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The Trouble With Jesus · Is Your Way In Your Way?

0:25
Cassandra: To welcome you to Is Your Way in Your Way podcast, and I am your host for those new listeners.
0:31
Cassandra: And my name is Cassandra Crawley Mayo.
0:34
Cassandra: And yes, I am a transformational author, speaker, and mentor for purpose-driven women for those women who are ready, I mean, really ready to start living your best life on your terms.
0:48
Cassandra: And on this podcast, I like to talk about like we talk about topics related to what I call personal development and self-improvement.
0:58
Cassandra: And today we have a topic that made me revisit it when I received this information that Constance Hastings, who you're going to meet in a second, um, proposed this topic to me titled The Trouble with Jesus.
1:16
Cassandra: And that to me was so intriguing.
1:18
Cassandra: And I'm like, I want to hear a little more about what is what is the trouble with Jesus.
1:22
Cassandra: Is there anything behind this?
1:25
Cassandra: Um, and she speaks directly to the heart of my mission: discovering truth, surrendering your purpose, redefining your faith beyond fear of formality.
1:36
Cassandra: Her journey, although it's from an unconventional upbringing to a calling rooted in service, mirrors the same courage and curiosity that encourages you listeners to embrace and invite you to see faith not as a rule book, but as a relationship that transforms.
1:58
Cassandra: So let me introduce you to Constance Hastings.
2:01
Cassandra: Hello, Constance.
2:03
Constance: Hello, Cassandra.
2:05
Constance: It's good to be with you and your listeners today.
2:08
Cassandra: Yeah, thanks for being here.
2:09
Cassandra: I'm so appreciative.
2:11
Cassandra: Before I get started, I'd like to read a little of your bio so that my listeners will get an understanding of what qualifies you to talk about the trouble with Jesus.
2:24
Cassandra: Honest conversations that that reveal who Jesus really is.
2:29
Cassandra: So Constance offers a fresh outsider lens on the timeless story of Jesus, raised by non-religious parents, yet they were educated and a and she was educated in a Christian school.
2:44
Cassandra: She bridges worlds, faith and doubt, intellect and spirit, tradition and curiosity.
2:51
Cassandra: As an ordained minister, teacher, and mental health counselor, she's going to bring a deeply human understanding of how spirituality meets everyday life.
3:02
Cassandra: She's passionate about reviving ancient voices of meaning in modern conversations, helping others find faith that feels both real and relevant.
3:14
Cassandra: Constance and her husband split their time between Wilmington and Florida so that they could also be near their children, near their son.
3:23
Cassandra: And she is also a blogger and an author.
3:27
Cassandra: So let me ask you, I I I researched you.
3:32
Cassandra: My listeners, I usually, not usually, I always take a deep dive into my guest just to find out if we're on the same accord, on one accord.
3:43
Cassandra: And I found out, like she indicated, this is interesting to me because it's non-traditional.
3:48
Cassandra: Her parents weren't religious.
3:50
Cassandra: Um, her dad uh worked in a bar.
3:53
Cassandra: Her mom used to take her to um to Sunday school.
3:56
Cassandra: And then when she got a certain age, her mom would take her to Sunday school and just drop her off and go back home.
4:02
Cassandra: Um also she um it's just real interesting how she her background was more, I would say non-religion for her to really start focusing on what we're calling the trouble with Jesus.
4:19
Cassandra: So I have a question for you.
4:22
Cassandra: What was that moment?
4:24
Cassandra: There was a moment in your journey when your understanding of Jesus shifted dramatically.
4:31
Cassandra: Something turned your belief into something personal, like a personal revelation.
4:36
Cassandra: What was that?
4:37
Cassandra: What was that?
4:39
Constance: Well, it it was twofold, actually.
4:41
Constance: First of all, I have to say it centered in my salvation experience.
4:46
Constance: And as you've said, um, my family was not a religious family.
4:50
Constance: And they sent me to that uh small independent Christian school that was just down the street.
4:56
Constance: It wasn't very expensive for what I'll call Cassandra the wrong reason.
5:01
Constance: It was the time of desegregation, and we lived in the inner city, and my parents did not feel that um I would be safe in a public school, so that's why they put me in this private school.
