Latest / Salem Podcast Network / The Greg Laurie Show - Cissie Graham Lynch: Why the Church Has Weakened Women
Transcript
- 0:08Speaker 1: Life Audio.
- 0:11Speaker 2: I see this world where I believe the world has
- 0:15Speaker 2: lied to women. They've sold them this fake, counterfeit version
- 0:19Speaker 2: of strength. But I also believe the church has weakened women.
- 0:23Speaker 3: Okay, I'm here with a very special guest. A young
- 0:33Speaker 3: lady that I've known since she was a little girl.
- 0:35Speaker 3: Sissy Graham Lynch. Sissy, glad you could be here.
- 0:39Speaker 2: Thanks for having me, Uncle Greg.
- 0:41Speaker 3: And my wife, Kathy.
- 0:42Speaker 1: You never called me Aunt Kathy. Thank you.
- 0:44Speaker 2: I think in the South, everybody is always uncle.
- 0:49Speaker 3: I don't know.
- 0:49Speaker 2: I remember calling that as a kid.
- 0:51Speaker 3: It's sweet.
- 0:52Speaker 2: I like it.
- 0:53Speaker 1: It's so sweet.
- 0:54Speaker 3: I remember you as a little girl with your little pigtails.
- 0:58Speaker 3: You're a delightful little girl. Yes, you are. And now
- 1:01Speaker 3: you're a grown woman with so much to say. You've
- 1:04Speaker 3: written a brand new book. What is the title of
- 1:07Speaker 3: your new book?
- 1:08Speaker 2: Stand Steady.
- 1:09Speaker 3: And what is that about?
- 1:11Speaker 2: I had this after I had my daughter, Georgia, and
- 1:17Speaker 2: I had come out of this really dark stage. I
- 1:19Speaker 2: am very open about how I suffered with depression during
- 1:24Speaker 2: my pregnancy and stuff. But when I looked at what
- 1:26Speaker 2: we were in culture, I had gone to a few
- 1:28Speaker 2: women's conferences and And I couldn't really find my place
- 1:32Speaker 2: in ministry, not so much in work, but where do
- 1:34Speaker 2: I find myself in a Bible study and really learning
- 1:38Speaker 2: the word of God? And I couldn't really find that.
- 1:41Speaker 2: And I looked at what was happening in our culture
- 1:43Speaker 2: at that moment. And you looked at Roe versus Wade
- 1:46Speaker 2: had just been overturned. And at our Capitol, just women
- 1:50Speaker 2: were angry. They were hurt. They were mad. We had
- 1:53Speaker 2: a Supreme Court justice who couldn't even define what a
- 1:56Speaker 2: woman was. Mm-hmm. And I remember sitting in church and
- 1:59Speaker 2: I was coming out of this season of my pregnancy
- 2:01Speaker 2: and we had just been hit by a hurricane. And
- 2:04Speaker 2: I was exhausted and depleted and seeing disappointment in ministry
- 2:08Speaker 2: and seeing what was happening in our world. God just
- 2:09Speaker 2: put a question in my heart of what kind of
- 2:12Speaker 2: woman are you going to choose to be?
- 2:14Speaker 3: Wow.
- 2:15Speaker 2: Because it's a choice. We have so many choices to
- 2:17Speaker 2: make that every day we're making a choice that will
- 2:21Speaker 2: shape us for eternity. And we're all going to face
- 2:24Speaker 2: storms in life. We're going to face heartache.
- 2:26Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.
- 2:27Speaker 2: Brokenness, whether it's a cultural storm, whether we start to
- 2:31Speaker 2: see persecution here in America, the other people are facing,
- 2:35Speaker 2: whatever it might be. My heart was, I wanted women
- 2:39Speaker 2: to have a peaceful assurance that they could stand steady.
- 2:42Speaker 2: The storm can knock them around, but they could stand
- 2:44Speaker 2: there and face it. And I realized I had that
- 2:47Speaker 2: growing up with my grandparents and my mom and my dad,
- 2:51Speaker 2: their faith was never shaken. It doesn't mean they didn't
- 2:53Speaker 2: have spiritual warfare. It didn't mean that they didn't go
- 2:56Speaker 2: through very difficult times, but it was a steadiness. And
- 3:00Speaker 2: I've realized a lot of people don't have that. And
- 3:01Speaker 2: that's what I wanted in this book.
- 3:04Speaker 3: And for people that don't know, you have such a
- 3:07Speaker 3: rich spiritual legacy. Your grandfather is Billy Graham. Your grandmother
- 3:11Speaker 3: is Ruth Graham. Your father is Franklin Graham. And then,
- 3:14Speaker 3: of course, your brothers who are all in ministry today.
- 3:17Speaker 3: We have Roy. We have Edward. We have Will. And
- 3:20Speaker 3: then your aunt is, and grandmothers. I mean, you're just
- 3:23Speaker 3: surrounded by all these godly people. But you grew up,
- 3:28Speaker 3: I don't know, did you grow up with a sense
- 3:30Speaker 3: of you have to now go into ministry or you
- 3:33Speaker 3: have to be a certain person? How did that work
- 3:36Speaker 3: out for you?
- 3:37Speaker 2: You know, looking back, my grandparents and my parents never
- 3:40Speaker 2: put pressure on us. They never put this pressure of perfection.
- 3:43Speaker 2: It was, they kind of embraced when we would mess up.
- 3:47Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 3:48Speaker 2: Use it to shape us, that I'm so thankful for.
- 3:51Speaker 2: There was a lot of grace in my family, especially
- 3:55Speaker 2: from my grandmother and my mom. Now looking, you've just
- 3:59Speaker 2: mentioned all my family in ministry. I think that's the
- 4:01Speaker 2: last place my brothers and I ever wanted to be
- 4:03Speaker 2: was in ministry. I know as a teenager, I wanted
- 4:06Speaker 2: to be far away from the grand name. I really
- 4:09Speaker 2: struggled with what it came under the umbrella of being
- 4:12Speaker 2: a gram and all those expectations that came. Now it
- 4:14Speaker 2: wasn't put on by my parents, but about around peers
- 4:18Speaker 2: and the people around me. And I hated it. I
- 4:22Speaker 2: hated that I had a dad gone from ministry all
- 4:24Speaker 2: the time. I never wanted to be in ministry, but
- 4:27Speaker 2: here we are. And I never wanted to write a book.
- 4:29Speaker 2: That was the last thing. I think there's so many
- 4:31Speaker 2: Christian books out there, especially for women with very little content,
- 4:35Speaker 2: very little meat.
- 4:38Speaker 3: What do you think to this?
- 4:40Speaker 2: I think we've embraced this world of instead of discipleship,
- 4:47Speaker 2: we really just want kind of more companionship with friends
- 4:49Speaker 2: and family.
- 4:50Speaker 3: More therapeutic than theological. Yes.
- 4:52Speaker 2: We're in a therapeutic age. I talk about that in
- 4:55Speaker 2: the book.
- 4:56Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 4:57Speaker 2: But I did not want to write a book. And
- 4:59Speaker 2: also I didn't think like, wow, the world doesn't need
- 5:00Speaker 2: one more book from a Graham.
- 5:02Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 5:03Speaker 2: And here I am. God put it on my heart.
- 5:05Speaker 2: I really kind of put it on the shelf, like
- 5:07Speaker 2: didn't want to write it. And here we are.
- 5:11Speaker 3: But you have so much to say. I mean, you've
- 5:13Speaker 3: lived a unique life already. And I probably shouldn't ask this.
- 5:16Speaker 3: I know I shouldn't, but I'm going to ask you.
- 5:17Speaker 3: How old are you?
- 5:20Speaker 2: I just turned 40. Oh.
- 5:21Speaker 3: What is the age where you can't ask a girl
- 5:24Speaker 3: that any longer?
- 5:24Speaker 2: Is it 40? I don't know. We might be approaching.
- 5:27Speaker 3: You think it's 40?
- 5:27Speaker 2: I still feel so young. It's so weird. I can
- 5:30Speaker 2: remember my dad turning 40.
- 5:32Speaker 3: Yes.
- 5:32Speaker 2: And his birthday. It's weird to become the age you
- 5:34Speaker 2: remember your parents being when you were a kid.
- 5:36Speaker 3: Yes.
- 5:37Speaker 2: And that's really, that's a tough.
- 5:39Speaker 3: Just wait.
- 5:40Speaker 1: There's more to come. Those decade years.
- 5:43Speaker 2: You two have not aged.
- 5:44Speaker 1: Oh, you're kind.
- 5:45Speaker 2: I can remember sitting on Kathy's bathroom counter as a
- 5:50Speaker 2: little girl and watching her do her hair and makeup.
- 5:52Speaker 2: And at the time, I didn't appreciate it.
- 5:53Speaker 3: I still sit on the counter while she does it,
- 5:56Speaker 3: which is weird.
- 5:56Speaker 2: I didn't appreciate it. I probably just wanted to go
- 5:58Speaker 2: out and play.
- 5:58Speaker 1: I wish you would have said, I remember you pouring
- 6:00Speaker 1: over the word of God, sitting at her table, having
- 6:02Speaker 1: your devotions. But no, she's doing her hair and makeup.
