Latest / The Habit Lab / Making a Grab for the Apple- demanding a WHY from God

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Making a Grab for the Apple- demanding a WHY from God · The Habit Lab

• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: We all have areas in our life we might feel stuck or overwhelmed.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: So join me, Jenna Zint, habit coach, teacher, and follower of Jesus, as we go after little bits of better by building offensively small habits that create big impact.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: This is the Habit Lab Podcast.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, welcome to Habit Lab.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Jenna Zint, and this episode we are talking about something I've been pondering all year, 2026.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um I started in Genesis this year.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: I always have a Bible plan.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: Goodness gracious.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: If you're just listening to this and haven't heard me talk about get yourself a Bible plan where you plan ahead for the whole year.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: What it doesn't mean is you can't read other things as the Holy Spirit leads you, or your emotions, or it feels relevant to situations you're facing.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: But having a really clear anchored 10-minute or less at least um plan for the year has been seismic in my own growth of not rushing roo letting my emotions choose where I'm reading and even just seeing big patterns and trends.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: So that being said, this year we happened to start in Genesis for our reading plan.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: And um this stuck out to me so strong.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, if you've been around here and on this podcast long enough, you know that I love a good like motto, like a succinct phrase.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: And it was I was laughing because my dad just came to visit um a couple weeks ago and he does the same thing, and we were talking on the phone the other day, and it's like we swap our god motto mottos, and I was like, I think the older you get, sometimes you're like, I am my dad, I am my parents, and I didn't see it when I was younger, but now I'm like, we do the same thing.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: This is crazy.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: But one of the reasons I think we both like little motto slogans is partially because of our ADHD, how our brains wired, and bigger concepts.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: We could have these great concepts, but if we don't have a nail to hang them on, that's really easy to remember, hence like kind of juvenile sing song slogans.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it kind of can leave me.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: So if I have it almost feels like, you know, those t-shirts when you go on an epic vacation said, you know, says, I got the like this is my Mexico or Cabo souvenir, or I got this t-shirt in Paris or whatever.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: I went to Paris and this is my souvenir, etc.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I feel like those little slogans or mottos are kind of that for me.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: They like represent something so much bigger.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I wasn't planning on it, but I almost, as I'm saying this, I almost feel like Holy Spirit nudging me to throw that out to you.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: Like when you have a lesson you're learning with the Holy Spirit or an encounter you had, trying to um what's the word, distill it down to a succinct.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: I think sometimes one word is too um too vague.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: So for instance, for instance, humility or um submission.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: While I kind of think of that like that's like saying I'm in math class, but realizing like, oh, you might be in algebra, you might be in whatever, and then distilling it down to or actually learning this in algebra class, which is also math class.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but having these little distinct phrases that are your takeaways from what he's teaching you or the encounters you had, it really almost helps you collect them and recount them and steward them in a better way.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: So um the next time you have one just being like pondering, if maybe something pops into your mind, maybe you just ask the Holy Spirit, like, hey, help me like have a little tagline that is easy to remember from this so that it's not a one and done, but I can like I think about in the Old Testament how many times they're like, go and remember what the Lord has done here.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: And this feast was for remembering, and they built that altar for remembering.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: I think of sometimes the little slogans from those lessons as kind of my altar, my thought altars to come back to and remember.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so but I think it's available for you too.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: So if you don't do that, try it out.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: Holy Spirit's so great about that, and he can help you.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so that being said, when we were reading Genesis and Genesis 3, 6, when you know Eve famously takes the apple, and we're all like, dang it, don't it's like watching all of humanity fail in a moment.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: You're like, no.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's like in the horror movie when the guy goes outside to check to a weird noise in the garage, and you're like, don't do it.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: We know what's coming next.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: But um, in Genesis 3, 6, this scripture we'll get into a bigger view, but when the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye and also desirable for gaining knowledge, she took some and ate it.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: And there's so much packed into the good for food, like appetite speaks to appetite, pleasing to the eye, you know, beautiful, lustful, or uh, you know, attraction, appealing.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: And then, but the last one's really where we're gonna camp a little bit more, uh, desirable for gaining wisdom.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, where that is what I've been noticing the pattern in my own life, um, where it's like a pull towards understanding, it's a pull towards um almost like power, self-elevation, control.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: The root of it, they say like that portion of the scripture would be pride.