5:13
Constance: Like I said, for all the wrong reasons is why they sent me there.
5:18
Constance: But the teachers in that school, even knowing my background, knowing my, they loved me, they taught me well.
5:26
Constance: I excelled in Bible study.
5:28
Constance: I I was I was better than the other kids in my class whose parents were pastors and missionaries.
5:34
Constance: I was really, however, when I was seven years old, it was on a Good Friday, and um, someone had taken me to see a movie about Jesus.
5:45
Constance: And that night in my bed, I felt so responsible for his having to die for me.
5:53
Constance: And I got up on my knees and I said, Jesus, I'm sorry that you had to do this.
5:58
Constance: I'm so sorry.
5:59
Constance: Please forgive me.
6:00
Constance: At that moment, and I remember this distinctly, I felt this burden lifted off of me.
6:07
Constance: And I later would look back upon that as my salvation experience.
6:13
Constance: And again, later I read uh Paul Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress.
6:18
Constance: When Pilgrim goes to the cross and he's there at the foot of the cross and he repents, the same thing happens.
6:26
Constance: This burden of sin drops away.
6:29
Constance: And that's how I see is what happened.
6:31
Constance: So I as I said, uh, that's when I received Christ.
6:35
Constance: But I was seven years old.
6:36
Constance: I still had to grow up in a family where uh I knew some things.
6:42
Constance: I mean, I was loved and taken care of well and and you know, raised right, but still there was there were things that I saw and lived with that I knew just wasn't supposed to be.
6:55
Constance: And um, yes, we went, I called it sometimes the book of the month, uh the church of the month club.
7:03
Constance: Yeah, my mother would switch from church to church, and then again just let leave us there.
7:08
Constance: So I didn't have a strong church family to surround me.
7:13
Constance: And uh that that sort of um belief but no connection followed me through college until um I had my first job, which was teaching high school English.
7:27
Constance: And uh my department chair, who later became my husband, was a pastor's son.
7:34
Constance: And of course, he wanted me to go to church with him, which I did.
7:37
Constance: And that's where I met a church family, and I began to to see there that God had spoken to me in a very real way.
7:48
Constance: Um, some ways I I I was in some ways I was in a in a place that was um more mature spiritually than the rest of the people with whom I went to church, but it was real and I knew my Bible, I I knew what it meant, and I carried that forward there, and that's where my growth came.
8:15
Constance: And throughout my life, I've had different callings, always keeping you know, an ear open to where God will take me next.
8:24
Cassandra: Right.
8:25
Cassandra: Um, you said something that uh when you you you learn more about the word of God, but because of that, you realize there were things happening, maybe in your home life environment that wasn't like that.
8:40
Constance: Like what's some of the things that you observed at well, the overall um thing, which you know ultimately sent me to that school, but was um I I grew up in a time of racism.
8:53
Constance: And um yeah, it was it was honestly so very strange because the people
9:00
Speaker 3: that frequented my father's bar were African American, they put my food on the table, understand?
9:07
Speaker 3: And yet at the same time, my mother uh in uh ran a motel at on a beach, and we weren't allowed to rent the motel rooms to blacks.
9:22
Speaker 3: So you know that's what I meant.
9:24
Speaker 3: There was this conflict there that was was very real as I was as I was growing up.
9:31
Speaker 3: Um the like I said, um my father owned a bar, so alcohol was very, very, you know, much within our home, uh, and and those kinds of things, and just certain certain things of that nature that just didn't um uh meet where I knew and how Christ would have us live.
9:54
Cassandra: Hmm, interesting.
9:56
Cassandra: Um, I have some listeners, you know, a lot of people believe in God, they call it the universe or whatever, but when we talk about Jesus, and I recall uh on my traveling days, there were a lot of individuals, international uh individuals that said they believed Jesus was a prophet, that you know, he wasn't the son of God.
10:37
Cassandra: And and I'd like you to describe um yourself as bringing an outside perspective to the story of Jesus.
10:46
Cassandra: Uh, and what does that mean?
10:48
Cassandra: And and how has that perspective deepened your change with faith?
10:55
Constance: The outsider's perspective I have is as I said, coming from my family life.
11:00
Constance: I also have um taught um in high school and college for 25 years.