- 6:06Speaker 1: I loved it.
- 6:07Speaker 2: And you know what? but it is true because from afar,
- 6:09Speaker 2: before we had podcasts and stuff, I remember like the
- 6:14Speaker 2: internet coming out and just searching Harvest. Kathy, I have
- 6:17Speaker 2: watched your ministry from afar.
- 6:19Speaker 1: Oh, thank you.
- 6:20Speaker 2: From Virtue Women. I've been following them for years. I
- 6:22Speaker 2: feel like I know all your leaders because I follow them.
- 6:25Speaker 2: You have created such a strong, when I'm talking about
- 6:28Speaker 2: women's ministry, you're one of the few that I truly
- 6:32Speaker 2: follow because it is your heart. to have women learn
- 6:35Speaker 2: the word of God.
- 6:36Speaker 1: A hundred percent.
- 6:37Speaker 2: And I've met women that have worked in some of
- 6:39Speaker 2: these publishing that have written Bible studies and they're told
- 6:42Speaker 2: to write it with less strength than a men's Bible study,
- 6:45Speaker 2: less rigor. And it's because women don't want it or
- 6:49Speaker 2: they don't think we're capable.
- 6:50Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 6:50Speaker 2: That has not been your heart.
- 6:52Speaker 1: No, not at all. As a matter of fact, the
- 6:55Speaker 1: word of God is what makes us stand steady. If
- 6:57Speaker 1: we don't know the word and you never are ready
- 7:01Speaker 1: for that unexpected event in your life. They come out
- 7:07Speaker 1: of the blue. Sometimes they'll blindside us. But when we
- 7:11Speaker 1: lost our son, Christopher, one of the things that I
- 7:13Speaker 1: was so grateful for, Sissy, was that I had this
- 7:16Speaker 1: foundation that I hadn't just read the passages of scripture
- 7:20Speaker 1: that says, God has a beautiful plan for your life.
- 7:23Speaker 1: He's thinking good thoughts about you, that all things are
- 7:26Speaker 1: going to work together for good. Those passages are absolutely treasures.
- 7:32Speaker 1: But I had read enough of the Bible and studied
- 7:34Speaker 1: enough of the Bible to know that suffering and tribulation
- 7:39Speaker 1: and calamity happened to God's people. And when I found
- 7:44Speaker 1: myself that day that we got the news that Christopher
- 7:48Speaker 1: had died suddenly in an automobile accident, what flooded my
- 7:54Speaker 1: mind almost like on a sped up reel was was
- 7:59Speaker 1: all those people in Scripture who had suffered too and
- 8:02Speaker 1: that they had made it through. And they became like
- 8:06Speaker 1: my companions on that journey. And so I always was
- 8:11Speaker 1: passionate about studying the Word of God, and I'm so
- 8:13Speaker 1: grateful for your Aunt Anne, Anne Graham Lotz, who really
- 8:19Speaker 1: instilled in me not just to read the Bible but
- 8:23Speaker 1: to understand it and apply it. But I also had
- 8:25Speaker 1: a mentor in Kay Smith who– lifted up the Word
- 8:29Speaker 1: of God as essential in a woman's life. And so
- 8:33Speaker 1: because of her model and example of teaching her women
- 8:37Speaker 1: as a pastor's wife, I just, by osmosis, said, this
- 8:41Speaker 1: is what we do as pastor's wives. We disciple women
- 8:44Speaker 1: in God's Word. So I had that foundation, Sissy, and
- 8:48Speaker 1: my passion for not only my life, my children, my grandchildren,
- 8:53Speaker 1: the women in our church, but women at large, is
- 8:56Speaker 1: for them to understand God's Word. because that's what helps us,
- 9:00Speaker 1: as you say in your book, stand steady. And I
- 9:03Speaker 1: so appreciated the fact that you used in your book
- 9:06Speaker 1: an illustration of when you were seven months pregnant and
- 9:08Speaker 1: the hurricane hit. And what you saw was a visible
- 9:13Speaker 1: representation of the things that remained versus the things that
- 9:17Speaker 1: were destroyed. Maybe share a little bit about that, because
- 9:20Speaker 1: I think that is such a great image for all
- 9:25Speaker 1: of us to have about our lives. You know, storms
- 9:27Speaker 1: are going to come.
- 9:28Speaker 2: I think of, you're talking about Kay Smith, I think
- 9:30Speaker 2: in my life, like Kay Arthur. And I had a
- 9:33Speaker 2: special relationship with her very late in her life. I
- 9:36Speaker 2: didn't know her. And one of the Bible verses she
- 9:39Speaker 2: challenged me with was in Daniel. And it said, those
- 9:42Speaker 2: who know their God will be able to stand in
- 9:44Speaker 2: strength and take action. And we as women in this
- 9:47Speaker 2: world and this culture we're facing, We want to be
- 9:50Speaker 2: able to stand and we want to be able to
- 9:52Speaker 2: stand in strength, but not just that, then be able
- 9:55Speaker 2: to take action in that. How do we move our feet?
- 9:58Speaker 2: And I remember after the hurricane hit, I've seen a
- 10:03Speaker 2: lot of natural disasters, especially with the work of Samaritan's Purse.
- 10:08Speaker 2: But when it hits your home and your neighbors and
- 10:12Speaker 2: every street around you and your family's homes, and we
- 10:15Speaker 2: went to Fort Myers Beach, which was across the bridge,
- 10:18Speaker 2: and our home was close to the water. And The
- 10:22Speaker 2: water got up to our house, but not in, thankfully,
- 10:25Speaker 2: because I was seven months pregnant and just only had
- 10:28Speaker 2: to evacuate for about two weeks. But when you went
- 10:30Speaker 2: over the bridge to Fort Myers Beach, there was nothing left.
- 10:33Speaker 2: I mean, it looked like a bomb had just been dropped.
- 10:35Speaker 2: And the only way you could tell that there was
- 10:37Speaker 2: a house there was this concrete foundation that was left.
- 10:43Speaker 2: And it just reminded me that the world can come
- 10:46Speaker 2: after us. The storms of life can shake us and
- 10:50Speaker 2: try to rip us apart. Yeah. But the foundation will remain.
- 10:54Speaker 2: And that foundation is knowing who God is.
- 10:58Speaker 3: So good.
- 10:58Speaker 2: And that's knowing his scriptures. And it really challenged me
- 11:01Speaker 2: then to really start studying who is God? What are
- 11:03Speaker 2: his attributes? What does he love? What is his design
- 11:07Speaker 2: for marriage and for family? Because everything the world will
- 11:12Speaker 2: teach us will be the opposite of God's word.
- 11:15Speaker 1: And sometimes even our own emotions, our own feelings, our
- 11:18Speaker 1: own mindset. the way we see and view things, we
- 11:22Speaker 1: have to remember that our emotions are not truth detectors.
- 11:28Speaker 1: The word of God is our truth detector. And we
- 11:30Speaker 1: have to bring what we're feeling at a given time
- 11:34Speaker 1: and what we're thinking at this time. And in this culture,
- 11:37Speaker 1: you know, we're swimming in it. It's hard not to
- 11:40Speaker 1: have some influence coming into your life. But if you
- 11:43Speaker 1: have God's word, which is that that straight plumb line
- 11:48Speaker 1: of which we take everything we think and feel and
- 11:51Speaker 1: we line it with the word of God. And I
- 11:53Speaker 1: think you named four kings. I don't know if you
- 11:56Speaker 1: remember if you wrote the book, but the four kings
- 12:01Speaker 1: that are, if I keep us from obedience, king feeling,
- 12:06Speaker 1: king trend, king think. And this one I thought was
- 12:10Speaker 1: really good. King comfort. And these are the different things
- 12:15Speaker 1: that we can allow to rule our lives, right? Our emotions,
- 12:18Speaker 1: our own mindset, what we think and what we evaluate
- 12:21Speaker 1: as right, as opposed to the word of God. King trend,
- 12:25Speaker 1: what culture is teaching. And then king comfort, which is like,
- 12:30Speaker 1: whatever's going to make me feel good and comfortable and
- 12:33Speaker 1: loved and all of that, that those things become The
- 12:37Speaker 1: guiding principle of our life rather than King Jesus.
- 12:40Speaker 2: And keeping us obedient to God's calling.
- 12:42Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 12:42Speaker 2: And because it's so easy. Like when we live in
- 12:44Speaker 2: a culture right now that I look at what parents
- 12:47Speaker 2: and the decisions they're having to make with their children.
- 12:49Speaker 2: And you don't want to make your children uncomfortable. You
- 12:52Speaker 2: don't want them to lose their spot on their volleyball
- 12:55Speaker 2: team or their basketball team because you're going to take
- 12:57Speaker 2: a stand. The world is so permissive. They're not going
- 12:59Speaker 2: to understand when we choose God's way and his design
- 13:03Speaker 2: and to stand on his truth. They won't understand it.
