Latest / The HighDive / Ep. 7 | Stories of Hope | Praying for an Answer

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Ep. 7 | Stories of Hope | Praying for an Answer · The HighDive

• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: Man, this is uh the High Dive Podcast.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: We're so grateful that you have found us or that you are checking us out again.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you've been following our podcast from episode to one episode to the next.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: And if you do, uh you probably realize that we are in chapter two in our stories of hope series.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: And so we're grateful that you you're giving us your time.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for joining us.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: Or maybe you found us for the first time.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, just know that our podcast, we we hope that you're blessed and encouraged by it.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: Please click like, share, follow, subscribe, all those things.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: Leave a review.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: That's helpful.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, our target audience for this podcast is the people at Calvary Baptist Church, but this is certainly, we pray that it encourages anybody who finds it.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, I'm just happy that you're here with us today, Eric.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for being here.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um for those that don't know, you maybe just introduce yourself.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like, who are you?
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: What do you do?
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, sure.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: All that.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: So my name is Eric Hood.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: I am the administrative pastor here at Calvary and have been um on staff, I guess, for probably a little over two and a half years.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: But uh, we've been a part of Calvary for a long time.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_01: So uh my wife and I, when we were dating, she was teaching here, it's like 95, and we spent some time here just kind of with the school and and things, but we built a home several years ago, and while the home was being built, we were living with my parents.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: They were a short drive from Calvary, and my wife was teaching pre-K at the time.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: So we started coming to Calvary.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: And um, when our home was built, we had full intention of going back to the church we were a part of, but our kids didn't.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: Our kids really enjoyed Calvary.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: So um we made the move to Calvary and have been here probably a little over 15 years total.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: Man, that's awesome.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, through that time, I know you guys have been faithful church members, you were a deacon in the church for a while.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Now you're on staff.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like for those who don't know, like what's your role in the staff?
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: What do you do?
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, sure.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: So uh my title is administrative pastor, but really kind of wear a lot of different hats.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um, primary responsibilities for church operations and make sure that things with the church are functioning um working smoothly, but also wear some hats with the school and with our with the gardens ministry and our community, our retirement community as well.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: So just a lot of different things, a lot of moving parts throughout the week.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: Man, I I just to the interwebs, I will say thank you.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for what you do for our church.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I think some of the intentionality of you being here today is kind of really twofold.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we'll call it threefold.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: One, for people to know a little bit more about you and who you are, but uh you preached this past Sunday and in in our Psalms of Summer series.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so maybe we can kind of talk through a little bit just high altitude recapping of the sermon.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: But then as part of our stories of hope series, uh maybe you you told some stories of your of your faith journey and your life in your sermon.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe we can take one of those and just see what that story of hope is for you.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: So uh just maybe give us a high altitude of what what this past Sunday was.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_01: So what I love about this Psalms of Summer series, and what I love about the Psalms is you don't see a lot of times in scripture where people are just truly vulnerable.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_01: And and I think so many times and like in current church culture, like we hide our vulnerabilities.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: True.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: And so like David in this section of scripture, he is just going from where a season where he's just crying out to God for need to where it just kind of evolves at the end of that series of scripture where he's just confident in the Lord and what the Lord's gonna do in his life.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: So I think what's really neat about this whole series and and really this section of scripture is to see David just pull the blinds back and just share his life and heart.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: But you see it all through Psalms.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's not just this section of scripture, but throughout all of Psalms, you see him do that.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: Just be vulnerable with uh I I love that.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: This is I mean, we're this is just a conversation.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: So I I would confess like it's being vulnerable is hard.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: Why why do you think that's hard for people?
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I I think for for most of especially for most of us in the church, we have this tendency to really make make light that everything's fine.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: There's there's no problems, there's no issues.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_01: There's always problems and issues.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: They're they may be under the surface, they may be surface level, but we we have a tendency just to cover it.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_01: And and I don't know why we do that, other than just trying to not show those vulnerabilities and show weakness, but I think the Lord, as we move through life, we have these seasons.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: It's almost like we go through these seasons that David went through multiple times in our Christian walk.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_01: And in order for us to really get the true benefit of what the Lord wants to teach us, I think we have to be vulnerable.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_01: And I think a lot of times we just don't.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: But if we are, we see the true benefit and growth in our faith when we do that.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: I I would agree.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: I think maybe it's pride.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, for sure.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: There's you know, I want to project some sense of success and confidence, so I put up this facade, right?