11:07
Constance: I had an 18-year faith-based um mental health practice.
11:12
Constance: Okay.
11:13
Constance: I've always been a listener to what people were bringing there, the the doubts that they had.
11:18
Constance: And you know, to to say that Jesus is the Son of God is a radical statement because it it asks of you then, okay, if that's so, what is your choice with Christ?
11:34
Constance: And um, so it's easier in some respects to put him down into the um categories of being a very good man, a prophet, um, you know, a great teacher, but not one that would ask of us of a commitment.
11:53
Constance: And that's that's where um I think um you know people have problems with that.
12:00
Constance: They don't they realize they don't want to make the commitment, so they then try and put Christ in a lesser category that wouldn't require it.
12:12
Cassandra: Okay, okay.
12:13
Cassandra: You talked about your your career, so in the mental health arena.
12:20
Cassandra: And I remember just reading about you, you made a comment that in that arena, God is not, it's it's kind of like they don't integrate.
12:32
Cassandra: They don't, you know, where you think that it's definitely part of a lot of the mental things that people are going through.
12:40
Cassandra: They they say mental illness, but you kind of talked about how um, but you don't really talk about it in your you you probably talk about in your practice, but in most practices it's not really discussed.
12:55
Cassandra: How do you think the two are related?
12:58
Constance: Very I think they're very closely related.
13:01
Constance: You're right.
13:02
Constance: In the uh world of psychology, this sort of thing is compartmentalized.
13:09
Constance: You can have your mental health and you can have your spiritual beliefs, but they don't like to um bring them together.
13:16
Constance: However, I I believe the Bible is the best uh resource for good psychology that we have.
13:26
Constance: Um, you know, and in that regard, if you're going to um search the scriptures, you will find in there uh things that are meant to show us what is dysfunctional, what is healthy, where we come to a place of um understanding how we need to um live our lives and how that impacts us.
13:55
Constance: For instance, um one of the big theories in psychology is uh cognitive therapies.
14:05
Constance: And the perception is that your mind is a place in which you um what what you allow yourself to think impacts how you feel.
14:21
Constance: Now, sometimes people think feelings direct your thoughts, but it's actually the other way around.
14:27
Constance: What you think will determine your your feelings, your emotions, which then determines your behavior.
14:35
Constance: So, you know, when we talk about in the Bible, and it says, you know, um uh have the mind of Christ, keep your thoughts captive, you know, watch your mental activity.
14:48
Constance: And when you stay in a place that honors God, when you stay in a place that um searches the scriptures, when you keep your mind in places that are good and and uh holy and um forgot the verse.
15:07
Constance: Yeah, the Philippians verse.
15:10
Constance: That you're gonna be healthy, and you're gonna be in a place where emotionally you are secure, and you are gonna be in a place where behaviorally you you don't act out, you don't hurt people, you don't have to be the one in control because you know that God is the one that's in control.
15:32
Constance: Um, that's a very short way of explaining it, but I I hope it's sufficient for now.
15:37
Cassandra: Yeah, yeah.
15:38
Cassandra: Um yeah, that that that is that that is for me, but I I like to know um just based on my listeners, and my many of my listeners are stuck.
15:53
Cassandra: There's something in their belly, I call it a fire, that is saying they're uncomfortable.
16:02
Cassandra: It's kind of like I should be doing this, I'm not really happy in this role.
16:08
Cassandra: I I I want my own business, I want to write a book.
16:12
Cassandra: Um, I need to probably leave this relationship that's not working for me, or I may need to leave a church where I've been in since I was two and I'm not being served.
16:20
Cassandra: And they're just they're like stuck.
16:23
Cassandra: And so, based on how do you discern when God is calling you into something new, especially when it's uncomfortable or unfamiliar?
16:32
Constance: Well, we can go into my story in a minute, but but my verse that I lean on a lot is Psalm 138.8, and it says, The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me.
16:44
Constance: Your love, oh Lord, endures forever.
16:47
Constance: And yeah, the Lord will fulfill his purpose for me.
16:53
Constance: We need to submit our goals, our desires, our dreams to what God would have us do, and keep ourselves in a place of always being willing to um to uh step into new roles and so forth.
17:12
Constance: So it was that um when I went to college, I trained, as I said, to become an English teacher.