- 13:06Speaker 2: They'll mock it and they'll persecute it. And I don't
- 13:10Speaker 2: blame anybody for not standing in strength. It's not a
- 13:13Speaker 2: judgmental thing because none of us will know what we'll
- 13:16Speaker 2: do in that moment when the pressure truly comes. I
- 13:20Speaker 2: think of some of the legal cases we've seen in
- 13:22Speaker 2: our country, like Jack Phillips, the baker out of Colorado,
- 13:25Speaker 2: who just was living his life one day and it
- 13:28Speaker 2: flipped upside down just because he's so kind and he
- 13:31Speaker 2: was gentle and just didn't want to bake a cake
- 13:34Speaker 2: for a same-sex marriage. Maybe bake them anything else, just
- 13:36Speaker 2: not for their wedding.
- 13:37Speaker 3: Right.
- 13:38Speaker 2: Spent 12 years in legal issues. We never know what
- 13:41Speaker 2: we'll do in that moment. And the pressure comes after
- 13:43Speaker 2: our family and after our children. So that's why in
- 13:46Speaker 2: this book, I want them to prepare themselves. So we
- 13:50Speaker 2: go over these kind of disciplines, I call them. I
- 13:53Speaker 2: didn't know what to call them, attributes or disciplines. But
- 13:55Speaker 2: things I've learned from my family. I realized after my
- 13:57Speaker 2: grandfather died, I wrote down a list of things I
- 14:00Speaker 2: had learned from them.
- 14:01Speaker 3: Wow.
- 14:01Speaker 2: Because I came so much later.
- 14:03Speaker 3: So good.
- 14:04Speaker 1: You.
- 14:05Speaker 2: you know my grandparents better than I did because you
- 14:08Speaker 2: knew them for so long. I came so late and
- 14:11Speaker 2: I was just a child that it was after my
- 14:13Speaker 2: grandmother's passing is when I got married and I wish
- 14:15Speaker 2: I could sit down and ask her questions. I now
- 14:17Speaker 2: have to read her writings to learn from her.
- 14:19Speaker 3: Wow. Well, thank God they're out there.
- 14:22Speaker 2: Yes. So I just wrote these like kind of attributes
- 14:24Speaker 2: of disciplines that will prepare us for that moment. Tammy
- 14:28Speaker 2: Jo Schultz, who's a pilot, she was the Southwest pilot,
- 14:32Speaker 2: when the plane, an engine blew and they lost a
- 14:37Speaker 2: passenger had gotten sucked through the window. And in that moment,
- 14:42Speaker 2: she said, our habits on a good day will become
- 14:45Speaker 2: our instincts on a bad day.
- 14:47Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 14:48Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 14:48Speaker 2: And that's what I want. I wanted to prepare women
- 14:51Speaker 2: for those moments because we'll never know what's going to happen.
- 14:54Speaker 3: I think you really well, we're really well prepared yourself.
- 14:59Speaker 3: Not just by your grandparents. And I think the unsung
- 15:02Speaker 3: hero in your story is your mother, Jane. You know,
- 15:05Speaker 3: because we hear about Franklin. We hear about your brothers.
- 15:08Speaker 3: We hear about your grandparents. But Jane, when Franklin was
- 15:12Speaker 3: gone so much, she was there raising you. And it's
- 15:15Speaker 3: very similar to Ruth. Quite a very similar situation with
- 15:19Speaker 3: Billy traveling all the time. And I know Franklin missing
- 15:22Speaker 3: his father. But tell us about your mother. In fact,
- 15:27Speaker 3: your actual name is Jane.
- 15:28Speaker 1: Yes.
- 15:29Speaker 3: And, but you're known as Sissy. How did the name
- 15:31Speaker 3: Sissy come about? And tell us more about your mother.
- 15:34Speaker 2: Well, I am named after my mom, Jane, and my grandmother.
- 15:37Speaker 2: So it's Jane Austin. We're in the South. So we
- 15:39Speaker 2: have double names.
- 15:40Speaker 3: That's right. That's a great name.
- 15:42Speaker 2: So people that have known my mom, like my dad
- 15:43Speaker 2: would call her Jane Austin, but they called me Sissy.
- 15:46Speaker 2: I think there was pressure to name me Jane and,
- 15:50Speaker 2: but they didn't want that like three Janes walking around.
- 15:52Speaker 2: So day one from the hospital and they spell it
- 15:54Speaker 2: really funky. Sissy, C-I-S-S-I-E. Nobody gets that right. When I'm
- 15:58Speaker 2: here in Southern California and they ask for your name
- 16:01Speaker 2: at a restaurant and you say sissy, they're like, what
- 16:03Speaker 2: is it? I'm like, sissy, what? And my dad still
- 16:07Speaker 2: misspells my name. I think on my birthday card last
- 16:09Speaker 2: year it was C-I-S-S-Y.
- 16:12Speaker 1: Oh, no.
- 16:13Speaker 2: Spelling's not my strength either.
- 16:15Speaker 1: That's funny.
- 16:15Speaker 2: But you're right. My mom, she, my dad, and it's
- 16:20Speaker 2: so sweet because I hear my dad and he'll give
- 16:24Speaker 2: her so much of the credit of raising us kids
- 16:26Speaker 2: because he was gone. I never heard a mom complain
- 16:30Speaker 2: when he was gone, complain about his calling in life. And,
- 16:34Speaker 2: you know, when God calls a man to ministry, I
- 16:37Speaker 2: believe he calls the wife. And I'm sure you've seen
- 16:39Speaker 2: that in your own life. But God called my mom
- 16:43Speaker 2: to serve as well. And no, she's not an evangelist
- 16:47Speaker 2: on a big stage. She's not an evangelist out in public.
- 16:51Speaker 2: But she's been an evangelist in her town.
- 16:52Speaker 1: 100%.
- 16:54Speaker 2: In her hometown. She is beloved.
- 16:56Speaker 3: She's there.
- 16:56Speaker 2: She loves well. She has grace. And her yes was yes.
- 17:01Speaker 2: Her no is no. She expect us first time obedience.
- 17:04Speaker 2: She was a tough cookie. She was tough. You didn't
- 17:07Speaker 2: mess around with my mom.
- 17:08Speaker 3: Are you a tough cookie too as a mother?
- 17:10Speaker 2: Yes. I've had to learn a little more grace.
- 17:12Speaker 3: Now we have a man. You're married to Corey. And
- 17:14Speaker 3: you have three children. Tell us about your children.
- 17:17Speaker 2: Married my husband Corey. We met. He was in. Appalachian
- 17:20Speaker 2: State University playing football.
- 17:21Speaker 3: Got quarterback, right?
- 17:22Speaker 2: And safety, defense.
- 17:25Speaker 3: Right.
- 17:26Speaker 2: He was the farthest one back on defense, if you
- 17:28Speaker 2: want to think about that. He went on to play
- 17:29Speaker 2: in the NFL for about seven years. But we have
- 17:32Speaker 2: three children. I have a teenager, just one turned a teenager.
- 17:34Speaker 3: Wow.
- 17:35Speaker 2: And a 10-year-old and then a three-year-old. She's wild. Georgia Graham,
- 17:39Speaker 2: you've spent some time with her.
- 17:40Speaker 3: Oh, they're wonderful. Yeah, they're so cute. She's so full
- 17:42Speaker 3: of personality.
- 17:44Speaker 2: She does not lack in that area. But you're right.
- 17:47Speaker 2: My mom was just very steady.
- 17:47Speaker 3: How old is she now? Three. Three. I have a
- 17:50Speaker 3: plush toy yellow dog that I'm going to give to
- 17:53Speaker 3: her based on my cartoon character.
- 17:54Speaker 2: Well, when we traveled with you last summer, you had
- 17:58Speaker 2: a dog in your backpack.
- 18:00Speaker 1: Oh, that's right.
- 18:00Speaker 2: I can't remember.
- 18:01Speaker 1: You were barking all the time.
- 18:02Speaker 2: All the time you were barking.
- 18:03Speaker 3: And she believed it.
- 18:04Speaker 2: There was a little dog.
- 18:05Speaker 3: In your backpack. I can do a dog bark. I
- 18:07Speaker 3: don't even know if I can do it anymore, but
- 18:10Speaker 3: I'll try now. I guess I can still do it.
- 18:14Speaker 2: I have memories of you doing that as a kid.
- 18:16Speaker 1: I have memories. Oh, he never tires of the same jokes.
- 18:20Speaker 3: My grandkids all roll their eyes like, Papa, no. They
- 18:24Speaker 3: don't think it's cute anymore. I just embarrass them. But
- 18:27Speaker 3: so your mom was a tough cookie, as you said.
- 18:30Speaker 3: And so have you been a strong mother as well?
- 18:32Speaker 2: I think I saw these strong women in my life.
- 18:34Speaker 2: My grandmother, as you mentioned, the men were gone. My
- 18:37Speaker 2: grandfather was gone for months at a time. I can remember-
- 18:42Speaker 2: you know, both, I have different stories. I tell one
- 18:44Speaker 2: of my mom, um, I wasn't there for this story.