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I uh an interesting connection as I'm processing, I'm an external processor, you know that well.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um I even reflect back to like in Genesis 2 in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: Now, granted, this is like the iconic marriage passage.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, Adam and Eve, um, they were naked and they were unashamed.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I think that adequately and appropriate applies to the ideal intimacy in a marriage.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: But I think also that's the first human relationship that we see and that level of vulnerability.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's I think that's that's when everything was in its perfect state.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: And so uh being vulnerable with the Lord and with others, I don't think that means we should be raw and vulnerable with everybody.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: Agreed.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, but make sure that we have those relationships where trust and intimacy and that vulnerability is there.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's when we truly experience and live out the gospel.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I think, you know, one of our core values is intentional relationships, right?
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think when we do have those intentional relationships, we build a friendship.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_01: We build friendships throughout the church, but what we also do is we build opportunities for us to share and to be vulnerable with one another for support and those types of things.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's super important to have people in your life that you can talk to, depend on when those when those trouble times do come.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: But you're right, uh there are there are things that you just you just don't share.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you're gonna still hold close to the chest.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I think uh I think when we experience those relationships, we start to model.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: I think in your sermon you use this, and you defined this term well by this confidence.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, and and you stated this past Sunday that God can take you from a place where you are crying desperately, right, and he can move you to a place of confidence.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I think you even you even put the word settled to that.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I think when we reach that place of settled confidence, right, there is a little more safety, a little more vulnerability.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's a picture of what that moves to.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: But um what other thoughts as you reflect back on the sermon piece, do you think are important to set up the story that we're gonna talk through?
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so well, I I'll look at it from a personal standpoint, like, and I've never really shared this.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know that I've ever shared this with the church.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_01: I think I've shared it in chapel at times, but like I grew up in a Christian home.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: Mom and dad were both believers, but we never really went to church very often.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_01: We would go during the Christian holidays, Easter and Christmas and things.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_01: But my dad was a truck driver, and so we he would leave to go to work like super early on a Sunday morning.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: So we really wouldn't go to church on the Sunday, and Wednesdays he was coming back into town, so we didn't go often.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: But there was there were friendships and relationships that I had of people who were also Christians, who students and things like that, but I was far, far from Jesus and doing things that were just shameful to my family and my parents and things.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_01: They may they may not know of all of that.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: They may be learning some of that today.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_01: But I just I think when we understand where we are in that state of just being far from the Lord and and we're in distress and we need him, that when we do cry out to him and he pulls us close to his chest, and we understand that forgiveness, and we understand the cleansing that happens through salvation, like that is is is pretty amazing, and and it builds that confidence in the Lord.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's just a little bit um from my perspective.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: Go ahead.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: Do you think that that movement like to get to the place that uh the person is crying out, as the psalmist said, do you think that requires some stimulant?
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: It could be failure, brokenness, sure, discipline.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: I think you even used chastening in the sermon.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um what are your thoughts?
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so so for me, it definitely included a lot of those things.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_01: Failure is a part of that.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_01: I I was not a great student in at all until I was in college.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: Well, be honest, I wasn't a great student until I was probably in my second year of college.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_01: CSU asked me not to come back.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: Uh you were uninvited.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_01: I was uninvited to CSU.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_01: But after um after that, like, so so there was there's all of these things in that story.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_01: There was a young lady that in high school, we sat, she sat in front of me, no, she sat behind me every year in Homeroom, and super amazing believer, right?
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_01: She shared her faith with me every day, every year.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_01: She was by example, just by word, like all these things.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: Uh her name and high her maiden name was Huntington.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_01: So she her name, Tammy Huntington, right?