17:18
Constance: Um after 25 years, I was very good at teaching English.
17:25
Constance: And uh at the community college in which I was working, I was one of the first recipients of their excellent in excellence in teaching award.
17:34
Constance: Oh wow.
17:35
Constance: I was very, very secure in that.
17:38
Constance: And um I would privately pray with my students not only about their academic work, but also their personal lives.
17:48
Constance: And you know, I I presented myself to them as first a Christian.
17:55
Constance: Now I would think that God should be very, very happy with that, but I began to just have that sense in my spirit that God would have me do more, and so it was that um I began feeling that I was being called into a more formal ministry.
18:17
Constance: Now remember, I was the daughter of parents who were not particularly Christian, and they did not uh train me to you know see this as an option.
18:34
Constance: And I was I was very, very confused about it.
18:37
Constance: There's no way in the world I could see myself pastoring a church.
18:43
Cassandra: Yeah.
18:43
Constance: But one Sunday the pastor gave a sermon, Take Up Your Cross and Follow Me.
18:49
Constance: And I was like, oh gosh.
18:51
Constance: So I made an appointment, went in, and um, the assistant pastor and the uh lead pastor both affirmed for me that I was being called into ministry.
19:05
Constance: Um but at the time, this was in 1996, uh, I was in the Methodist church and they had formed a new order of a new order of deacons.
19:19
Constance: And the role of the deacon would be not to pastor a church per se, but to make a connection between the church and the world.
19:29
Constance: And that to me really seemed to be where I was being directed.
19:35
Constance: So it was that um one afternoon I was I was at the college, but I was over in the higher education building, and there was a display of brochures about uh master level programs.
19:50
Constance: Um, and one of them was in counseling, and I told Cassandra, I reached for that pamphlet and my hand was shaking because I knew I was picking up my destiny.
20:02
Constance: And I left that very afternoon.
20:04
Constance: I went back to the church, I talked to my pastor, and he said, Look, I know this seems as clear as mud, but this is what I can see you doing.
20:13
Constance: And he was prophetic in how he said, You can you can get this degree, you can come here and work on staff as a counselor, and you can develop programs that will reach out into the community and bring that word beyond the church doors.
20:29
Constance: And that is exactly what happened.
20:31
Constance: 18 years I did that.
20:34
Constance: And now I will tell you, as I said, when I was teaching, I was very good at it.
20:41
Constance: I knew I was doing when I went into counseling.
20:44
Constance: Oh my goodness, there were some times I would sit across the uh table from a client and I had nothing.
20:51
Constance: I did not know what to do, what to say.
20:54
Constance: Oh wow to pray.
20:56
Constance: And I would pray for that person, and that was the best I could give them, and the best I could give them.
21:03
Constance: And and that's that's how God led me.
21:05
Constance: It's like you don't have all the answers, but you will depend on me, and your clients will see that dependence on me as well.
21:13
Constance: Again, 18 years into that, God should be happy with all I was going through as I walked through everyone's problems and so forth.
21:22
Constance: But then my husband and my son came to me and said, We want you to move closer to where our son lives.
21:30
Constance: Um, if you will do that, then um, you know, we will we will provide for your needs as well.
21:39
Constance: And I said, Okay, I had started to write this book, but because I was so active in ministry and counseling, I just did the good time to dedicate to it.
21:51
Constance: And then I said to them, All right, I'll do this, but you have to give me time and space in which to make this happen.
21:58
Cassandra: Okay.
21:59
Constance: And they did.
22:00
Constance: Three weeks after we moved, I mean, boxes were still piled up all around my desk.
22:05
Constance: Yeah, I sat down and began writing.
22:09
Constance: It took me years to learn what it takes to actually write a book and be able to get it published and promoted.
22:18
Constance: And yet God has taken me all this, all those steps.
22:22
Constance: So you see, you may not see directly where God is leading you, but it means having a willing spirit to be in that place.
22:31
Constance: Like you said, it may be a dream of going to school, starting a business of of uh whatever that is.
22:39
Constance: It may be uh changing churches, or it may be being a different kind of person in that church.
22:46
Constance: It all means keeping your you know your ear close to the ground and listening to that spirit and God's leading as to where he would have you be and what his purpose is for you.