- 18:48Speaker 2: I think maybe I wasn't born yet. It came later
- 18:50Speaker 2: in my parents' life, but I was looking at this
- 18:53Speaker 2: old USA today, like magazine of my dad.
- 18:57Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 18:57Speaker 2: And it was telling a story of my mom. Wow.
- 19:00Speaker 2: I thought hilarious. I'm like, dad, of all the stories
- 19:01Speaker 2: you could tell us today, you're telling this one where
- 19:04Speaker 2: she shot the snake in the yard. And the little
- 19:07Speaker 2: country boy from Western North Carolina says, shoot it again, Jane.
- 19:11Speaker 1: Shoot it again.
- 19:13Speaker 2: But he was talking about God calling my mom. She
- 19:15Speaker 2: was a woman of strength. And she was just never
- 19:19Speaker 2: afraid of anything. Nothing really shook her. And I saw
- 19:22Speaker 2: that just in the women in my life. And I
- 19:25Speaker 2: see this world where I believe. The world has lied
- 19:30Speaker 2: to women. They've sold them this fake, counterfeit version of strength.
- 19:34Speaker 2: But I also believe the church has weakened women. And
- 19:38Speaker 2: what do I mean by that?
- 19:39Speaker 3: Interesting.
- 19:40Speaker 2: And it's not all churches.
- 19:41Speaker 3: Kind of the girl boss from the culture. Like, girls
- 19:43Speaker 3: are superheroes. Girls can beat men in fights. Like, come on.
- 19:47Speaker 3: But then in the church, it's this therapeutic, emoting feeling.
- 19:52Speaker 2: Bonding over traumas all the time.
- 19:53Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 19:54Speaker 1: Interesting.
- 19:54Speaker 3: Interesting.
- 19:55Speaker 2: And so that was really kind of the heartbeat behind
- 19:57Speaker 2: this book.
- 19:58Speaker 3: Yes.
- 19:59Speaker 2: And I don't mean that, not all churches. There's great,
- 20:02Speaker 2: wonderful women's ministries that are really teaching the solid word
- 20:05Speaker 2: of God. But as I mentioned, I would go to
- 20:08Speaker 2: these conferences and there was very little Bible teaching.
- 20:11Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 20:12Speaker 2: It was all emotional. Women are crying around me and bonding.
- 20:15Speaker 2: I'm like, I'm not feeling it. I'm like, I have
- 20:17Speaker 2: no emotion. I'm not feeling it. I just want to
- 20:19Speaker 2: study the word of God.
- 20:20Speaker 1: I'm here.
- 20:20Speaker 2: I'm hungry. I'm thirsty for it.
- 20:22Speaker 1: Yeah. Don't give me the emotion. I feel like in life,
- 20:26Speaker 1: emotions run this deep, but there has to be a
- 20:30Speaker 1: truth that is deeper than our emotion. We have to
- 20:33Speaker 1: know when we're feeling certain things, like even if it's
- 20:37Speaker 1: a love for the Lord or a good emotion of
- 20:40Speaker 1: love or worship or whatever, to recognize what is emotion
- 20:44Speaker 1: and what is truth. And are you willing to worship
- 20:47Speaker 1: when you're not feeling it? Are you willing to obey
- 20:50Speaker 1: when you don't necessarily feel the motivation or the reward
- 20:55Speaker 1: at the end of that? But you know it's right.
- 20:57Speaker 1: So you have to have that deeper than emotion. And absolutely,
- 21:02Speaker 1: the church needs to equip women with that. And the
- 21:05Speaker 1: idea of bringing women together to rehearse their past traumas,
- 21:10Speaker 1: which very early on in my ministry, there was a
- 21:14Speaker 1: speaker who went around and she had been abused. She
- 21:18Speaker 1: had gone through some trauma in her youth and that
- 21:21Speaker 1: became her whole platform. But what I saw was a
- 21:24Speaker 1: red flag for me when I started reading more deeply
- 21:27Speaker 1: was she started listing all these symptoms that were very
- 21:32Speaker 1: vague and symptoms that could mean that you were also abused.
- 21:39Speaker 1: And that if you've had these feelings or outburst of anger,
- 21:42Speaker 1: or if you felt, if you were compulsive eater or whatever,
- 21:45Speaker 1: that all.
- 21:45Speaker 3: Of these things... Why did you gesture toward me when
- 21:47Speaker 3: you said compulsive eater? I don't think it's compulsive.
- 21:51Speaker 1: You're not a woman, you know, it doesn't apply. This
- 21:54Speaker 1: is true. But she had all, and it became this,
- 21:59Speaker 1: and I found that I attended a place where she
- 22:02Speaker 1: was speaking about And there was no resolution or victory.
- 22:07Speaker 1: The only way through this was to continue to dig
- 22:11Speaker 1: deeper into your past memories, into your history of hurt
- 22:16Speaker 1: and trauma. And it was like, the fruit that I
- 22:19Speaker 1: saw as a result of that wasn't taking those things
- 22:22Speaker 1: to the cross and taking them to our healer and
- 22:25Speaker 1: taking them to the Word of God. It was just
- 22:28Speaker 1: this This next step was just this perpetual cycle of
- 22:32Speaker 1: hurt and rehearsing. And whatever we get in small groups,
- 22:36Speaker 1: you know, it can happen. As we're discussing the word
- 22:39Speaker 1: of God, one starts saying this, the next, and you
- 22:42Speaker 1: have to.
- 22:43Speaker 2: Some of the Bible studies out there have like serious rules.
- 22:46Speaker 2: Like you can't say proper pronouns.
- 22:48Speaker 1: You have to kind of wrangle all of that back.
- 22:52Speaker 1: You say, okay, girls, that's very interesting. We all have experiences.
- 22:56Speaker 1: We all have memories. But remember, we're here to study
- 22:58Speaker 1: God's word. bring them back to that. So, but yes,
- 23:02Speaker 1: emotions and feelings, they're, they're this deep and they are
- 23:06Speaker 1: not to be trusted because you can flip your emotion
- 23:09Speaker 1: in a day. For us women, it can be hormonal.
- 23:11Speaker 1: It can be, we read something, we saw something, a
- 23:14Speaker 1: friend didn't invite us to the party. All of a
- 23:16Speaker 1: sudden it's like the world is ending and young girls
- 23:19Speaker 1: in particular now with social media, it is really, really
- 23:23Speaker 1: hard for them because.
- 23:24Speaker 3: What alarms me is, There's a story out right now
- 23:28Speaker 3: about a young girl just turned 13 years old, raised
- 23:31Speaker 3: in a Hollywood home, and she took her own life.
- 23:34Speaker 3: Suicide among young girls has like tripled. And this is
- 23:39Speaker 3: so scary to me. And I know a lot of it.
- 23:41Speaker 3: has influenced the social media. I think you can almost
- 23:44Speaker 3: trace it back to when the social media platforms were born.
- 23:49Speaker 3: And I think we can dismiss the pain that these
- 23:51Speaker 3: young girls are feeling, but it's real to them. Maybe
- 23:54Speaker 3: they're being bullied online or they don't feel they measure up.
- 23:58Speaker 3: What would you ladies say to the younger girls out
- 24:01Speaker 3: there who maybe don't think they're as beautiful as they
- 24:05Speaker 3: can be or as smart as they want to be
- 24:08Speaker 3: or whatever it is they want to be, It's sort
- 24:11Speaker 3: of like an older sissy talking to a younger sissy,
- 24:14Speaker 3: an older Kathy speaking to a younger Kathy, or just
- 24:17Speaker 3: talking to young girls like, hey, it's okay. And please
- 24:21Speaker 3: don't ever think about taking your own life.
- 24:26Speaker 2: I was growing up in the 90s and early 2000s,
- 24:28Speaker 2: which was the time of like supermodel thin and the
- 24:33Speaker 2: pressure to be bold. bone skinny, no muscle on you.
- 24:37Speaker 2: And I talk about that in my book a little bit,
- 24:40Speaker 2: but my eating disorder that I'd had for years that
- 24:44Speaker 2: kept me just a bondage over my life. And I
- 24:47Speaker 2: couldn't get out of it. And I knew truth and
- 24:49Speaker 2: I would be praying like, Lord, free me from it.
- 24:52Speaker 2: And he wouldn't. And just like any addiction, it's self-serving.
- 24:57Speaker 2: You're putting yourself first. But I would look at these girls.
- 25:00Speaker 2: I really can't fathom with the world of social media
- 25:02Speaker 2: what these women or these young girls are facing.
- 25:05Speaker 3: Right.
- 25:06Speaker 2: I would first start with the parents. And it's kind
- 25:09Speaker 2: of the thing is like the world won't understand when
- 25:12Speaker 2: you don't want to give your child a phone.
- 25:14Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 25:15Speaker 2: There's going to be pressures. The kids can say, no,
- 25:16Speaker 2: I can't do this. You've got to give me a
- 25:18Speaker 2: phone or I can't go to this practice. My coach can't.
- 25:21Speaker 2: There's so many pressures and reasons. And it's easier to
- 25:24Speaker 2: give in to some of them. But to really rein
- 25:27Speaker 2: it back, it's not too late to rein it back
- 25:28Speaker 2: in with our children, to really set closer boundaries and
- 25:35Speaker 2: standards for our families and more rules. And it won't
- 25:39Speaker 2: make sense. And your kid might be mad at you.
