Latest / The Wholehearted Enneagram Podcast / Retelling the Story | a conversation with Russ Ramsey

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Retelling the Story | a conversation with Russ Ramsey · The Wholehearted Enneagram Podcast

• 0:13
  SPEAKER_05: Hi friends, welcome back to the Simple You Hearted podcast.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_05: If you are new around here, I'm so glad you joined us.
• 0:20
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• 0:28
  SPEAKER_05: Like you, we desire to build the board with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength.
• 0:33
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• 0:38
  SPEAKER_05: Join us as we share inspiring stories and simple ideas from friends as they pursue life on purpose and for making the ordinary life extraordinary.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_05: I want to give a special mention of thanks to Christine Kels and her team for allowing us to use her beautiful music you're hearing in the background.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_05: Her words and music have been in my earbuds for a little over 20 years now.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_05: And if you've been a listener for a while, you know I've talked about her podcast and her last couple of albums, which have been our morning soundtracks.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_05: Seriously, you guys.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_05: If you don't have this Christmas album, The Thrill of Hope, you must go download it now.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_05: I find myself worshipping and celebrating along with it, and have yet to tire of its beauty.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_05: Oh, and this is trap number seven.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_05: I may or may not break out an awkward Irish dance in the kitchen when this one comes on.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_05: And the gifts for me, it's pretty funny.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_05: Today we'll be inspired by our guest restaurant.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_05: I'll also be sharing a wholehearted gift-giving guide idea for each and events guys.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_05: And I'll be bringing a meaningful minutes and after the months of our conversation.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_05: Happy Thanksgiving week.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_05: And I pray that you're enjoying all this travels and finding much to be thankful for as we was left on the past several months.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_05: I am so grateful to have us finds each share with us about the reality and beauty of the service adventure and the other.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_05: Not only happy by those days on the time of after, but he has helped us do with the message of the writ spirit.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_05: I have written a book towards one that's focused on other.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_05: I did feel like one more thing, but I have time to find out.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_05: In our epic, crazy pace we have to keep going to these days.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_05: It's important to keep first things first, and the meaning of our celebrations at the forefront of our minds.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_05: I know you'll appreciate hearing Ressa's wisdom, insight, and practical application for practicing ethics this year.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_05: Man, what kind of room are you in?
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_05: This is it's a really bad room.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: This is my um my writing room.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's a it's a little 10 foot by 10 foot shed off the back of my house that we when we moved in, we finished it off.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: And and uh yeah, so it's it's where I work when I'm working from home.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_05: Man, I stuck a little bit.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's close enough to the house that it has a you know Wi-Fi and all that just from the from the regular house.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: So that's that's it's I love this place.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_04: I need one of those.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_04: I know.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_04: I think they're calling that now a G Jad.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_04: Have you heard it's the G-Jad?
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, it's a heat or uh he's headed by the jumping thing.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, he chad, she judged terrible.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_05: It's bad.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_05: Oh man, we were just listening to our Christmas music, our opener, so we could get jazzed because it's Christmas time.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_05: We're gonna talk about Christmas.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_05: I'm so excited.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_03: Here we are.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, this is gonna be good.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, so I want to just dive in um because we're starting out our Christmas season talking about, I think, the most important thing that we could talk about for the holidays, and that is Advent, the meaning of it, some of the history, why it should be important to us, because I think some of us are just ignorant and we didn't grow up with the term or have any idea.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_05: So, and that's kind of what we're talking about.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_05: And I think you're one of the experts out there on it.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_05: Um, your background is well, you want to share a little bit with my friends what your background has been and what you've been working on the last few years.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so um I am a pastor and an author.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I pastor Christ Presbyterian Church, Cool Springs in Nashville, Tennessee.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: And we've been here for uh a while.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, my wife and I have been married 23 years.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: We have four kids.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, and uh and uh yeah, so I pastor and write.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: Uh that those are my main my main things that I do.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_05: Just a few things.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, come on, pastoring is enough.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, it is.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_05: I grew up as a pastor's kid, so I know a few things.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_05: Yes.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_05: Uh-huh.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, it's a lot of work.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, it is.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: But I it's but I love it, man.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: I love the work.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I love being with people, I love getting to be people's pastor and studying.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_05: And um so what is is it pastoral care or do you do sermons every Sunday?
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_05: What does that look like?
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'm uh the lead pastor of one of the sites of Christ Press.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm okay.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: I pass I preach every week.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'm you know, for folks who come to our site, I'm the pastor they know.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: So you know, so I I preach, I teach, I meet with people, I you know, that's that's kind of my my area.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: So sorry, I'm gonna fix this collar.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_05: No, you're great.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_05: No, that's fine.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: There we are.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_05: So uh and then you've been writing, and I know part of the writing has looked like joining up with He Reads Truth.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_05: Um I'll we've talked about She Reads Truth with my friends about having because it has some great um Bible study plans and all that.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_05: So you you kind of got invited into the process of giving direction to that?
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right around the time they were launching um He Reads Truth.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: So She Reads Truth is kind of the parent company, and there's He Reads Truth and Kids Read Truth.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and right around the time they were launching the He Reads Truth side of things, uh they reached out and asked if if uh actually I met Rachel and Amanda because I noticed a lot of people in my church were reading She Reads Truth and I didn't know who they were.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and so just kind of out of curiosity, like, yeah, totally, totally.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: Who's who who's discipling my congregation?
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and um found out they were local uh and that uh we were very theologically aligned and uh uh and just kind of through that I was in a transition um with the church I had been at.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: And uh so they brought me in uh to start doing some writing and editing for He Reads Truth, and then over time that developed into um a full-time role there where I was the content director for the study plans uh for both He Reads and She Reads and working with the kids read team as well.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um so I kind of I was one of the uh leaders of the editorial department.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: So um and I did that until I I did that full time until this past July when I when I went to Christ Praz to be full-time there as a pastor.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: So I love I love the stuff that that she reads truth and he reads truth does.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um just helping people be in scripture you know uh throughout the week um every day is is a beautiful thing.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, they do an amazing job.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_05: Not only is it sound theologically, but it's beautiful too.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_05: And yeah, it's you can't always find that combination.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_05: So they're no, it's really it's really remarkable.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: Their their design team is all in-house and it's uh just really deeply talented people.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_05: Okay, so where did you you recently uh I think it's released and also re re-released some of your books.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_05: When did you find time to write those and what prompted some of the writing?
