, and then I’m back and then gone for four days, and then I’m back. So it’s not the worst.
Perfect spring day. Is it going to be rainy or is it going to be sunny?
That’s a great question. I think I would love like a little morning rain. So you could kind of get rain in the morning and it’s like just kind of this nice little drizzle, like kind of misty and then it gets really sunny and then by the time evening comes around, it’s thunderstorming and you can just get in and get cozy. I cheated.
I mean, it sounds like the perfect day, honestly. And finally, peanut butter, crunchy or smooth.
Ooh. I go back and forth I think in general smooth.
Yeah, I agree with you on that. I think people who always choose crunchy, there might be some like mental health issues that we have to contend with.
We may need to pray for them, but like it’s it’s all cool.
Well Seph, that is the end of the Lightning round. You did great. All correct answers. Toed the line a couple times.
I was close to failing.
Give LifeSongs family just one word of encouragement. What has God been teaching you lately that you would share?
I think just dependency. You read the Beatitudes, you pray with so much of what Jesus has spoken, and so much of it is like, blessed are the poor in spirit. Do not be anxious about anything. Just like learning to be dependent. I think in our world today you hear self-made man, self-made this – all me, me, me. And it’s like, no, I want to be a God made man, you know? Like I want to be that kind of person that just that is relying on the Lord, that’s able to lean back and trust in my God, you know, in my father to take care of me. So my word of encouragement is just trust God. You know, it doesn’t mean you just sit back and do nothing. I’ve heard said, God can’t drive a parked car. You got to at least get the car moving, but trust Him to take you to where he needs you to go and just trust Him to provide for you in every step of the journey.
Great word. Thank you, Seph Schlueter for hanging out with us. It’s awesome to get to meet you.
Yeah, such a pleasure.
Thank you.