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: And so she's an amazing believer.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_01: She got married to a friend of mine, but the the story culminates like my junior spring of my junior year, she'd been sharing her faith with me for this was our third year of high school.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_01: And so I gave my life to the Lord that spring.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_01: You know, and so I just always reflect back on the example that Tammy lived out because it it impacted me.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_01: And and it was, I saw all these failures that I'd had throughout middle school, high school, all these things, and she shared just constantly sharing her faith, believing in me, trusting me, all these things.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_01: But just her being a friend, man, it changed my life.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_01: You know, but but also had family members that were instrumental in that too.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_01: But I'll always reflect back to what she did and how she shared her faith to me on a regular basis was impactful.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: And that that schoolmate who's sitting behind your desk and the their confidence and their witness.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think when we're looking at stories of hope.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I mean, obviously, some of these stories, I think we heard a story in our in our previous episode of uh kind of the trauma of losing a child.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: We'll hear other stories of how God has given hope through a journey through addiction or through abandonment and all that.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: But truthfully, your story of hope, and I pray is everybody's story of hope, is really when you encountered the gospel, when you were saved.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: And so you just you started sharing some of that.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like what other elements of your story of salvation I think are beneficial to help us understand how you walk through that and ultimately found hope.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_01: So so for me, I was a I would not classify classify myself as ever being an alcoholic, but I had a problem with alcohol in high school.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_01: And once that addiction or whatever, what whatever that sin in my life, once it was broken, like I recall, like, there was something that you could just sense internally, like my life is different now.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I there was never a need or a um desire after that.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_01: And so what was really cool about so I would say probably four or five years after my my salvation experience, I was at a I was at a student camp for the summer, and man, I came back and it was an amazing experience.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: I'd never been to a church youth camp in my life.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_01: And I was out of high school at this time.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_01: I was just serving as a volunteer, and I came back and I remember, I don't even remember what it was, but I sent like I sinned and I remember just feeling just like like I'd popped a balloon.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, you know, and I was like, let me get back to my room, let me get on my knees and just spend some time with the Lord because like this is this stinks.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah like this doesn't feel good at all.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_01: And and it was having lived several years just in the in that in the Lord's presence and in him moving and doing things in my life, I was like, man, I don't like this.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_01: Let's let's fix this, you know.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I think for all of us, like we we all sin, we all fall short, but it's the recognition to know that we always have the ability to go back to Father to help fix us.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_01: And I think when we when we recognize that and we follow through with that, man, that gives so much hope.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_01: So much hope.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it is kind of a I would I'm imagining that from the outside looking in.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: For a person that doesn't have faith in Jesus, they hear that story.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: Uh here I was, kind of grew up around the church, but not really in the church.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: I got a friend in school who is sharing Jesus with me.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um I'm struggling with alcohol.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: God saves me.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: Uh now I'm walking in that relationship with him.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm feeling conviction, yeah, you know, or correction, chastening.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that's hopeful.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: Like it and and then I I would imagine that somebody that doesn't understand that.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: Why why do you call that hope when you are feeling guilty?
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: Or why do you feel that why is it hope when you are corrected?
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I I I don't know that somebody would have that thought, but I could imagine that that may seem like I don't want to get in trouble, right?
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_01: And I think part of that is just understanding the work of the Holy Spirit in our life, right?
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_01: Where we are the ones who experience that transition and that change.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_01: And if we truly lay down the sins that have hindered us for so long, and and we flip and start living for the Lord, right?
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_01: Truly doing the things which He wants us to do, spending time in His Word, spending time in prayer, spending time with people that are helping disciple you.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's something that's huge for a new believer, right?
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_01: So they need time with someone that's going to help mentor and disciple them.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_01: It's huge.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I had a period of time with a student pastor who did that for me, right?
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_01: Where he just took me in and is like, hey, just come spend some time, you know, when you have time off work, have time on the weekends, just spend time at my house, just whatever.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_01: And he he just poured into me, right?
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_01: And I think it's important for us to have those relationships, but it's it's a sense of us being able to understand when we have done wrong, right?
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_01: But we also have that hope because we can reflect on it from the experience of our salvation that the Lord's always there.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_01: But we see it so many times in scripture, and we see it all throughout the Psalms too, where David seems to be desperate, but then he cries out to the Lord and because he knows where his hope resides.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: Well, and I'm even thinking as you share that, um the Lord is always with me.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes he reminds me of his presence by correction.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and the scripture teaches us that he disciplines those that he loves.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so a lot of times that comes through the Holy Spirit's conviction in my life.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: I know this is not how I want you to live.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so it I would imagine it's not imagine, I I feel or think it's not all that different than maybe when I'm growing up, I I don't like that my parents are disciplining me or correcting me.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I resist that.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: As I get through that season, I look back and I'm like, thank you for that correction.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for those rules or whatever it may be.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to rebel on that, but now I understand.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: But that presence, you know, the presence of the Lord in our life doesn't always feel like, oh, your arms are just wrapped around me in safety and love.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, sometimes it is painful.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it is it is correction, sometimes it is suffering.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um well, I think sometimes, and and I may have even mentioned it Sunday, it many times in our life, like we we define something as maybe depression or anxiety.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_01: And I think a lot of times we confuse those things with conviction where where the Lord like those things exist.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_01: Like I I don't want to discount them because they're there are people that struggle with that regularly, but I think many times we we may be in conviction, the Lord may be convicting us, and we try to define it as something other than that.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, right.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: I uh this is kind of what you just said.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: For those of you that are watching the podcast regularly, sometimes like the order in which we we record episodes is not the order in which we release them.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think next week's episode, uh Angel and Ana Duarte will be talking to us about some of those worry things.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the things that Angel, who's one of our counselors at the counseling center, he talked about um naming those emotions correctly.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, because there is, it is easy to confuse what is that.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's a very profound statement, maybe difficult to grasp, because in the midst of whatever I'm going through, there's there's very low visibility.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I think this is I'm trapped in this emotion or this experience as my entire story.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so if I'm identifying this as worry, yeah, and it may be right, or it may just be concern, or it may not be either, it may be the Lord's trying to get your attention, right?