- 25:41Speaker 1: It's okay. You're not their best friend. It's okay. You're
- 25:44Speaker 1: the parent.
- 25:45Speaker 2: So look at parents first to rein it back in.
- 25:48Speaker 2: Protect them. Keep them safe. That's your job to protect
- 25:51Speaker 2: your child.
- 25:52Speaker 3: That's true.
- 25:53Speaker 2: That doesn't mean we can protect them from everything. I'm
- 25:55Speaker 2: not there yet. I just have a 13-year-old. I'm getting
- 25:58Speaker 2: ready to enter all of this hard stage. It's really
- 26:02Speaker 2: fun times. But boy, I would look at those little
- 26:05Speaker 2: girls and their worth is not in the words of
- 26:10Speaker 2: other people. Their worth is not in social media and
- 26:14Speaker 2: this comparison world where we're constantly comparing our lives and
- 26:17Speaker 2: complaining about what we have and don't have. They are
- 26:22Speaker 2: in a battle. And we're in a battle for our
- 26:24Speaker 2: children and the heart and souls of our children right now.
- 26:26Speaker 1: I think kids are so isolated today. And I think
- 26:28Speaker 1: parents are distracted as well as the kids are, that
- 26:31Speaker 1: no one's really paying really careful attention when you start
- 26:35Speaker 1: seeing these warning signs. But as in every life, we
- 26:41Speaker 1: have value. We have purpose. We have gifts. God loves us.
- 26:45Speaker 1: He wants to use us. We have a beautiful future
- 26:50Speaker 1: that God has designed for us that's unique. And so
- 26:54Speaker 1: for me, what I would love to see every young
- 26:57Speaker 1: child starting from the time they're very little is to
- 27:00Speaker 1: recognize they have sources of strength in their life that
- 27:02Speaker 1: is not based on what social media or the current
- 27:05Speaker 1: trends or culture is telling them, not based on what
- 27:09Speaker 1: their little circle of friends that they might see on
- 27:12Speaker 1: social media, but they would know that they have a family.
- 27:15Speaker 1: Pouring into family, like you were saying, starting with the parents,
- 27:18Speaker 1: giving those children that home is important. The parental love is,
- 27:25Speaker 1: they have that no matter what. And then second of all, church,
- 27:29Speaker 1: the community of God's people that begins, you know, I'm
- 27:33Speaker 1: so grateful for the youth ministries in our church that
- 27:36Speaker 1: begin from the time that a baby is born when
- 27:39Speaker 1: the children are taken to the nursery so parents can
- 27:42Speaker 1: hear the word of God in the sanctuary. They begin
- 27:45Speaker 1: to see a family beyond their family. So even if
- 27:48Speaker 1: your family, a child's family is shaky, if they can
- 27:53Speaker 1: be rooted in a church family, and then as they
- 27:56Speaker 1: grow older, that church family becomes significant in friendships. And
- 28:01Speaker 1: then as they learn, they have a role, they have
- 28:04Speaker 1: a purpose, they have gifts that they can use in
- 28:07Speaker 1: the church. And I loved what you said in your
- 28:09Speaker 1: book about the importance. This culture is a thing about ageism,
- 28:13Speaker 1: that older people, it's all about being young and looking
- 28:16Speaker 1: like you're young and staying young and forever 21 and
- 28:19Speaker 1: all of that, but that there is such value in,
- 28:22Speaker 1: in having older saints, women who have lived life, experienced life,
- 28:28Speaker 1: gone through difficult marriages, raised a prodigal child, that in
- 28:31Speaker 1: every stage of your life that there's probably a woman
- 28:34Speaker 1: in the church, maybe she doesn't have a title, but
- 28:37Speaker 1: she might be a small group leader or she might
- 28:39Speaker 1: be just a woman that you sit next to in
- 28:41Speaker 1: church that has lived. As a younger person, if we
- 28:45Speaker 1: can seek out those mentors, and mentoring doesn't have to
- 28:50Speaker 1: be a formal program, it can just be Striking up
- 28:53Speaker 1: the conversation, asking questions. And then for those of us
- 28:56Speaker 1: that are older, to open our hearts and our homes
- 29:00Speaker 1: and our lives, especially those of us who have a
- 29:02Speaker 1: little more time. We've raised our families that we could
- 29:05Speaker 1: just say, hey, come on over. Let's cook. And then
- 29:08Speaker 1: you have these conversations side by side where you're not
- 29:13Speaker 1: necessarily going through a formal program of mentoring.
- 29:15Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
- 29:16Speaker 1: But they are just observing. And there's a young boy
- 29:20Speaker 1: that was Christopher's friend. His name was Hank. And he
- 29:24Speaker 1: was raised in the family of a single mother. And
- 29:28Speaker 1: Christopher really liked him. And his mom was part of
- 29:30Speaker 1: the church. And he would come over and have sleepovers.
- 29:33Speaker 1: We had no idea that he's in his 40s now. No,
- 29:38Speaker 1: maybe almost 50 because Christopher would have been 50. He's
- 29:40Speaker 1: the same age. Christopher would have been the same age
- 29:42Speaker 1: as Will. And you're the same age as Jonathan, Evan.
- 29:45Speaker 1: you have a few siblings in between we have none
- 29:47Speaker 1: but anyway um Hank would have been in his 50s
- 29:51Speaker 1: and he has reached out and told me he said
- 29:54Speaker 1: I didn't know what a father was like I didn't
- 29:57Speaker 1: know what a together family was like because his mom
- 30:01Speaker 1: was a single mom And he said, but I saw,
- 30:04Speaker 1: and we had no idea. He saw us in that
- 30:07Speaker 1: role of being mentored. And all he was, was spending
- 30:09Speaker 1: time with Christopher in our home. And so for these
- 30:13Speaker 1: young ones, it's like, you may feel a little disconnected.
- 30:17Speaker 1: Maybe you don't have an intact family or even a
- 30:19Speaker 1: Christian home. We can just scoop these kids up out
- 30:22Speaker 1: of the schools and bring them into the family of God.
- 30:26Speaker 1: And those of us that are older, open our homes
- 30:28Speaker 1: and We do have a formal mentoring program here at
- 30:30Speaker 1: Harvest for anyone who's out there. We love that. I
- 30:32Speaker 1: do love that.
- 30:33Speaker 2: I see that in your women's ministry.
- 30:35Speaker 1: We love it. And our small groups are really groups.
- 30:39Speaker 1: They're a mixture of age, and there's a lot of
- 30:41Speaker 1: mentoring that happens.
- 30:42Speaker 3: Well, I think that a lot of people are coming
- 30:44Speaker 3: from broken homes, like you just mentioned. And when I
- 30:48Speaker 3: came into the church, my mother was married and divorced
- 30:51Speaker 3: seven times. I had no father. So I was looking
- 30:54Speaker 3: for a father figure. And I was effectively looking for
- 30:57Speaker 3: a mother figure, but a godly one. And so as
- 31:00Speaker 3: a younger person, the funny thing is I didn't necessarily
- 31:02Speaker 3: want to hang around people my own age because I thought, well,
- 31:05Speaker 3: what do they know? They don't know much more than
- 31:08Speaker 3: I know. But these older folks, I want to hang
- 31:11Speaker 3: around them. And one of the great privileges of my
- 31:13Speaker 3: life was getting to know your grandfather and spend time
- 31:16Speaker 3: with them. And certainly he was a father figure to
- 31:19Speaker 3: me and many others. But But the Billy Graham privately
- 31:23Speaker 3: was even more impressive than the public Billy. What do
- 31:27Speaker 3: you mean by that? Well, he, as a preacher, he
- 31:30Speaker 3: had no rival. He was, I think, probably the greatest
- 31:34Speaker 3: preacher in history. That's my opinion. And I love every
- 31:38Speaker 3: phase of him. I love the younger Billy. But my
- 31:41Speaker 3: favorite Billy was the older Billy, where he slowed down.
- 31:45Speaker 3: The younger Billy, he spoke very quickly. And moved around
- 31:50Speaker 3: a lot. But as he got older, he paused more.
- 31:56Speaker 3: He was the grandfather figure. But privately, he was such
- 32:01Speaker 3: a great listener. Like when you talk to your grandfather,
- 32:06Speaker 3: he would say, well, tell me about yourself. And I
- 32:09Speaker 3: was always asking him about people he had met. Tell me,
- 32:12Speaker 3: you met Golda Meir. You met Muhammad Ali. You met
- 32:15Speaker 3: this person. Tell me about them. He'd say a few things.
- 32:18Speaker 3: But then he would say, tell me about yourself. And
- 32:20Speaker 3: he really was interested in other people. He made you
- 32:24Speaker 3: feel very special. And just watching him interact with your grandmother.
- 32:29Speaker 2: What was the first time you met him?
- 32:31Speaker 3: I met him briefly in the 70s in a hallway.