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, okay, so so the books, so this past July, that's what it was, July, um, University Press uh released a trilogy for me of uh it's called the Retelling the Story series.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: And so there's The Advent of the Lamb of God, which is the book I think we'll talk about today.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the The Passion of the King of Glory, uh, which is a kind of a Lint focused book, and then The Mission of the Body of Christ, which is uh and all three of the books are narrative retellings of the story of scripture.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um so they're told in a storyteller's voice, so it's not, you know, Russ the author writing to you, dear reader.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's it's more of a once upon a time um kind of a voice.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason I did it is because just as a pastor, I noticed I've noticed that we're just in an increasingly biblically illiterate time, um, which I don't mean that as an insult as much as just a statement of fact.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: But the truth is there are a great many people in church today have never read the Bible.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so you know, so what I wanted to do is I wanted to create a biblical literacy tool for people that would help them just uh have a sense of the story of the Bible, um, because I think understanding scripture, a lot of that hinges on understanding the story.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and so much of the Bible is told as a narrative.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: And so um in the interest of hiding scripture in the heart, I think one of the ways that we hide scripture in the heart is by way of the imagination and that you you know, through through a well-told story.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so I tried to just kind of round up the story of the Bible into these chapters that would that would kind of walk a person through it.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: And um so I released uh the first book um in under a different title back in 2011.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: And then um, and then the second book I released under a different title with a different publisher and 2014 or 15, somewhere in there, and then uh but Inner Varsity got both of those previous books and then the third one.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um so it's fun to have that trilogy all with the same with the same publisher and University Press is great.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, no, that's super great.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_05: I think we need more of like you said, getting the full picture, like the big God story, and understand it for ourselves in the context and and read it, read it to where kind of just how we read books now and story now and oh totally, yeah, yeah.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely to put it in language we understand, I think is a challenge.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_04: It's something actually, you know, um, because Eugene Peterson just, you know, had passed away.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_04: And I was reading about that, and it just made me so sad.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_04: But and one of the things I was reading, he was talking about that, that one of the great challenges for every generation is to put scripture in language that we understand.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_04: And so, which is why he wrote the message.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_04: It wasn't just to make it like more fun and like low-key.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_04: It was like it was a labor of love to put the Bible into language people can get and grab in their in the current, you know, the modern way we speak, I guess is what I'm trying to say.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: He's been a huge inspiration to me, just the way that he writes, the way he cares about the Bible, um, cares about scripture.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think he's he's just given the the church uh a great um wealth of resources in his in his writing.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, when I think of myself as a um, you know, I'm a relatively young author uh by comparison to somebody like Eugene Peterson.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: And when I think about you know the kind of writer that I I you know aspire to be over the years, I think, man, if I could stand in the foothills of of some of the things that he has he has done, um that would be that would be just an amazing, uh, amazing thing.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um what a what a gift and what a loss.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_05: He definitely was a forerunner, I think, to what a lot of us get to do, the privilege of how we communicate scripture and all the new translation.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_05: I know that uh she reads truth, he reads truth, uses a lot of the CSB, which you know is newer, and I I believe the message paved the way for that.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_05: And then now the passion translation, which I'm loving, you know, exploring um now too.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_05: All of that is we have him to think.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_05: And even just so so many ways that um scripture is incorporated in a lot of non-fiction Christian books, it just makes it so you know seamless um to read it and go, Oh, yeah, we just read scripture, you know, you just shared scripture in such an easily digestible way.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_05: So it is.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_05: He was um a great, great man.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_05: So um, well, back to your writing and your trilogy, and that's kind of fun to release a trilogy.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_05: That sounds so C.S.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_05: Lewis, J.R.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_05: Tolkien.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's uh I was I was thrilled that they that they wanted to do that.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: That was that's pretty pretty fun.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_05: That's awesome.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_05: Well, give us a little background on your experience and understanding of Advent.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_05: And last year when we shared, we kind of talked about um there being holy days in the church calendar and ordinary days.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_05: And oh, I think it's so beautiful how that can frame our life if we understand that.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_05: And I think many of us grow up in the non-denominational, or that's what a lot of our experiences are.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_05: So share a little bit about that and and just your understanding and growing of understanding of Advent.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: Well, uh, so Advent, the word Advent means it comes from a Latin root that means coming to.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: So the so the idea of Advent is you're celebrating the coming of Christ to us.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so God with us um is is the the key idea.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: And different denominations observe Advent in different ways, which I think is very freeing because it means that that there's no one right way to observe the season of Advent.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: But basically what it is, is it's a time leading up to Christmas where you intentionally focus on the story of the need for and the coming of Jesus.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_05: And so you So do you know what the date is for this year when it starts?