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: But for me, noticing, I've been noticing, I've um thinking about how often desire like making a I call it okay, I'll just give you to my phrase.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: My phrase that the Lord has been helping me notice this pattern in my own life is when I go to make a grab for the apple.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: So Eve, obviously, like we're saying, she's going, she's grabbing the apple.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: And what that distilled down phrase means to me is when I am trying to gain control from God, either the situation, my family, my husband, my kids, X, Y, Z, whatever, or from the Lord.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: So either gain control, demand understanding, or my outcome, or yeah, I think it would be understanding slash explanation is probably the the thing we're gonna hone in on today.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: So it's what I want you to think about when you think, oh, I'm gonna want you to start noticing when you're making a grab for the apple.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: That is the phrase for all of 2026 that has been um rolling around my brain when I do it with Aaron, when I do it with the Lord, I'm like, okay, I'm reaching for some control or demand for my understanding or offended at me not being looped in as to the why.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: Like the why is often uh my how the grab for the apple shows up in my life.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: And what I want to like unpack it a little bit more is it this phrase means when God doesn't explain himself to you and it feels unfair, watch our tendency to make a grab for the apple.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so um getting back to the point of we're gonna disregard the first couple reasons that she grabbed the apple, that it was beautiful and it looked delicious, but this uh desire for control and gaining wisdom, um, man, it's interesting because, like, you know, uh the serpent comes in and she's not just hungry, she's actually interested in the access and the control that she hears the apple could offer her.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: And the serpent says something like, you know, God's holding out on you, um, you deserve to know it.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: He knows.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I think this to me, most of us longer-term Christians do this most often in our life when something is hard or there's like misunderstanding or mystery, so not full understanding, where this thing rises up in us that says, I deserve to know.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: He does, he, he needs to tell me.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: He owes me an explanation.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we could call it entitlement, we could call it pride, we could call, but it's this thing, and it's funny because I like I notice it rise up and it almost, I wouldn't say like legit demonic, but it almost feels like this what like you know, and the cobra's like, I'm like, oh, it actually kind of feels like that moment with Eve when the serpent serpent is whispering in her ear.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but the interesting part is that's often what's happening there is distrust is sneaking in.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: That like there's just some suspicion if there's mystery here.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: If I don't, I'm gonna make up an example.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: If I didn't get the job that I thought, like the like I maybe I even quit another job because I felt called to this field.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: And then I was in the third round of an interview and I was like, oh, this is you know how God's fulfilling his word.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: And then I don't get that job.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: What happens there is where we most of in the understanding the aftermath or the confusion or the mystery is I think where most of us make grabs for the apple, which it's this distrust.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: If you ask, if you ask why, actually, because of this really slow lesson of making grabs for the apple, of when I demand a why from the Lord, I've really tried to get away from asking him why.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: Because it represents, I don't think why is intrinsically bad, you know, as a kid of the Lord.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: But the flip side of, oh, am I demanding or am I almost putting the Uno card down of like, you need to tell me, you need to explain yourself.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, can I hold the pain of the mystery?
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: And even maybe like the impact of doors being closed or whatever that looks like in this metaphor, without almost like elevating my pain to offense of like, if this is gonna happen, you better explain yourself.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: Is kind of where I think we most often make these grabs for the apple.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: So I'll give you a few other questions, but I've just in the in the desire to change my heart posture to not self-elevate to God owes me an answer in the why because, and I'm gonna, you know, make him pay up or make a grab for the apple.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: I've been trying to just use other phrases for that feel humbler and more aware of him being God and me being Jenna, like human, other than why, so that it doesn't sneakily get into this peer-to-peer entitlement to explain the pain or confusion or mystery that I'm experiencing.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but anyways, uh with Eve's story, the temptation was obviously not just the fruit.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, gosh, that'd be have to have to be a great apple.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I cannot imagine a world where an apple in and of itself was the temptation.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: Meanwhile, I'm making brownies downstairs, and that that could be the temptation.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but the invitation that was tempting to her was to take control.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: So, how often in our lives do we make a grab for the apple when we don't understand in the waiting there's mystery, we're unsure something's being held back from us or we feel entitled to.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I think of it like us, I'm imagining when she grabbed it, it was like like a quick, because you know, when you're doing something kind of wrong, you want to do it quick or you don't want your conscience to kick in.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, oh, a grab for the apple.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: So to me, the modern parallel is how often we say, why?