- 32:34Speaker 3: Then I really kind of got to know him better
- 32:37Speaker 3: in 1985 when he was doing his crusade in Angel Stadium.
- 32:42Speaker 3: And I was a pastor at that point. And I'd
- 32:45Speaker 3: become friends with your father. And Billy asked me, I
- 32:49Speaker 3: want you to be a friend to my son. And
- 32:52Speaker 3: I said, I will.
- 32:53Speaker 2: How did you meet my dad?
- 32:54Speaker 3: I met your dad through Dennis Agajania. Of course. He said,
- 32:59Speaker 3: I want you to meet Franklin. So Franklin came up
- 33:02Speaker 3: to a midweek Bible study at our church. And then
- 33:05Speaker 3: we had a meal together. And then we became friends.
- 33:08Speaker 3: And we've known each other, my goodness, for so long.
- 33:11Speaker 3: And I have all these drawings I've done of your father.
- 33:14Speaker 3: And now I have to, you know, draw the older Franklin.
- 33:17Speaker 2: With the hair.
- 33:18Speaker 3: His hair's white now. But, you know, and I draw
- 33:22Speaker 3: Dennis Segajanian and Skip Pitek. We've all been friends for
- 33:25Speaker 3: so many years. And you kids have been friends with
- 33:28Speaker 3: the children, with Nathan and you and Christopher and Jonathan.
- 33:32Speaker 3: But just, you know, your grandfather was, he was just
- 33:38Speaker 3: such a joy to be around. And it was my
- 33:40Speaker 3: privilege to, to help him a little bit with the
- 33:42Speaker 3: sermon prep. Because as he was coming toward the end
- 33:45Speaker 3: of his crusade ministry, I was just starting mine. He said, Greg,
- 33:49Speaker 3: I want you to help me with my illustrations. So
- 33:52Speaker 3: I would go through his sermons and I would find
- 33:55Speaker 3: current illustrations that said what he wanted to say. I
- 33:59Speaker 3: remember one time he was speaking in Minnesota and smashing pumpkins.
- 34:07Speaker 3: Was popular at that point. The funny thing, the lead
- 34:10Speaker 3: singer of Smashing Pumpkins just came out recently and said
- 34:14Speaker 3: he's a Christian. That was interesting. But they had a
- 34:17Speaker 3: song called Rat in the Cage. So I wrote the
- 34:19Speaker 3: lyrics out. Smashing Pumpkins has a song called Rat in
- 34:24Speaker 3: the Cage. I gave some of the lyrics. Then I
- 34:26Speaker 3: put a note in the margin. Billy.
- 34:27Speaker 2: Billy.
- 34:28Speaker 3: This is a rock band. Because I thought, what is
- 34:30Speaker 3: he going to think? Smashing pumpkins. What does that even mean?
- 34:34Speaker 3: And when he delivered that little part of his message.
- 34:38Speaker 2: We need to see if we can find that. I
- 34:39Speaker 2: know we have it in our archives somewhere.
- 34:40Speaker 3: I listened to your grandfather on Sirius XM. I heard
- 34:44Speaker 3: the sermon. He did. And I heard him say it.
- 34:46Speaker 3: I was so excited because I thought, I've always wondered.
- 34:49Speaker 3: I think it was the 90s, early 90s. We should
- 34:52Speaker 3: try to find it. But I had more joy then.
- 34:56Speaker 3: Supplying something that helped him than even if I did
- 35:00Speaker 3: it in my own sermon, because he was just such
- 35:03Speaker 3: a wonderful man and great. And your grandmother, you know,
- 35:08Speaker 3: I probably spent more time with her than him because
- 35:11Speaker 3: he was gone so often. So we would speak at
- 35:13Speaker 3: the cove. And she would always invite us over for lunch.
- 35:16Speaker 3: She would order takeout from a Chinese restaurant.
- 35:19Speaker 2: And probably Haagen-Dazs vanilla ice cream with hot fudge.
- 35:22Speaker 3: Yeah, and she would wash the dishes after. You remember
- 35:25Speaker 3: that sign over her sink?
- 35:28Speaker 2: Oh no, over the sink?
- 35:29Speaker 1: Divine service rendered three times a day.
- 35:32Speaker 3: But the best part was the welcome mat. You went
- 35:34Speaker 3: up to the home of Billy and Ruth Graham and
- 35:36Speaker 3: the mat in front of the door said, not you again.
- 35:40Speaker 3: That was her humor though.
- 35:41Speaker 1: She had the best sense of humor. I think you're
- 35:45Speaker 1: Although I didn't spend a lot of time alone with
- 35:48Speaker 1: your grandmother, when we talk about people who have influenced
- 35:52Speaker 1: your life, I would say your grandmother influenced my life
- 35:58Speaker 1: through her books and her writings. Legacy of a Pack
- 36:01Speaker 1: Rat was so charming to read her notes, to read
- 36:04Speaker 1: also her biography. But what I really related to was
- 36:09Speaker 1: her book, Prodigals and Those Who Love Them.
- 36:11Speaker 3: Largely about your dad. Because when I was going through....
- 36:15Speaker 1: You know, those phases with Jonathan and then later with Christopher,
- 36:19Speaker 1: I found this friend, this amazing woman who, you know,
- 36:24Speaker 1: a lot of people want to put your grandmother and
- 36:26Speaker 1: grandfather like they're in stained glass, you know, that they
- 36:28Speaker 1: never had a problem. Everything was always perfect. But as
- 36:32Speaker 1: I read this, I saw the hurt in her own
- 36:36Speaker 1: life and where she went with that hurt. And rather
- 36:40Speaker 1: than give you a one, two, three formula, this is
- 36:42Speaker 1: how you get your prodigal to come back. she gave
- 36:45Speaker 1: me stories and illustrations and moments in her life that
- 36:51Speaker 1: I could just watch how she handled it and where
- 36:54Speaker 1: she took those pains, which you tell the story of St.
- 36:58Speaker 1: Augustine and his mother who prayed for him. And I
- 37:02Speaker 1: just thought, I'm not alone. I think sometimes when we
- 37:04Speaker 1: go through hard things and we were talking about mentoring or,
- 37:08Speaker 1: or even the importance of godly friendships is that we
- 37:11Speaker 1: learn so much and by just being around and watching.
- 37:16Speaker 1: And celebrity culture comes and goes. People disappoint us. They're
- 37:21Speaker 1: immediately elevated to great prominence. But when you find a Christian,
- 37:27Speaker 1: a leader who has lived enough life and lived a
- 37:31Speaker 1: transparent enough life through their writings, through their conversations, those
- 37:37Speaker 1: are the people that are worth sitting down at their
- 37:40Speaker 1: feet and learning from.
- 37:42Speaker 3: And what a wonderful balance she was.
- 37:43Speaker 1: Ruth was spiritual, but she wasn't religious.
- 37:45Speaker 2: No.
- 37:45Speaker 3: And by religious, I mean she was fun-loving. She was
- 37:49Speaker 3: quick to laugh. When I was around your grandfather, I
- 37:52Speaker 3: was always on my best behavior. Even after I got
- 37:55Speaker 3: to know him.
- 37:56Speaker 2: Did you ever do one embarrassing thing? You're like, oh,
- 37:58Speaker 2: I wish I just hadn't said that or done. Wish
- 38:00Speaker 2: I hadn't told that joke.
- 38:02Speaker 3: I'm sure I did. I remember once I was speaking
- 38:06Speaker 3: at the cove and your grandfather was sitting out there
- 38:08Speaker 3: And he just fully fell asleep. His head was back.
- 38:12Speaker 3: Slept through the whole sermon. So, you know, maybe I
- 38:15Speaker 3: should have given a better sermon than that. That time.
- 38:17Speaker 3: But I was always on my best behavior around him.
- 38:20Speaker 3: But I was so comfortable around Ruth. I was the
- 38:23Speaker 3: real me with the crazy jokes. And she laughed at everything.
- 38:27Speaker 2: She did. She had a sense of humor. If you
- 38:29Speaker 2: went to her house, you always had to be careful
- 38:30Speaker 2: she served you cake. Because she would put things in
- 38:32Speaker 2: the cake. And you could, like, choke on it or
- 38:35Speaker 2: break a tooth or... She would have little mice hidden
- 38:38Speaker 2: in her walls.
- 38:39Speaker 1: Oh, she had a bird, like an old bird's nest
- 38:42Speaker 1: that she had probably found in the yard somewhere. And
- 38:44Speaker 1: she'd have it tucked into her bean.
- 38:45Speaker 3: Remember what she gave Jonathan? Jonathan came to her home
- 38:48Speaker 3: and the Toy Story film had just come out, the
- 38:51Speaker 3: first one. And the Woody character has a little holster,
- 38:54Speaker 3: but they didn't give him a gun. And Ruth looked
- 38:57Speaker 3: at him and said, well, where's his gun? And so
- 39:00Speaker 3: she went out and took a little twig and broke it.
- 39:02Speaker 3: just the right size for Woody's little holster. So Woody
- 39:05Speaker 3: had a gun.
- 39:06Speaker 2: I've never heard that story.