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's the it it it officially on the liturgical calendar, it starts four Sundays before Christmas.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: So find find Christmas, Christmas Day, walk back four Sundays, and that's your first Sunday of Advent.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_03: All right.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, some now some people uh observe Advent differently, and they do like an Advent calendar where they're just it starts December 1st every year.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's just 25 days.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so my book is 25 chapters, and and I did that on purpose so that you could read one a day um during the month of December, and it would, you know, prepare you to as you kind of walk through the biblical story.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, because sometimes December 1st happens, and depending on what advent, you're like, oh no, I'm behind already.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, exactly.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_05: And I don't like to feel that way.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: I grew up in a in a Catholic church, and so we were all about the liturgical seasons, and then and then um went to a non-denominational church for a while after that, which we did not do anything really liturgically.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: We didn't have an advent calendar.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um uh, but you know, I mean, the people love anticipating Christmas.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's it's uh there's something about from the time we're children that we just you know look forward to that day so much.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, we kind of measure time by, you know, especially when you're a kid, you kind of count down the days to Christmas.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I think that's one of the big ideas of Advent.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: If I were to summarize Advent into two kind of operative words, they would be remember and anticipate.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that you remember during this season of Advent what's happened.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: You remember the need for the coming of Christ, and then you remember the story of his birth, and you remember um Christmas's past, you know, your own context of celebrating this season, you remember um why he needed to come in the first place, and uh and so you do that, but you also anticipate not only the coming of Christmas Day, but we live, you know, if you if we're to take the word Advent l quite literally, the truth is we live between two Advents, you know.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: So there's there's the first coming of Christ, and then there's his return that that hasn't happened, you know, that and there's a lot of different theological views of you know how that's gonna happen, but the one thing that's clear is it is going to happen.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, for each of us someday.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, and and so there's a you know, so there's this this when you think about it, we live in a really strange window of time in history.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: We live between the first and the second coming of Jesus.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, uh, I that's the other thing with Advent is we we remember his first coming, and it helps us to anticipate his return when he will come not as an infant, but he will come as the reigning king, and and you know, all every sad thing will come untrue, as J.R.R.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: Tolkien um put it.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: And uh so part of the work, I guess, of observing a liturgical calendar uh that has something like Advent or Lent in it is that we're intentionally doing the work of remembering where we're from, where we've come from theologically, uh, what's happened in history on our behalf.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we remember uh in a kind of a cumulative way um what Christmas is about.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so from the time we're little kids, we start learning the story of Christmas and we know that this is about the birth of Jesus.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: And then the more that we intentionally focus on it, uh the more we read scripture, the more we, you know, are part of the local church and and uh you know studying the need for and the coming of Christ, the more cumulative effect it has on our understanding of what this holiday is all about.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: And so it gets richer and deeper for us.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um and Advent, observing a season of Advent, whether you do it with the four weeks leading up to Christmas or you just do it, you know, kind of on a daily basis during December, um, is really uh kind of a spiritual discipline of training training your heart and mind to slow down and to intentionally remember and reflect on why Christ has come and to long for um that day uh to come again, but also to long for his return uh again.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_04: I think that's one of the beautiful things about Advent is it's a time to acknowledge the tension we all sit in between what has been and what is supposed to come.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_04: And it's really um there's a lot of beauty in it, and then there's also a lot of difficulty in it.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_04: So Advent is the perfect time to sit and acknowledge that and then but acknowledge it with hope and expectation as well.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it is it's interesting how how seasons like this can be some of the most joyful seasons and also some of the most painful.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's it and it really speaks to uh to kind of I think the importance of observing a season like this or or giving attention to to something like Advent is because the truth is um even though Christ is is you know is the the the one and reigning king and all all sickness and death and crying and mourning will be done away with, right now we live in a world that's very broken.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um and celebrating a holiday, uh whether it's Christmas or a liturgical season or an anniversary or birthday, you know, any of those things, um, Mother's Day, Father, you know, these are the kinds of of times that that um are on the one hand celebration, but for many of us also reminders of the brokenness of the world and and um uh and but I but I think there's something important about that.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: There's there's something important about remembering and observing um not just the joy but the sorrow.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and to do it with the hope of knowing that that part of the reason that you celebrate Christmas and that you dig into that story is um the the savior of the world has come.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um and we need and we need saving uh in a myriad of ways.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_05: So what are some of the practicals that you personally practice the remembering and then also encourage your congregation to remember and to sit in that?
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_05: Because I feel like it's so busy.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_05: I think that's yeah, that's like the trick of it and observing Advent is there's all these things we're supposed to be doing, but yeah, remember takes time.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there's a couple things that I do and encourage other people to do.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, one, and this applies not just to Advent, but I think to to anything, is um avail yourself of the opportunities that are given to you.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so go to your Christmas Eve service, go to your candlelight service, uh, go to those services that that at church that people are putting a lot of energy into um really celebrating this season.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: You know, people are working really hard to give you to give you something to go to to help kind of set your mind and your heart right.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: So take advantage of that.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um and you know, so I'll encourage people to do that.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: Go to church.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, it sounds like something the pastor would say, but I mean it's so true.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, it's it's there's something, I think there's something about the rhythm of being a believer in the con in the in the you know, in community with other believers that's so important.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um and it's God's idea, right?