22:59
Constance: Right.
23:00
Cassandra: And for my listeners, the book is titled The Trouble with Jesus.
23:05
Cassandra: That that's the name of the book, An honest conversation that reveals who Jesus is.
23:10
Cassandra: Um wow.
23:12
Cassandra: So all right.
23:14
Cassandra: So I so now we know what inspired you to write the book, but also we know that many of our listeners know, like you did, you had a knowing that you knew this was a direction you should go in.
23:31
Cassandra: Now there are listeners, like I said earlier, that maybe are not believers.
23:37
Cassandra: And when you talked about, you know, you're praying with the students.
23:41
Cassandra: Now, today that's taboo.
23:43
Cassandra: I mean, it was it was private, it was private, yes.
23:46
Cassandra: Oh, okay, okay.
23:47
Cassandra: I didn't want to clarify that because many people like, oh, how could you do that?
23:52
Cassandra: You know, um, so because uh many of us are stuck, and I say that because I was stuck.
24:00
Cassandra: I wrote a book.
24:01
Cassandra: My book was Is Your Way in Your Way, and yeah, I was in my way, and it took me years to write that book, you know.
24:07
Cassandra: And so, how can understanding faith from a broader perspective help people get unstuck?
24:17
Constance: Okay, when you talk about being stuck, right?
24:20
Constance: I hear that as having questions and doubts about um, you know, God in general, about who Jesus Christ is, and um being in a place of just asking yourself, is this is this for real?
24:36
Constance: Right.
24:37
Constance: The book is written specifically to that person who is the doubter and the skeptic.
24:44
Constance: Just give me a second.
24:46
Constance: I'm gonna read to you the very first paragraph of the book.
24:51
Constance: This is how the book starts.
24:53
Constance: Now let's be clear about this.
24:57
Constance: You can tell your story in any way you see it, and I can jump in with my two-bit commentary when I want, but none of this believe it, or you're gonna burn crap.
25:08
Constance: I'm only willing to listen because I agree Jesus' story might have some things I like about it, but it's my choice what I do with it.
25:17
Constance: I've been given other belief systems about the universe, how we got here, what it means to pass through this life.
25:24
Constance: I guess though, that I think there's more.
25:27
Constance: I'm willing to give Jesus the benefit of the doubt, and doubt is what I bring to this table.
25:34
Constance: And uh that voice that you hear is the voice of a doubter, a skeptic, and it challenges the narration of the story of Jesus, and it's interruptive and it's angry, and it questions, and it's sarcastic, and there's this back and forth there.
25:53
Constance: But you may have heard in that first paragraph the choice is always before us.
26:00
Constance: And if we are willing to take that deep dive and to look honestly into Jesus' life, then we can come to a place where we might be in better footing, if you will, to make that choice for Christ.
26:17
Constance: But that choice is always before us.
26:20
Constance: So the trouble with Jesus, what is that?
26:23
Constance: Where does that come from?
26:24
Constance: Jesus' life, um, he was born into trouble, he uh was challenged in his in his life, he brought trouble, and all of this converged into his ultimate trouble, that crucifixion.
26:46
Constance: But three days he rose from the dead, he defeated the worst trouble that we could have, that trouble of death, and he rose again so that we can have new life in that.
26:59
Constance: So the book, the book chapters are the trouble with Jesus is he chose losers.
27:08
Cassandra: Okay.
27:09
Constance: And and Jesus, you know, he did not look for the most in the influencers of the day.
27:15
Constance: He looked for the people that um you know were were the losers, the disciples, relatively uneducated, um, not particularly a unified group.
27:26
Constance: I mean, he on one hand he had a tax collector, and on the other hand, he had a militant uh zealot who went up against everything that Rome um, you know, he had fishermen, you know, he he it was such a a strange group to bring together as your inner circle.
27:45
Constance: And yet in those three years, and they never really understood what he was about as Messiah, uh, but he he uh I tolerate isn't the best word, but he was able to hold on to them such that after his resurrection they would disperse into the world and bring and bring the gospel.
28:08
Constance: You know, the miracle in their lives alone uh is is just phenomenal.
28:15
Constance: Um we go on.