- 39:07Speaker 1: It was so adorable. I wish I had the Woody
- 39:10Speaker 1: and I wish I had that little twig.
- 39:11Speaker 3: How about the time when George Beverly Shea was firing
- 39:14Speaker 3: a machine gun into the woods? Your grandfather was gone.
- 39:17Speaker 3: I don't know if he would have approved of this,
- 39:19Speaker 3: but Franklin had some kind of a machine gun and
- 39:23Speaker 3: Bev Shea, the great song leader, firing it into the woods.
- 39:27Speaker 1: And I thought, And your grandmother thought it was.
- 39:30Speaker 3: She loved it.
- 39:31Speaker 2: She loved it. She loved people in her home.
- 39:32Speaker 1: She was so spiritual.
- 39:34Speaker 3: She's very hospitable.
- 39:35Speaker 1: But naturally spiritual in that she didn't.
- 39:38Speaker 3: Put on any airs. The best version of spiritual.
- 39:40Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 39:40Speaker 3: Yeah. And you talk.
- 39:42Speaker 2: About her grace.
- 39:42Speaker 1: The sanctified humor.
- 39:44Speaker 2: She loved people so well. And you talked about the
- 39:47Speaker 2: prodigal son earlier. You know, we never felt that pressure.
- 39:51Speaker 2: I've always remembered this quote when somebody was asking her
- 39:53Speaker 2: about raising my dad. And she goes, well, God had
- 39:56Speaker 2: a problem with his own children. Of course we're going
- 39:58Speaker 2: to have problems.
- 39:58Speaker 1: He had prodigals too.
- 40:00Speaker 2: But for you, you've often said, you know, walking through
- 40:03Speaker 2: with a prodigal child. And you were just stating it.
- 40:06Speaker 2: How do you find that balance? You are in a spotlight. Mm-hmm.
- 40:10Speaker 2: You are at a pulpit. You're teaching women's study. And
- 40:16Speaker 2: then your heart is breaking because you know you have
- 40:19Speaker 2: a son not choosing to walk with the Lord. How
- 40:22Speaker 2: did you balance that?
- 40:23Speaker 1: It was interesting. Our boys were never outwardly rebellious. They
- 40:28Speaker 1: were never disrespectful to our face, ever. And I know
- 40:32Speaker 1: that's not the story of a lot of parents. I
- 40:37Speaker 1: think our boys loved us and didn't want to hurt us.
- 40:40Speaker 1: So they lived their prodigal life.
- 40:42Speaker 2: Did you know they were living a prodigal life? 100%.
- 40:45Speaker 1: Oh, yeah. 100%, especially with Christopher. When he moved out
- 40:49Speaker 1: and was living on his own and he was going
- 40:51Speaker 1: to art school and he was working at a graphic
- 40:57Speaker 1: design company. And I had no idea the depth of
- 41:02Speaker 1: what he was going through and his struggles. I felt
- 41:05Speaker 1: like for us living in the spotlight, there was a
- 41:08Speaker 1: certain degree of we want to protect our kids. They
- 41:11Speaker 1: are not public figures. They're our kids. So we never
- 41:14Speaker 1: took them into the pulpit as illustrations or shared their stories.
- 41:19Speaker 1: When the time came, they were able to share their
- 41:22Speaker 1: own story. And Jonathan has spoken incredibly beautifully and publicly
- 41:27Speaker 1: about his prodigal journey. And that's his story to tell.
- 41:31Speaker 1: Greg always was very... He always, always wanted to keep
- 41:36Speaker 1: that door open of communication, that there was always, we
- 41:40Speaker 1: were always there to love and support them and to
- 41:44Speaker 1: speak out when they were doing the wrong things and
- 41:46Speaker 1: tell them the truth, 100% on that. But, you know,
- 41:49Speaker 1: for Christopher, he was an adult. Jonathan, to some degree,
- 41:52Speaker 1: was also an adult. He was in his 20s by
- 41:54Speaker 1: the time he was really going after, you know, he's
- 41:57Speaker 1: trying to live in one foot in both worlds. What
- 42:00Speaker 1: is so strange to see is that they were in
- 42:02Speaker 1: the church. They were in Sunday. They were in the
- 42:06Speaker 1: front row listening to sermons. And I think that's where
- 42:11Speaker 1: the wrenching was in their life. They had the truth
- 42:16Speaker 1: of the gospel. Thank God they would both say we
- 42:19Speaker 1: were never hypocrites in the home. We were not perfect, obviously.
- 42:22Speaker 2: Yeah, it says a lot that they wanted to honor
- 42:24Speaker 2: you still.
- 42:25Speaker 1: They did. And Greg was really— there were times when I
- 42:29Speaker 1: would get very angry sometimes. With Christopher and Greg would
- 42:34Speaker 1: come to me and say, Kathy, that's not the hill
- 42:36Speaker 1: you want to die on. Don't make that the big
- 42:41Speaker 1: conflict in the home over whatever. You got home late
- 42:44Speaker 1: or you left your room messy or you did whatever.
- 42:47Speaker 1: He always wanted Christopher to have an open conversation or relationship.
- 42:52Speaker 1: And so, yeah, I mean, when they're little, it's like, oh,
- 42:55Speaker 1: clean up after yourself and do your chores and do that.
- 42:57Speaker 1: And then they'll come to those years, teenage years where
- 43:00Speaker 1: you realize, If you fight at every front, you're going
- 43:04Speaker 1: to lose the relationship. So like Dr. Dobson says, you
- 43:09Speaker 1: just like the rapids. You're on whitewater rapids as you're
- 43:13Speaker 1: going through those adolescent years.
- 43:15Speaker 3: You have a teenager now, sissy. Dr. Dobson said, you know,
- 43:20Speaker 3: raising a teenager is like, Being in a boat on
- 43:23Speaker 3: the rapids, your objective is just survive it.
- 43:26Speaker 1: Hold on. And this is the guy who wrote Dare
- 43:29Speaker 1: to Discipline.
- 43:29Speaker 3: Yes.
- 43:30Speaker 2: Right?
- 43:30Speaker 1: When they're little.
- 43:31Speaker 3: But some are easier than others, so too.
- 43:33Speaker 1: 100%.
- 43:34Speaker 2: My oldest two are probably the easiest. My third one's
- 43:36Speaker 2: to come. She's a tough cookie.
- 43:38Speaker 3: Yes.
- 43:39Speaker 2: Kathy, I remember you one time told me, and something
- 43:42Speaker 2: I've thought about ever since, you one time told me
- 43:44Speaker 2: that God had taken one son and gave you back another.
- 43:49Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah.
- 43:51Speaker 2: Can you explain that?
- 43:52Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 43:53Speaker 2: And that's hard. Those are hard words for a mom.
- 43:57Speaker 1: I didn't realize it until maybe six months later. The struggle,
- 44:03Speaker 1: the deep struggle that Jonathan was in. I mean, he
- 44:07Speaker 1: was really struggling. He wanted to walk with the Lord,
- 44:10Speaker 1: but he had a circle of friends and he had
- 44:13Speaker 1: habits and he would even say addictions to things that
- 44:16Speaker 1: he couldn't. And he tried, he would try on his
- 44:19Speaker 1: own to stop. But then he would be tempted again,
- 44:22Speaker 1: and the very next day, he'd find himself back in
- 44:25Speaker 1: that cycle. And so he was going through that. Christopher
- 44:30Speaker 1: had settled. He had come through those prodigal years. He
- 44:32Speaker 1: was married. He had a child. He had another child
- 44:36Speaker 1: on the way. And when the Lord took Christopher suddenly
- 44:39Speaker 1: that day, I was so consumed with my thoughts of Greg,
- 44:45Speaker 1: number one. Number two, Brittany, my daughter-in-law, who was a
- 44:49Speaker 1: relatively young believer, I thought, What if she walks away?
- 44:53Speaker 1: What if she just literally says, this is your God.
- 44:56Speaker 1: And he takes my husband, leaves me with a two-year-old
- 44:59Speaker 1: and I'm pregnant. What kind of a God is that?
- 45:01Speaker 1: And so I was just like, I've got to help
- 45:03Speaker 1: her stand steady. And then there was Jonathan and he
- 45:08Speaker 1: came home that day and he walked in the front
- 45:11Speaker 1: door and my mind was on Stella, our two-year-old granddaughter.
- 45:15Speaker 1: My mind was on Brittany. I feared that she might
- 45:16Speaker 1: lose her child. My fear was that She may walk away.
- 45:20Speaker 1: She may drive away in the car this afternoon. I
- 45:22Speaker 1: may never see her again. She might say, I don't
- 45:24Speaker 1: want anything to do with you or your family. And
- 45:26Speaker 1: I thought, what are we going to do? And so
- 45:28Speaker 1: I missed what happened, what was happening in Jonathan's heart.
- 45:32Speaker 1: But he's shared the story. He went up to his
- 45:34Speaker 1: room and took all the things that he knew that
- 45:37Speaker 1: were temptations for him. And he gathered them up and
- 45:40Speaker 1: he threw them away. And he rededicated his life to
- 45:43Speaker 1: the Lord. And it was Levi Lusko who actually came
- 45:46Speaker 1: to us and told us, within a week or two
- 45:50Speaker 1: of that happening, he says, Jonathan wants to quit his job.