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so I think.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: the my encouragement to people pastorally in those moments are when there's confusion.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: I I feel like something's here but I'm not I'm not sure what it is.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: I I I go back to the story of Samuel and Eli, where uh Eli's the priest, Samuel's Samuel's been dedicated to the priest by his mother Hannah.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: So he's living there in the temple and he's he wakes up in the middle of the night he thinks Eli's calling he runs to his bed.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: Eli did you call me?
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: He's like I didn't call you go back to sleep.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: He lays back down he thinks Eli calls his name he runs hey did you call me?
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: No, I didn't call you go back to sleep.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: And the third time Eli's like wait a minute what's happening?
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: And his response is hey the next time rather than running to me why don't you just stop and talk to the father and say speak Lord I'm listening.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think in those moments where maybe we are going through heaviness or we do feel like we're being punished and we don't know maybe I do need to attach worry to this maybe this is the Lord if we can just slow down and be still and I think you even emphasize in the sermon the importance of trusting in the Lord and waiting on the Lord.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: I think in that trust and waiting it requires us to just with an open hand and open heart say Lord I'm listening.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah what is this is this something in me that needs to be corrected convict me I want to make that right is this something that I'm not walking in disobedience but this is a season of transplanting or suffering I need to go through that's teach me.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_01: That's the that's so hard but it's like it when we do that like we experience like my wife and I both experienced that with an infertility diagnosis that we had.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_01: Like it was it felt so long like it was seven plus years right and having all these treatments and praying just like all these people praying with us through that supporting us through it.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_01: But man it just felt like it was going to last forever but ultimately like the Lord answers those prayers like natural like we expected that we were likely going to have to adopt and like the Lord just miraculously gives us children and we we only anticipated we would have one child and we have two amazing kids.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_01: You know and so it's and really truthfully like you you give the story of Eli like the reason that we named our firstborn Elijah was my wife she was just like we will adopt if necessary but I I want to battle this out with the Lord and I it scared me like I was like I don't know if I want to be a part of that.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_01: I don't mind finding you I don't know if I want to battle it out with God.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_01: So she was like listen here's the deal if we have a son we're going to name him Elijah and we're going to name him Elijah in honor of Elijah out of scripture and how he battled the prophets of Baal and he did everything to prove that God was God in that moment.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_01: Like all the water on the altars everything right so that when the Lord answered that prayer everyone knew it was the Lord.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's why Elijah is named Elijah because of that right so and it's going through those seasons of trust are difficult but man they build so much character in us as believers.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I think as that character is built um you you naming Elijah based upon that story based upon scripture is part of that story of hope.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: So now every time you call his name it is you know it's another uh Ebenezer stone it's another moment to remember and so much of the Psalms in those moments of distress sin emptiness it's all calling us to trust in the Lord to reflect back on his goodness right and so I mean even every time you call your son's name you you're being reminded of the hope in the Lord and the faithfulness of the Lord and the goodness of the Lord correct in whatever you're going through.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: So that's awesome.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah uh thank you yeah for sharing anything else you want to share before we wrap up no I'm just excited for for what God's doing man i i was I was reflecting back last week right we we had another baptism you know and man looking back at the year God's doing some really amazing things in life of our church.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely and and I I hope everyone recognizes that within the church God is moving in the lives of people in our church in an amazing way.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I hope as those stories continue to be celebrated we'll just continue to give glory to God absolutely praise the Lord.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: Uh hey this has been the high dive and I'm glad you've jumped off of it with us um please again click like subscribe share all those things thank you for checking into this chapter of our stories of hope series there's more to come but check out the show notes connect with us on our website if we could do anything for you if you are part of our church we look forward to seeing you if you're in our area we would love to meet you if you are some other part of the world and you're checking out this podcast we would love to help you connect with the local church where you live so reach out to us we'd love to make that connection with you but until next time bye