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: He he gives us the the local church.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: He says, You're gonna be a hot mess, uh, but you need each other, and I'm gonna change the world through you, you know, and um and so it's it's a it's a beautiful thing.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: Some of the other things I do, and I, you know, I'll encourage people to do is to um return to familiar scriptures in unfamiliar ways.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: So uh so what I mean by that is I will read out loud um the first few chapters of Luke or the first couple chapters of Matthew during the Advent season, and I'll do that a number of times because normally I don't read it out loud.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I read it in my head, you know.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: And uh there's something just different about speaking words uh in reading out loud where you will just see things or or understand things in ways that maybe you wouldn't if you're just reading silently.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um or read to somebody else or have somebody else read to you, you know, like like you know, if you're if you have a family in in and you're around a dinner table, maybe you know, pick a chunk of of a familiar biblical story that has to do with Christmas and have everybody kind of take turns reading it.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um and you know things like that.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: I think I think just I don't know there's something about mixing it up.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's I guess it's like like you know when people work out, you know, you want to confuse the muscles and do things differently a little bit and it causes causes you to grow.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: I think that happens to us spiritually too.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_05: That's um yeah we're gonna be talking um to an author Laura Ritchie about um her Advent storybook for kids but I have found a renewed um sense of joy in doing Advent with my kids because it's been different different than just me reading and a reading plan in my head or you know just trying to figure out what that looks like because I want them to participate and understand the meaning of Christmas and so you know reading those stories out loud and seeing them oh how you know this author showed me how these stories connect and they tell the whole story definitely has um been a really special part.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_05: Now getting them to sit and listen isn't always successful but right snacks help I've I glean something from it that's awesome.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_05: That's good.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_05: But I think too like you said community doing things with community um also helps I think curb the the edge of the pain sometimes we feel in loss I think a lot of us I mean we if we we're alive we've experienced loss in some form or fashion and some of those you know feelings are a little more heightened during the holiday season and so when we do gather with people who love us and who are present and want to be present for us it can can definitely encourage us along the way through the season for sure friends I'm interrupting this holiday conversation to tell you quickly about something I think you'll find very helpful for the new year.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_05: I know I can't believe we are only five weeks away from 2019.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_05: I have been following Beth Ann from a brilliant business mom and taking notes on her planner tips and tricks for a while.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_05: And right now her 2019 planner is on sale and for those of you working inside high school or working from home or design to be more intentional with your time you'll want this planner.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_05: Now I admit one of the many things is to create my own planner for Simply Wholehearted but in the meantime this planner is a beautiful option and it gives me plenty of room for everything well almost everything that is going on in my brain.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_05: So you can check it out for yourself at the link in the show notes and if you order Simplyhearted gets a portion of the sales which will help produce this podcast.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_05: Thank you so much for your support okay so we're we were talking about uh remembering what's kind of the next step um towards celebrating what does that look like because I think I that was my biggest takeaway last year is learning how to celebrate and I'm going into to be honest I stuck struggled with depression around this time of year every year and I could not figure out why and I finally identified it a few years ago but it took me a while longer to figure out what to do with that knowledge and so last year I felt an experience of breakthrough and this year I'm ready I'm ready to put it all into action but talk to us about celebrating and how does that look like you know as we continue in the tension between the advents.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: Well I think man uh I resonate with you I I deal with depression and and the holidays and seasons like that or times when it can um uh make its presence known in ways that feel a little just more intense than other times.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um you know I think when it comes to celebrating we live in a culture where there's a little bit of a lost art to celebrating.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: People don't um I think what we know how to do is we know how to go to a party but that doesn't mean we know how to celebrate um you know that that that if somebody you know says hey I'm having a birthday party would you come um a lot of times we stop short at with just kind of the idea of am I am I free um and can I go to your party but what the person has asked you whether they realize it or not is they've asked will you come and and be close to me and celebrate my existence you know will you will you come and and celebrate with me that I'm alive um and that I and that you're I and I'm asking you because because our lives have intersected in some ways that that it would make it you know matter to me.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: And and so I say that to say Christmas can any holiday season I think anniversaries are this way too where they can kind of creep up on you and you you can feel the pressure of man we I really want to get it right this year.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: But so much of celebrating is uh um kind of happens in the heart uh and for the believer it happens between that person and the Lord before it happens between that person and any other individual or an event that they go to um and I think a big part of of you know during this season people will talk rightly about the need to to slow down and and not just get you know consumed with with commercialism or or all those things which is which is important.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: But I think it it it's kind of it's it's on it's between me and the Lord to to have a heart that is that wants to celebrate something.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of that is preparation um before I go to the party you know so before I go to the worship service or before I go um you know downstairs to open presents with the kids or whatever uh that there's a part of there's an important part of that process that would involve me asking the Lord hey prepare my heart to enter in uh to engage with what's happening here to um to really connect with the joy of of what it is we've gathered for um and so I think you know look a lot of the answers to how to live the Christian life come down to some very basic things um being in scripture praying being a part of a local community of faith um those are kind of the jeans t-shirt and sneakers of the Christian life right they never go out of style you know prayer scripture in the local church um and uh you know I think I think that the times when when holidays kind of get out of control or get away from us are when we book ourselves out of being a part of those things uh and we get a little unmoored you know and we're just kind of drifting and we don't really know which way's up anymore or you know um and so I you know it's it sounds simple to say but it's but I think I think the answer to how do we celebrate is we is we have a rhythm of intentionality um before the Lord with his word and his people.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: And we and we even if it's just on a drive to something to just in the car pray Lord prepare my heart to to engage with what's happening.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: And on the um you brought it up but it's dear to my heart is is the um dealing with you know what if I'm not in the mood you know whether it's depression or just hey I've got you know I'm overwhelmed I think that's okay you know I re I think I think it's okay to show up to something not in the mood to be there and to own that.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: Which you don't necessarily need to tell everybody or you know that t-shirt that says sorry I'm waiting I didn't want to come.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yes this is true you don't you don't need to be we don't need to be passive aggressive like that necessarily but but I think I think there's something to you know that I think those are the kinds of things where when we when we get home later we're glad we did.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_00: We're glad we went yeah um we don't regret having done it yeah and so a lot of a lot of celebrating is is really kind of the practical work of showing up for something um and remembering why you've come yeah there is an art to celebration and I think as we create art it takes practice and it just takes intention and trying lots of different mediums in my experience personal experience so that's good.