28:16
Constance: The you know the trouble with Jesus is he um uh you know he talks a lot about money.
28:23
Constance: People don't like to be told what to do with their money, and yet uh I've heard it said in the book of at the gospel of Luke, Jesus talks more about money than he talks about prayer.
28:36
Constance: It's very important what we do with our money to God.
28:41
Constance: Uh the trouble with Jesus is he valued women in first century Palestine.
28:47
Constance: Women were basically wives, prostitutes, or slaves.
28:52
Constance: And for many of them, there was really no difference between being one or the other.
28:57
Constance: Yeah, and yet within his circle, not in the 12, but you know, supporting him were all kinds of women from again from various backgrounds who brought their gifts, their resources to support him and the disciples in the ministry.
29:16
Constance: Um, the trouble of Jesus is he refuses to be the divine fixer.
29:21
Constance: Um he did not come to solve our problems, he came to change our hearts.
29:30
Constance: And yet, how many times do we pray?
29:33
Constance: God, you need to do this, and we think we know what's best.
29:38
Cassandra: Right.
29:39
Constance: And you know, we the hardest prayer to pray is thy will be done.
29:43
Cassandra: Right, that's right, right.
29:45
Constance: So the book develops through this and and and in the various chapters on the you know how what Jesus brought and how sometimes we approach Jesus can be equally trouble troubling.
30:00
Constance: But when you come to an understanding of what it took and why he went to the cross willingly, then you begin to understand that as we say, Jesus is one who who yes, there is trouble with Jesus, but he overcame that trouble and and yeah, into the world.
30:24
Cassandra: That that used to be one of my, and it's still a favorite scripture of mine, John 10, 10, that he came to give life and get liberty more abundantly.
30:33
Cassandra: And I recall me studying and reading, which was a conviction that I had um because of life's troubles.
30:43
Cassandra: You know, at one time I was Buddhist, you know, I'm just searching and searching and searching, did not feel comfortable.
30:51
Cassandra: I'm not saying anything's wrong with anything, I'm just talking about my story.
30:54
Cassandra: And I came back to the Bible because I just wasn't comfortable in the other things.
31:00
Cassandra: And then, as I as you indicate, he was born in the trouble.
31:04
Cassandra: He he was troubled, people would get upset with him because he was uh speaking among the sinners, and you know, he said, Well, you all don't need me.
31:12
Cassandra: You you you don't actually you act like you don't sin, so I'm gonna be with the sick people, you know, because you're all you're all well.
31:18
Cassandra: And I just remember saying to him, if you came so that I may live life and live it more abundantly, I'm not doing it.
31:24
Cassandra: So what is the deal?
31:25
Cassandra: You know, so I got to that point, and I even have a chapter in my book, Dear Women Who Doubted Whether there was a God, because there were times that I did doubt it.
31:36
Cassandra: But yet I don't do it anymore because of what happened in that chapter, what how he revealed himself to me.
31:44
Cassandra: But you are so so correct.
31:47
Cassandra: But like you said, he's there for us, before us.
31:51
Cassandra: It's up to us.
31:52
Cassandra: He created us into his home image that we believe or not believe.
31:57
Cassandra: Many are called, but few are chosen, you know.
31:59
Cassandra: So, with that, I like you talked about reviving old voices of meaning.
32:06
Cassandra: What are some timeless truths you believe we've forgotten in our modern lives?
32:12
Constance: Well, the overall one is um who is in control.
32:16
Constance: Um, and uh this is very prevalent and it's a struggle we all have.
32:22
Constance: It's probably it's the root of sin, actually.
32:25
Constance: Um, when Eve uh took uh the fruit of the tribute uh tree, the the serpent and in lying to her said, Eat this and you will be like God.
32:38
Constance: And that to me was you know what sealed the deal in there.
32:44
Constance: She wanted to be like God, she wanted that control.
32:49
Constance: She wanted to be the one to say, you can do this and you can't you can't do that.
32:54
Constance: And in in our lives, that we are the same way.
32:58
Constance: We want to be the ones that that um manage and control and direct, and you know, life is supposed to go our way, and uh so that's what I mean there is what the Bible moves toward is that place of coming to the cross, of being submissive, of giving God the control.