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we we replay like Eve's story when we hit something that's painful or confusing and we demand again, entitled, gosh, mistrust.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: Like, why did you let that happen?
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: Why didn't you stop it?
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: Why didn't you save me?
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: Why didn't I get the job?
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, where we in my in my heart with the Lord and me realizing, oh, I feel entitled to know his reasoning.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like he owes me an explanation.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: And then if he doesn't, offense begins to grow.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: And just like Eve, we want wisdom on our own terms.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: So that would be access to wisdom.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I would say another term would be timeline.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like we're looking for understanding and wisdom and insight, maybe control on our terms.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: Understanding now instead of like if you don't holding the mystery when you don't make a grab for the apple, and you maybe even if you're maybe you don't have entitlement or this big offense or leaking pain when something takes a left turn rather than what you expected, like in the mystery and the unknown.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's not, maybe you're not so big.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: But a lot of times distrust can grow.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe you don't go to the pride of like I'm owed a response.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's more it slowly erodes your like, can I trust God?
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: Is he actually cruel that this left turn would happen?
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: I don't understand why, versus like it's almost like the other end of the spectrum of the graph of the apple.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm not gonna take the apple, but man, I don't know if I can trust the dad if if if I I don't if I don't get to have the apple.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um and how often actually demanding answers is actually disguised distrust.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: To me, that was like a big, oh, okay.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm not kind of noticed and narrowed out the entitled when I think he owes me an answer.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: But what about disguised distrust when I'm like, if I don't know why, then the only other equation I'm left with is you're cruel and you're like, ooh, okay, that is also there are other options.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, with this grab for the apple, I'm gonna go back to the entitled, you owe me an explanation for the pain.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: What I noticed is how that elevates myself to God's level, um, which is a deeper danger when I when I demand an explanation from God, I place myself to in this like peer-to-peer, like I was saying, posture with Him.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's like you owe me.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: And to me, I'm like, oof, instantly, um, I didn't have a grid for fear of God.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just something we talked about a lot growing up, but realizing like, oh, when I do this, this is evident of a lack of appropriate fear of God in my life.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: When I when I make a grab for the apple and demand a response or explanation that God explained himself to me.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so one of the things in this year, as I've been trying to walk this out and notice, is there's been a couple um YouTube uh videos about like the leadership of the Lord or I can trust you and your leadership's perfect, or even just really simple refrain songs that say stuff like, you are God and I am not, to just go after the like that root in me that wants to make a grab for the apple that thinks, you know, that elevates me, like God owes me that part of that part of me, that Eve portion of me.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, oh, you just need to remember, sweet girl, you have a phenomenal father who is crazy genus generous and loves you unconditionally.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: But in that, don't confuse being a peer with full access, with you have full access to his resources.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: Don't confuse that with being pure or his equal.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I've actually tried to, in noticing this own habit of mine making grabs for the apple, anchor myself in um kind of like more of a fear of God posture to to help change kind of the ecosystem in my heart that feels like he he owes me anything ever demands.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and some of the scriptures I was laughing as I was reading further along this year, we were read through Isaiah, um, with this idea of like an upside-down understanding.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's like when your kid tells you what you should make them for dinner, and then you're like, no, and they're like, why not?
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: And you're like, you just suggested chocolate cake.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like I shouldn't have to explain that.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: But you're like, you're not the one who bought the food.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: You're not the one who's making the food.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: Like, we are not on the same page here.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes I'm like, oh, where am I my where am I showing up to God in that relationship?
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: Like my kids when they're entitled and they don't understand the power differential, even though I'm a good parent.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: Where am I showing up like that?
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and Isaiah, there's this section I remember when we read it, I circled it and I was like, I called it the clay talking back to the potter.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: And it's I think it was like mainly Isaiah 45, but something along the lines like, does the clay say to the potter, what are you making?
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: Or um the pot say, Do you know nothing?
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you have this backwards.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: Like, are you even sure you know what you're doing?
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, Oh, going back to when I make a grab for an apple, it's usually me as the clay being like, I don't think you're in control here.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think you got this.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: And then going back to some of the scriptures that that remind me of my rightful position to step off of that entitled mentality of peer-to-peer and said, Okay, you who am I, a human, to talk back to the Lord like that?