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I think some people don't even feel permission to celebrate like they just literally don't know how to let loose enough to enjoy something or or um you know it's funny I had a professor um in seminary who said uh if you are invited to a birthday party um he said you must go uh you you must go and uh which you know okay that's that's a bit of a but his point was you're being invited to something that's profoundly meaningful the existence the existence of an image bearer of God and they're asking you to come celebrate that you got to go do that.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: And he's and he said one of the challenges he gave that I thought was pretty uh pretty good and it comes up from time to time is he said when you're in a restaurant and you hear that familiar clapping coming from you where they're they're bringing out a a sombrero or a cake or something to somebody at a table nearby and they ask everybody to sing happy birthday to the person.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: Sing happy birthday to the person.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: Oh that's you know be be one of the people um who just takes a minute and and you know loses yourself in the moment and sings happy birthday with you know with everybody else because because something some something theologically sacred is happening in that moment.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_00: That's um even if you don't and it's it's funny because it it happens and I you know I'm I'm an introvert and I don't really like doing that kind of stuff.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_00: Uh-huh but there we'll be sitting there we'll be sitting in the restaurant and I'll find myself going you know yeah right clapping because I've been told to yes yes so funny.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_05: It's good though because we're celebrating we're choosing to look past our circumstances maybe we're not having a good table conversation but then we remember there's still joy to be celebrated.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah you know someone else is and it's you know celebrating and sharing their joy even if it's not for us to own in that moment we can and then it moves our heart to a different place sometimes it's a miracle of it.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah that I mean that whole rejoice with you know weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice is is a command you know it's a do this I would have never applied it the way you just did but actually yes really good it's really good I love that and it's it's something to ground you it grounds you in something deeper than your circumstances or like the actual I don't know like the Christmas morning or the you know the the party you're walking into and just even taking time beforehand to talk to the Lord about like I don't I don't really want to be here.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_04: I'm not in the mood I'm not feeling it or I don't even know how to celebrate but I want to know how to celebrate but just to ground yourself in something deeper than just this one party like what's the purpose of the party you know I don't I don't know and to look past like Christmas for me sometimes makes me realize like wow there's a lot of dysfunction in my family here you know and I just said that on interview but like we all have it okay I'm not pointing fingers at anywhere you know I'm very dysfunctional.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_04: Okay so so but you feel like you're traveling you're doing all these things you're like wow I feel like I'm under a microscope right now and all my dysfunction is hanging out and so but if you can look past that and look look deeper into why are we here and what are we celebrating and God where are you in it and and help me and you know and even seeing the people around you and celebrating the people the humans the you know that Jesus died for that he came that he was born for I guess it changes the perspective it gives you something deeper to celebrate than this ham or turkey that's on the table and like your kids are fighting and you know what I mean?
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_04: I don't know I like that I like I like where you just went with that.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah I mean you remember you remember that especially during Christmas we when you're in the midst of whatever dysfunction your family comes with and it comes with some you remember oh we're here celebrating the fact that all of the dysfunction and the brokenness doesn't win.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_05: Praise the Lord telling you and it's I think that's the kindness of the Lord even as as he structured advent like you talked about remembering we do take time to acknowledge the pain and acknowledge um where we've come from and our need for hope and our need for Christ.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_05: But then but that you know so it's almost like he allows us to sort of get that out of the way so we can turn and focus on the right thing and and focus on the hope that you know we do have not only currently but also future future times the future hope we have yeah that's so good.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_00: So okay so your books take on more of um a narrative have you always been a storyteller is that kind of your bench yeah I think so I mean I I love writing I love I'm moved by story uh much I'm always I'm drawn to that uh very much um and uh I just I you know yeah so I I that's the way of writing I like to to write in.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_00: I I I don't think I'm I'm um kind of wired to write a lot of the Christian books that that come out that are kind of more the author addressing the reader um with kind of an outline format of something they're they're teaching.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_00: I I I'm thankful for books like that but but as a for me as a writer it's my approach is has uh been as much on the the craft and the art of writing as it is on the content.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_05: Is that how you preach as well?
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_00: I think it is yeah I ch I tend to think of so I'm a songwriter and so I I have a lot of background in writing songs and and I think of sermons a lot like songs.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_00: I think of them in terms of having verses and refrains and crescendo and and you know and so I'd I'd wow that's really cool I would have never thought of it that way.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah there you yeah I don't you know I'm not usually a three point uh person it's more linear.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_00: Uh usually I'll start in a place but and I'll I'll tell people ahead of time where we're going because I you know when I first started preaching I wouldn't tell people I would just do it start talking.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_05: And people think where is this going?
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_00: You know and I'd be confident that that oh just wait till the end it'll all make sense.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_00: But it doesn't always make sense to to somebody who's hearing it for the first time.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_00: I mean if I've had my head up in the sermon I know what the structure is but but uh that doesn't mean the person who's listening to it for the first time is going to get it.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_00: So um so I'll I'll uh and that's not their fault.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um so I will a lot of times tell people okay we're gonna talk about this and then we're gonna talk about this and then here's where we're gonna land.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_00: All right let's get into it.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um and uh but I I I think yeah I try to I believe that there's great power in words and there's great power in in careful turns of phrases.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_00: So thinking about how I word something when I when I preach there there are times when I will pretty carefully um write out how I'm going to say something uh in a sermon and I'm and and I'll practice delivering it just the way I want to say it because I know that that there's there's something um about uh carefully scripting something that can that can really kind of hit people in a way that that um you know just giving information doesn't so I you know so I I think about it I think I think story is a Trojan horse for truth you know I think you can get a lot of truth past the gates of cynicism um or suspicion uh through telling a story you know and so you can you know I the prophet Nathan is a great example with King David you know that he told David a story um and he got to David's heart you know about a sin with Bathsheba quickly uh before David realized what was happening you know to where David was invested in the story and said this person who has taken this thing that didn't belong to him he should be punished and Nathan said you're the guy uh that and then the light goes on um it's not just that he you know that Nathan told something to David that David needed to hear he told it in a way that not only did David hear it but it moved him to you know to go write Psalm 51 which is one of the most beautiful statements of repentance um in the Bible but that psalm you know came about because uh a a prophet had the the sensitivity to the Holy Spirit to speak to David in a story um and it and it got past the guards you know and and uh I so I I think story works that way yeah um yeah story can capture the heart unlike yeah being told even a specific thing and I think we we read scripture I think people just read the Bible differently than they read other books.