33:22
Constance: And as I said in uh Psalm 138.8, the Lord will fulfill his purpose for me.
33:30
Constance: Yeah, and when we stay in in our lane, so to speak, when we stay on that path of following his purpose, that's where we will find our security, not our control.
33:44
Constance: My life wasn't supposed to turn out like this.
33:47
Constance: I was supposed to teach English, retire, be with my family, have some simple hobbies.
33:54
Constance: Uh, I I wasn't supposed to be at a point where I, you know, I'm out talking, I'm writing, I'm listening to to people, you know.
34:03
Constance: Um it just it wasn't what where I would have been.
34:08
Constance: But you know what, Sandra?
34:10
Constance: My life would not have been as rich in that abundant living you talk about if it hadn't been for that.
34:18
Constance: And I thank God.
34:20
Cassandra: Yeah, and I I I I definitely mimic you, and and when you talk about fulfilled and how good you feel, and it's not an everyday good feeling, but it's better than it used to be.
34:33
Cassandra: So I don't know, and my listeners, just so you'll know, it's nothing we read, so to speak.
34:40
Cassandra: It's Constance and I, Cassandra, telling you when you are in your calling, when you are doing what you are ordained to do, your life, it is amazing how things will change in your life, and you're right about the enemy, how he wants you to doubt.
34:58
Cassandra: You know, um, he will tempt you like he did Jesus on his 40-day fast.
35:03
Cassandra: He was like, Okay, he said, I don't, I don't need this bread.
35:07
Cassandra: I'm I'm the bread of life, you know.
35:09
Cassandra: Um, and also another scripture that I would would sit on and meditate on is Jeremiah.
35:17
Cassandra: About I know the plans that I have for you.
35:22
Cassandra: Yeah, and when I think about that, I'm like, okay, you knew my my end before my beginning.
35:28
Cassandra: So that just gives me uh a sense of peace because I know that I know that I know.
35:34
Cassandra: And like I said, it's not what somebody told me, it's what I know, right?
35:39
Constance: And you meant you mentioned peace.
35:41
Constance: Peace does not mean that we won't have problems and troubles, you know.
35:46
Constance: Um, you know, I go to my knees and it's like, Jesus, my list keeps getting longer.
35:53
Constance: You know, and there are things that keep that keep happening that I'm aware of in my personal life, in my family, you know, in with among friends, out into the world.
36:03
Constance: I mean, that's a lot.
36:05
Constance: But I can have the peace because I know that I don't have to be the one controlling this, that my God is in control, and what God would have is going to come from that.
36:19
Cassandra: So, Constance, as we wrap this up, I want to know could you give one simple practice that my listeners can start today to reconnect with the spiritual center and live more intentionally?
36:37
Constance: As you can imagine, as an English teacher, um the where I send people all the time is to the Bible and specifically to the gospels.
36:49
Constance: And every day, every day, read a passage and then ask yourself three questions.
36:57
Constance: What does it say?
36:59
Constance: What does it mean?
37:02
Constance: And how does that apply to my life?
37:06
Constance: And when you answer those questions, you'll know your direction, maybe in the moment, maybe for the day, maybe it's a lifetime thing, but you but repeatedly this will come about.
37:19
Constance: And Cassandra, if I could brag.
37:23
Constance: Um our son told us a couple nights ago that he's been doing that.
37:30
Constance: Now he's in his 40s, and said, Um, he said, Mom, I don't do devotionals, that's not my thing.
37:36
Constance: I just go straight to the Bible.
37:38
Constance: I'm like, okay, all right.
37:41
Constance: And he said, and what he started to do to do is to take these different passages and then um uh what does he put it on?
37:51
Constance: Um he makes short memes or devotionals that he's put out, and then he said, now don't tell anybody about this yet.
37:59
Constance: Okay.
37:59
Constance: So don't tell anybody about this yet.
38:02
Constance: Okay.
38:02
Constance: Yeah, you know, it just it just warmed my soul because he's learning directly from God in these scriptures.
38:13
Constance: And as I look through them, some of it was not maybe, you know, altogether the most spiritually mature thing that he drew from it.
38:23
Constance: But God is speaking into his soul, and that's what we want for us, for our families, for all of your listeners.
38:32
Constance: Go to that scripture, ask those questions, let God speak to you.