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like, nope, you're God, I'm not.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: Like, that's just my little bit of reminder.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: What it doesn't mean is I have to dismiss or pretend like the pain isn't there, but the entitled to an explanation to ex you to explain yourself and the distrust in your character that that reveals or you know, points back to is anchored in, that's what we're talking about, uh, noticing in this awesome, we're world changers.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we have the mind of Christ, and there are things he's he doesn't he doesn't have to explain himself to us, and we get to still show up in trust and faith and belief.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but when I demand that God justify himself to me, I am shrinking him back down to my size, or opposite, you could think of it as inflating my myself to his size.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: And the the reality of the proper posture that we're most we're like meant to actually take with him is the trust over understanding.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: So I will give some questions.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's not like when things go sideways or there's mystery or it's a closed door or something you thought was going and it gets stopped.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mean you don't dialogue.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: He's not like a cruel dad, um, which I think most of us know.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: I think the sneaky part for me was to watch the grabs for the apple where in my familiarity and awareness of my full access to God, how I would feel entitled to him to explain myself in the in the mystery.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: So the awareness of like, I still ask some questions, but he doesn't owe me an answer.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: Can I be okay without making a grab for the apple and staying with the mystery and then the silence?
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like, and that goes back to do I trust him?
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: And then it doesn't mean it does it not hurt or would I like an answer?
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, oh, do I trust him?
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: And in order to do that, answer myself that question, like so I'm allowed to ask that, I go back and be like, Can I trust him?
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: Has he shown himself faithful?
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: And then I'll recount the different ways he has.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm like, okay, I will hold the mystery over here as I'm as I'm training myself to not make an entitled Eve grab for the apple.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: And then I will process my pain.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: But in the mystery of understanding this crazy plot twist, I will not enlarge, inflate my own importance to think you owe me an answer.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: I will instead then remind myself I can trust you even when I don't understand.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: And then if I need, if I need to remember that I could trust you, I go and do, I do that.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, go remember your faithfulness so you can.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's almost like going retroactively so you could apply it for this mystery, this question mark moment in your life.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: And then sometimes, and then I just go and like, you will probably show me in the future I can stay like pure-hearted in the mystery and the misunderstanding.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: No, you're still God.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: Like, this won't make me this unknowing, this lack of an answer, it's almost like a sealed envelope moment.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: Is it gonna make me question your character?
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: Because you've shown me too much of your character for me to demand an understanding for this one situation to not not play out.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: So, some of the questions that I have like tried to re-alter is like, just instead of why, like, hey, what are you doing in me through this?
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: So if it's hard, being like, why or why was it a no?
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: Just I think almost like when you're trying to unlearn a grab for an apple, like putting down the why and just asking, like, what do I need to know?
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: What are you doing in me?
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: What fruit are you forming?
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: Another simple question, I'll be like, okay, so that was a slammed door in my face.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: My next question could be like, what step do you want for today?
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like step.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: So instead of being like, wow, I thought that was the next four years, be like, okay, what's today?
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, other questions are like, what do you want?
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: What are you building in this season and how do you want me to help?
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: It goes back to this like remembering there's a power differential, and he's a God that does like looping me in and he does tell me things.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like appropriately holding your God, I'm not, and you like to talk and tell me things that are on your heart.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: So I have a few more questions, but basically I want you to remember the invitation to notice when you're making grabs for the apple and you're demanding a why, how we're elevating ourselves or feel entitled to see or understand what God understands.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: Be like, okay, can I actually in the mystery question mark, the unopened explanation, can I trust your character?
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: And if I need to remember if I can go back to faithfulness, because I don't want this demand of a why or God to explain himself.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want my grab for the apple to actually be a dislike slowly eroding my trust and my faith.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like, nope, nope.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: I can hold mystery and and be rooted in trust at the same point.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: So I hope that helps.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: I hope you hear my little phrase in your head where you're like, ooh, am I making a grab for an apple right now?
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: Am I being am I being an Eve in this moment?
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, there's grace, no condemnation, but notice your patterns, notice the layered deep um questions or heart postures that are often on there under there.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I pray that the Holy Spirit would bring you new levels of freedom and insight.