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah I don't know if that makes sense but it's just kind of like when I have a page of scripture open in front of me my approach is I don't know you just you get familiar harder.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah you're like okay I've got to read this chapter.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_00: So you know I'll read it.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_00: But when you when you look at the the narrative of the Bible one of the things I did in my books there's hundreds of scripture references in the backs in the back of each of these books to tell to show you where I'm getting things from because I'm mining the text for detail that's right there on the page but you might skip over it if you're just reading um casually but but the detail is so rich and it's so emotionally like um loaded with with with content that should just make you weep.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so I I you know so I'm I I read and I look for those details those little turns of phrases those little things that are just kind of dropped in um because they're there for us to stop and say okay what why is this f phrase here or this why is this word why is this little detail given um it's given to so that I can imagine the scene better.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's so that I can imagine what's happening in a in a richer way.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_00: Because scripture is written in thrift.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's written you know that was before the days of kinkos and reams of paper.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_00: You know it was it was for something to be written down it was it was a costly thing and it was um there wasn't a lot of room and so writing was very terse and very uh very sparse and and uh so when you find little details in there they're there to help you you know they're there to trigger um the imagination and help you fill out the scene uh that's being described and so yeah we just gotta get through sometimes the numbers and then the names we can't pronounce right and if we kind of separate those out I always think about you know separating the shaft from the wheat if we can just separate out some of that then you can see those gems rise to the surface like you said the emotion the you know the content the just the rich like what the Lord wants to speak to us they suddenly you know rise above all of that but it did it takes some discipline and it takes yeah you know even reading in a different translation or kind of how you said yeah where you've taken it the opportunity to rewrite it in a way that's really easily digestible that you don't you kind of separated it out for us.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_00: Well that and that's that's a pretty good description of what I wanted to do is is to pull out the just the narrative because like if you read a book like Exodus for example um the first the first several chapters in the beginning are narrative right there the story of of the plagues and the burning bush and all that stuff.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_00: And then you get into this really important really valuable uh instruction for how to build the tabernacle the dimensions the measurements of things and then you get maybe another chapter of narrative and then you get more like okay now we're building those things and then you get another chapter.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_00: And so what I try to do is just kind of pull that narrative part out and put it together in a story form um trusting that look you can you you read the other stuff and it's no less important uh but it's but it but it but the way it's written you have to kind of pause a lot of times for 12 chapters before the story picks up again.
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_04: And that's for a per person who's new to scripture um that can be a little uh hard to understand yeah uh hard to hard to navigate okay what's happening here yeah and where most people give up right and go well yeah the Bible's one of the few books that people just pick up and read wherever they feel like it's like not from beginning to end or not even the beginning of a book to the end.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_04: It's like oh I feel this today.
• 42:46
  SPEAKER_04: And you're like well you have may not know what in the world happened back here.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_04: So it's great to have somebody put it in a story like pull out all the narrative and make it into a cohesive this is what happened.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah short and sweet and now you can go read this if you want the more detail and you want all that other stuff then you know brings it to life makes it way more interesting.
• 43:04
  SPEAKER_05: That's really good.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_05: All right for you during the Christmas season what helps you manage your time because as a pastor I know like you said people are putting a lot of time and effort into all these different sacred services and how do you you know manage the juggle of you know four kids and your wife and family and your own tradition and and church responsibility what what works for you during the holiday season?
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_00: Oh man that's that's a great question.
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_05: I don't know if I am the exhibit A for how to do this perfectly it sounds like maybe you have a wife who helps you with this and leisure.
• 43:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah very much we you know I think part of having four kids is we are able to decline certain things because there's just no way um to do to do everything.
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_00: But you know the truth is it's been Christmas is busy.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_00: And we uh we do take you know, we do kind of look at the calendar ahead of time and and uh identify some evenings where we're not doing something um during the Christmas season.
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll do that.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um but I don't I you know I think there are times during the year where your life has a bit of balance to it.
• 44:27
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and then there are times of the year when you don't.
• 44:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and I don't know that that's bad uh to be out of balance as long as you're not always out of balance.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so so for a lot of folks, um summer rolls around and things kind of calm down, you know, or uh, you know, you know, you get into February and there's not much happening in February, you know, it's just kind of a slow month.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but then you get into the holidays or you get into back to school if if you have kids or you are a kid, um, you know, or things like that where things kind of ramp up.
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I think you know, I I guess our family kind of takes a long view of are we healthy in our rhythm?
• 45:13
  SPEAKER_00: Knowing that there will be seasons where we need to get away and we will get away.
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_00: And then there are other seasons where we know, okay, for the next, you know, four or five weeks, uh, we're gonna have our heads down and we're gonna be just kind of working through a whole lot of things.
• 45:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I think, you know, I I think I think we we I think it's a um a bit of a a first world problem to try to have a life that's in balance.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um uh I think I think it speaks to having a lot of opportunity to do a whole lot of things.
• 45:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we have it, we have there's kind of an embarrassment of riches, you know, of opportunity and places to go and things to do uh that would that we have to figure out what what to do and what not to do.
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um I think that's a pretty recent recent development uh for human beings, you know, to uh to to be that way.
• 46:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so you know, I I try to, you know, uh I take a day off a week.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I have a I have a day off that I don't work, uh, and I protect that fiercely.
• 46:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um the only thing that will pull me out of that is a um, you know, if a if a holiday happens to fall on that day, you know, like I'm not gonna I'm not gonna skip Christmas Eve if it's on my day off.
• 46:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um you know, uh or you know, somebody's in the hospital or a marriage is in crisis.
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um but it I mean it has to be like you know, DEF CON level six, you know, before uh before before you can get me.
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um and then and then you know, and then and then I'll just know, you know, and and I'll just know that that's that's my my day and you know my I can be with my family then and then um and then there will be seasons where it'll be busy and it's not just me, it's you know, it's the kids and it's my wife and and uh all that.
• 46:57
  SPEAKER_00: So you know, maybe one of the ways we get through it is we don't put a ton of pressure on ourselves to try to have balance during those seasons where it just doesn't seem like it's reasonable, you know.
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_05: It's knowing your time and your season and your space, and yeah, like you said, like this isn't sustainable if it looked like this all year long, but we can do it with that rhythm of rest interspersed for you know the five or six weeks that it takes to see this through.