38:38
Cassandra: Constance, when you say the the gospels, like I indicated earlier, there are some listeners don't even know what that is.
38:45
Cassandra: Like, like what's a gospel?
38:48
Cassandra: Okay, go to.
38:50
Constance: Um, if you if you pick up a Bible, um, there are going to be four what we call books, four sections that deal specifically with the life of Christ.
39:02
Constance: And the names of those are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
39:07
Constance: Each of them tells a different uh perspective on the life of Christ, because every author brings their own uh perspectives, but amazingly, uh that it's so coherent, and you know, you might not get the everything in one book, but you get different facets of the life of Christ in there, and that's what I mean by go to the gospels, start with this.
39:35
Constance: Thank you for bringing that up and helping me clarify that.
39:39
Cassandra: Well, Constance, you have been a light and a beacon, and I appreciate what you have brought to the airwaves.
39:48
Cassandra: And for my listeners, um, like I always say, have an open mind.
39:54
Cassandra: What do you have to lose?
39:55
Cassandra: You know, and uh, and as I said earlier, it's not what someone told us, it's what we experience.
40:04
Cassandra: It's all about an experience.
40:06
Cassandra: And Constance, I tell you that the title just floored me.
40:11
Cassandra: Like, that's interesting.
40:13
Cassandra: The trouble with Jesus, what is the trouble?
40:15
Cassandra: You know, um, so tell my listeners where they can get that book.
40:20
Cassandra: Okay.
40:21
Constance: The title of the book, the full title is The Trouble with Jesus: Considerations Before You Walk Away.
40:29
Constance: Um, you can buy the book, just about yeah, ask for it by title, my name, anywhere you want to buy books.
40:37
Constance: Um, however, I often encourage people to go to your local bookstore.
40:43
Constance: Now, you might not have it there on the shelf, but if you ask for it, they can order it.
40:48
Constance: And think about what happens.
40:50
Constance: Uh, they order it, so they have to put it into the system.
40:53
Constance: Um, we're in in a warehouse, somebody has to take the book, put it into uh an envelope, put it into a box, put a label on it, and ship it off.
41:04
Constance: So somebody else has access and it becomes visible.
41:08
Constance: Then it gets to the bookstore.
41:10
Constance: Somebody has to open that box or envelope, take them it in their hands and put it on the shelf.
41:16
Constance: So what I'm saying is the exposure to books becomes so greater in supporting local bookstores, and you're supporting your community when you do that as well.
41:29
Constance: So that's my suggestion.
41:31
Constance: You also can uh go on to my website, contentastings.com.
41:37
Constance: That is my blog, and it's also called The Trouble with Jesus.
41:41
Constance: Um, it's uh the blog goes out about once a week.
41:45
Constance: You can subscribe, it's totally free, and once a week you'll receive um a blog post that it uh deals with a specific passage about Jesus.
41:59
Constance: Now, edgy, doubting, skeptical voice is also in the blog.
42:04
Constance: But you go through you, you can read that and then the passage the answers that voice in that particular place.
42:13
Constance: Um, and if you go on to my website, there'll be a pop-up.
42:18
Constance: If you subscribe to my blog, uh uh you'll get an email that will direct you to a site where you can buy the book for 20% off.
42:28
Cassandra: Oh, nice.
42:29
Cassandra: Thank you for sharing that.
42:30
Cassandra: Constancehastings.com.
42:33
Cassandra: Right?
42:35
Cassandra: That's that's well, Constance, again, thank you.
42:40
Cassandra: Uh, my listeners, I know this has blessed many of you.
42:43
Cassandra: And if you know of someone that it will also be a blessing, to please forward it.
42:48
Cassandra: Uh, it's on all podcast platforms, and you will can play it over and over and over if you like, but please.
42:58
Cassandra: And like I always say, Constance, to my listeners, I always say bye for now.
43:04
Cassandra: God bless you.
43:06
Cassandra: And Constance, I'll say the same to you.
43:09
Cassandra: Bye for now, and may God continue to bless you.
43:12
Cassandra: Thanks so much for being my guest.
43:14
Cassandra: And also with you.
43:15
Cassandra: Thank you.
43:16
Cassandra: Thank you.