• 47:23
  SPEAKER_05: I think that's really good, and just the permission to know like it is, it's stressful.
• 47:26
  SPEAKER_05: But then January and February come and life halts a little bit, right?
• 47:31
  SPEAKER_00: It totally does.
• 47:32
  SPEAKER_00: It just yeah, it comes to a kind of a grinding halt in terms of you know, by comparison to what the December was like.
• 47:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, yeah.
• 47:40
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, we can look forward to that, like, oh January's coming.
• 47:43
  SPEAKER_05: Yes.
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_05: And when I'm bored in January or feeling like, oh, you know, I wish they were less ordinary, we'll be remembering, oh wait, it was crazy.
• 47:53
  SPEAKER_05: So how about for you for like again, like the soul care you said, I mean, sounds like you really observe a a day off a Sabbath for you.
• 48:02
  SPEAKER_05: Um, what is refreshing to you?
• 48:04
  SPEAKER_05: Is that writing?
• 48:05
  SPEAKER_05: Is that you know spending time in your what is it to call it?
• 48:08
  SPEAKER_05: He he carrying it.
• 48:09
  SPEAKER_05: He should.
• 48:09
  SPEAKER_05: He should.
• 48:12
  SPEAKER_04: He probably would rather not call it a he should, but whatever.
• 48:15
  SPEAKER_00: I call it, yeah, I call it my writing room.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, for me, uh uh writing is writing is to me what golf is to a lot of people.
• 48:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 48:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um I love it.
• 48:27
  SPEAKER_00: I I if I have a day off and I can go write two thousand words at a Starbucks, I'm I'm just happy.
• 48:34
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I I love doing that.
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um in fact that's how my books get written, is I just I like to write as a hobby.
• 48:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so um so I'll I'll do a lot of the writing of of my books just kind of when I when I can.
• 48:50
  SPEAKER_00: I'll I'll schedule really early meetings or on my day off, I'll schedule a few hours and um just work in those bursts and get that word count up uh over time and and before you know it, there's a manuscript, you know.
• 49:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um I love to hike.
• 49:04
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I love being out outdoors um and just kind of going off the grid a little bit.
• 49:11
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and so I'll do some short hikes around here.
• 49:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we have some parks in town.
• 49:16
  SPEAKER_00: So a lot of times on a day off, or even when I'm working, I'll take an hour or two, you know, somewhere in the beginning or middle of the day, depending on the day, and just go hike in a park, you know, go take a big walk.
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then I'll, you know, go out into the mountains sometimes and and that sort of thing.
• 49:31
  SPEAKER_00: So so between uh yeah, so and and then we you know our family has a couple of places we go to for family trips where we we we tend to be a family that doesn't um try to go to a new place every time.
• 49:44
  SPEAKER_00: We we have a couple places that we return to um that are that become familiar and we you know we're there it's really relaxing that way.
• 49:52
  SPEAKER_00: We know where we kind of know, oh I know what to do once we get here.
• 49:54
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, you know how to prep for it and plan.
• 49:56
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, yeah.
• 49:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's it's easy.
• 49:58
  SPEAKER_00: So um so yeah, we we we do that sort of thing.
• 50:02
  SPEAKER_00: But uh, you know, I I love I love getting out and and getting lost in the woods and and uh sleeping under the stars and that sort of thing.
• 50:10
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, that's good.
• 50:11
  SPEAKER_05: That's good.
• 50:12
  SPEAKER_05: Well awesome.
• 50:13
  SPEAKER_05: I cannot wait to uh encourage my friends to get their hands on your book and to read that um through this advent season.
• 50:21
  SPEAKER_05: I think it would be a great anchor if people are looking for a guideline and it like you talked about, like mix it up a little bit, read something different, read out loud, yeah, all of that, and to even you know, just share it with their kids.
• 50:36
  SPEAKER_05: And I don't know, I think it can be really fun to do it in a group and all that.
• 50:41
  SPEAKER_00: Oh well thank you, thank you for that.
• 50:42
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 50:43
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, absolutely.
• 50:44
  SPEAKER_05: Well, thank you for your time.
• 50:45
  SPEAKER_05: I love this season, I love getting to hear about it.
• 50:48
  SPEAKER_05: I I feel like I'm learning something new every year, and that is the beauty of it, right?
• 50:52
  SPEAKER_05: Where it's as we are in this waiting time and why we get this time in this space.
• 50:57
  SPEAKER_05: So it's really a gift from the Lord that we get to do this and observe this every year and take time to remember and to celebrate all that the Lord has done for us and that he's going to do.
• 51:07
  SPEAKER_05: Amen.
• 51:09
  SPEAKER_05: Thank you so much, Russ.
• 51:10
  SPEAKER_05: You have an awesome rest of the day.
• 51:11
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, thank you.
• 51:12
  SPEAKER_05: And a great holiday season.
• 51:14
  SPEAKER_00: You as well.
• 51:15
  SPEAKER_00: You as well.
• 51:16
  SPEAKER_05: Thanks.
• 51:16
  SPEAKER_00: All right, thanks.
• 51:18
  SPEAKER_00: Bye.
• 51:18
  SPEAKER_00: Bye.
• 51:21
  SPEAKER_05: Again, I'm so grateful to get to have this conversation with Russ Ramsey and share it with you all.
• 51:27
  SPEAKER_05: It'd mean a ton if you purchase his book and maybe even his trilogy set and message him that you're excited to read his work.
• 51:34
  SPEAKER_05: I know finding the time to observe the traditional readings and scripture of the Avent season will be a blessing to you and those you love most.
• 51:42
  SPEAKER_05: So, for today's meaningful minutes, I'm talking about practical ideas and ways to find time to keep the first things first.
• 51:50
  SPEAKER_05: Alright, number one, choose your Avent resource and stick to it.
• 51:54
  SPEAKER_05: Yes, I know there's so many options.
• 51:56
  SPEAKER_05: Definitely Russ Ramsay's book would be one of them.
• 51:59
  SPEAKER_05: Maybe he reached truth, she reached truth, and the book I'll be talking about at the end of this program.
• 52:05
  SPEAKER_05: Don't worry about the format, just find something easy for you to do.
• 52:10
  SPEAKER_05: Number two, write down when you're going to do your advent reading or listening.
• 52:15
  SPEAKER_05: Maybe morning, at lunch break, during your commute, but if you're doing it during your commute, better be a listening version, or maybe just before you fall asleep.
• 52:24
  SPEAKER_05: If you've picked out something easy for you to do, you won't want to miss a day.
• 52:29
  SPEAKER_05: Number three, do it with a friend, your spouse, and your kids.
• 52:33
  SPEAKER_05: Community and accountability helps you see something like this all the way through, and you'll be so glad you took the time to focus on the real meaning of Christmas.
• 52:41
  SPEAKER_05: Alright, I thought it would be a lot of fun to talk about how to be a wholehearted gift giver and how the Aneagram can help you achieve this.
• 52:50
  SPEAKER_05: Isn't that fun?
• 52:51
  SPEAKER_05: Instead of accidentally giving the gift you want, now you can give the gifts your loved ones actually want.
• 52:58
  SPEAKER_05: Today I'll be giving you ideas for the ones and the twos in your life, and then cover the other numbers in the following weeks.
• 53:05
  SPEAKER_05: But if you want ideas for all the numbers right now, you can download our wholehearted gift giving guide by clicking on the link on our show notes.
• 53:13
  SPEAKER_05: Now for the Amy Frame ones, they have a hard time knowing what they want for gifts.
• 53:18
  SPEAKER_05: Mostly this comes from their desire to ask for the perfect item.
• 53:22
  SPEAKER_05: Ones want practical gifts, others feel are way too boring.
• 53:26
  SPEAKER_05: Ones also feel pressure about giving the correct reaction.
• 53:30
  SPEAKER_05: So the closer you can get to what they actually want, the more excited they'll be about receiving gifts from you and let you know, yes, you can give them a gift.
• 53:40
  SPEAKER_05: Specific ideas might be a planner.
• 53:43
  SPEAKER_05: I know most of us would think, oh, that is so boring.
• 53:46
  SPEAKER_05: And one would normally buy a planner for themselves because they'll use it.
• 53:50
  SPEAKER_05: But they'll shop in the target aisle, they'll find something really functional and inexpensive.
• 53:56
  SPEAKER_05: But I promise you, if you have a one in your life who is a woman, she has her eye on a pretty new planner for 2019.
• 54:03
  SPEAKER_05: Find out which one and get it for her.
• 54:06
  SPEAKER_05: She will love it.
• 54:07
  SPEAKER_05: If she hasn't already bought it for herself for you to give to her, that is.
• 54:12
  SPEAKER_05: Okay, ones like experiences.
• 54:15
  SPEAKER_05: Something they wouldn't otherwise do for themselves.
• 54:18
  SPEAKER_05: Maybe like a conference that would spur on their hobbies, passion, or their purpose that they're developing.
• 54:24
  SPEAKER_05: Also, they like the expensive practical items.
• 54:27
  SPEAKER_05: I mentioned this before.
• 54:28
  SPEAKER_05: They want the practical items, but oftentimes the expensive version of it that they wouldn't normally get.
• 54:35
  SPEAKER_05: It just really makes them happy.
• 54:37
  SPEAKER_05: Now, an Amazon gift card, that can go a long way.
• 54:40
  SPEAKER_05: They can buy what's on their list without feeling guilty.
• 54:43
  SPEAKER_05: Quality time often wins out because the more stuff you give them, it means the more clutter.
• 54:49
  SPEAKER_05: And clutter to one, well, that's just not fun.
• 54:53
  SPEAKER_05: Okay, an Aneagram 2 is even less likely to tell you what they actually want and more likely to tell you to donate to a charity or organization they are passionate about helping.
• 55:04
  SPEAKER_05: So if you want to give a gift of a goat to a family in Africa, they would actually love that.
• 55:10
  SPEAKER_05: They also would really like something that can be shared or be beneficial to their close circle of friends or family while enriching connection.
• 55:19
  SPEAKER_05: So things like games, shared experiences, books that they can read and then pass along to their bestie.
• 55:25
  SPEAKER_05: And they have a thing for classic favorites, things that they can use again and again, and maybe something that they might run out of.
• 55:33
  SPEAKER_05: Some of their favorites that they like to use for just the right company.
• 55:37
  SPEAKER_05: Two's often do so much for others, giving gifts that help them mean a lot.
• 55:42
  SPEAKER_05: Maybe babysitting help, cleaning services, yard help, and even massages.
• 55:46
  SPEAKER_05: But you've got to put an expiration on it, and you might even need to remind them to use it.
• 55:51
  SPEAKER_05: They'll be hesitant to ask for help.
• 55:53
  SPEAKER_05: Remember, they're the helpers.
• 55:54
  SPEAKER_05: So don't be offended if they even re-gift because a two's not doing it because they didn't like your gift.
• 56:00
  SPEAKER_05: They'll just do it because they really wanted to help someone.
• 56:03
  SPEAKER_05: Alright, next week I'll be bringing you a conversation with Laura Richie and her book, The Avent Storybook.
• 56:09
  SPEAKER_05: It is bound to be a timeless class that you'll want to have in your home to enjoy with your kids.
• 56:14
  SPEAKER_05: We love it when we share our guests and episodes with our friends and family.
• 56:18
  SPEAKER_05: Invite them along for our special Advent season, and as we begin again in 2018 with more amazing inspiration.
• 56:25
  SPEAKER_05: So, until next week, join us on the socials as we continue to pursue perspective, purpose, and plans for a simply wholehearted life.