- 45:54Speaker 1: He had a great job with a future and a
- 45:57Speaker 1: good promising career to make a living for himself that
- 46:01Speaker 1: he wanted to quit his job. And he said, I
- 46:04Speaker 1: want to quit my job and I want to help
- 46:06Speaker 1: my dad. And I was like, we never put on
- 46:10Speaker 1: our kids that you will serve God in ministry. We
- 46:12Speaker 1: just said, just love the Lord. There was never that expectation.
- 46:16Speaker 1: So when he said that, I was like, Lord, I
- 46:19Speaker 1: was like, what does that even mean? But I knew
- 46:22Speaker 1: that it was this complete 180 in his life that
- 46:27Speaker 1: he said that. And in reflecting, you know, there were
- 46:33Speaker 1: times in my journal when I wrote, Lord, why did
- 46:38Speaker 1: I have to lose Christopher in order to see this
- 46:42Speaker 1: transformation in Jonathan? And I don't have an answer to
- 46:45Speaker 1: that question. I don't think that's what God does. Oh,
- 46:48Speaker 1: I'm going to take this one and give you that one.
- 46:51Speaker 1: But that was definitely the good things that come out
- 46:55Speaker 1: of the bad things that I could say. The bad
- 46:57Speaker 1: is still bad. Losing Christopher was the most traumatic and
- 47:01Speaker 1: difficult thing we've ever been through and continues to be
- 47:05Speaker 1: a hard thing in my life and a sad thing
- 47:07Speaker 1: in my life. But the fact that I've seen this
- 47:11Speaker 1: result and And Jonathan one day will stand next to
- 47:16Speaker 1: his brother Christopher in eternity and say, you know, when
- 47:19Speaker 1: you died, I got new life. Out of that came my,
- 47:24Speaker 1: you know, my spiritual life, my ministry, and now my
- 47:28Speaker 1: family and my children. And it's a beautiful thing, but
- 47:32Speaker 1: it's still a sad thing. I still get a lump
- 47:33Speaker 1: in my throat when I say it because, yeah.
- 47:36Speaker 3: It's great. I'm sorry.
- 47:38Speaker 2: Can I ask you one question?
- 47:39Speaker 3: Please.
- 47:39Speaker 2: I've always wanted to ask you about this. I remember
- 47:44Speaker 2: my dad's conversation with you after Christopher. And you had
- 47:48Speaker 2: a lot of conversations, and I'm sure that those days
- 47:50Speaker 2: are blurry. You might not even remember it. And I
- 47:52Speaker 2: remember when my dad got off. I just can't believe.
- 47:55Speaker 2: That was like tough love. Like, Dad, how could you
- 47:57Speaker 2: say that? And I remember him telling you.
- 48:00Speaker 1: How old were you? Well, Jonathan was.
- 48:03Speaker 2: I was the same as Jonathan. We were born the
- 48:05Speaker 2: same week.
- 48:05Speaker 1: He was 21. You were 21. You were 21.
- 48:09Speaker 2: I can't remember if I'd just gotten married or not
- 48:11Speaker 2: married yet, but I just remember my dad encouraging you
- 48:16Speaker 2: or telling you, Greg, get back in your pulpit this Sunday.
- 48:20Speaker 2: Tell your congregation you're hurting, you're in pain, but tell
- 48:25Speaker 2: them you're still preaching. And you didn't give a message.
- 48:28Speaker 2: I don't believe you gave a message, but you did address.
- 48:31Speaker 2: And I remember my dad asking, or when my dad
- 48:34Speaker 2: got off, I said, dad, why would you tell him
- 48:35Speaker 2: to get up and give him a break? Give him
- 48:37Speaker 2: some time off. And he said, no, Satan doesn't need
- 48:40Speaker 2: any room to get in Greg's heart. He needs to
- 48:43Speaker 2: be reminded God is good.
- 48:45Speaker 3: Wow. Well, that was good advice. And that's what I did.
- 48:50Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 48:50Speaker 3: I actually, Christopher died on a Thursday. And we were
- 48:55Speaker 3: in church on Sunday. Yeah. And I remember people saying,
- 48:58Speaker 3: we couldn't believe you were in church. It took so
- 49:00Speaker 3: much strength. I thought, gosh, strength. Where else would we be?
- 49:04Speaker 3: I was weak. I was weak. I needed church. I
- 49:08Speaker 3: needed the Word of God. I needed to worship. There
- 49:11Speaker 3: was no place I would rather be. And I did
- 49:14Speaker 3: get up in the pulpit. And the last song that
- 49:17Speaker 3: was sung by our worship band before I got up
- 49:20Speaker 3: there was I Still Believe, a song written by Jeremy
- 49:23Speaker 3: Camp after his wife died. i still believe in your
- 49:28Speaker 3: faithfulness i still believe in your love and i don't
- 49:31Speaker 3: remember what i had planned on saying but i just
- 49:34Speaker 3: led with that and i walked up and said i
- 49:36Speaker 3: still believe and you know it was a hard moment
- 49:41Speaker 3: but A very important moment. And, you know, we have
- 49:45Speaker 3: to just, when we're facing this crisis, we have to
- 49:49Speaker 3: face the reality of it, but take hold of the
- 49:53Speaker 3: promises of God and God will strengthen us and give
- 49:57Speaker 3: us the strength we need when we need it. And
- 50:00Speaker 3: just a week or two after that, I preached at
- 50:02Speaker 3: our crusade. And that was like, people say, was that hard? No,
- 50:07Speaker 3: everything else was hard except that. And the reason for
- 50:11Speaker 3: that was, You know, prior to that, I'm just dealing
- 50:14Speaker 3: with the pain, the loss that, you know, all the
- 50:16Speaker 3: things that come with it. And being a public person,
- 50:19Speaker 3: everyone comes up to you. Many people you don't know
- 50:23Speaker 3: with their words of whatever those words are. Some are
- 50:26Speaker 3: meant to be comforting. I heard a lot of crazy
- 50:29Speaker 3: things that weren't always that helpful. But when I got
- 50:32Speaker 3: on that pulpit, I knew I have a job to do.
- 50:34Speaker 3: And it was interesting because Christopher, being an artist, had
- 50:37Speaker 3: designed all the art that was on the screen. So
- 50:39Speaker 3: I was surrounded by his designs. that he had built
- 50:42Speaker 3: for that crusade. That inspired me. And I thought of
- 50:45Speaker 3: him in heaven. And I thought there's nothing I would
- 50:49Speaker 3: rather do than point people to Christ. And you know,
- 50:53Speaker 3: the Bible says that there's joy in the presence of
- 50:55Speaker 3: the angels over one sinner that comes to repentance. So
- 50:58Speaker 3: as we saw people come to Christ in that crusade
- 51:01Speaker 3: in particular in 2008, I thought, well, maybe Christopher's aware
- 51:05Speaker 3: of this. There's a shout in heaven as people believe.
- 51:08Speaker 3: And maybe he even knows that this was connected to
- 51:11Speaker 3: his life. So that was my moment of relief because
- 51:16Speaker 3: I had to be, you know, when you're preaching the gospel,
- 51:18Speaker 3: you've got to focus. You can't be thinking about yourself
- 51:21Speaker 3: or anything else. Like I have a job to do
- 51:24Speaker 3: and I've got to do this job well. And so
- 51:28Speaker 3: that's what I did. But your father's advice was, was
- 51:33Speaker 3: really helpful. Franklin, you know, Franklin's very blunt. He'll always
- 51:40Speaker 3: tell you his opinion. And, you know, we've had our
- 51:44Speaker 3: little disagreements here and there, but I've never doubted his
- 51:49Speaker 3: love for me, his friendship that we have had, and
- 51:52Speaker 3: he's been a true friend, and I've tried to be
- 51:54Speaker 3: a true friend to him too. And it was good
- 51:59Speaker 3: to hear that.
- 52:00Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 52:01Speaker 3: But I do remember also that, you know, he wanted
- 52:05Speaker 3: to help me in his way. You know, your dad's
- 52:07Speaker 3: very strong, but he's very tenderhearted.
- 52:09Speaker 1: 100%.
- 52:10Speaker 3: You know, and you've seen that. I've seen that. When
- 52:14Speaker 3: he goes and ministers to hurting people, I mean, so
- 52:18Speaker 3: much of what he does isn't in the press. We
- 52:21Speaker 3: see him preaching. We see him making a bold stand
- 52:24Speaker 3: on this topic or that topic. But so much of
- 52:26Speaker 3: what he does is helping people. people experiencing the worst
- 52:30Speaker 3: pain imaginable, but not just hurting. He's doing something. And
- 52:36Speaker 3: he's a great strategist, in addition to being a great preacher.
- 52:40Speaker 3: He knows how to do, like, let's do this. And
- 52:44Speaker 3: he'll come up with a plan, and it will be
- 52:46Speaker 3: a practical plan and an effective plan that will help
- 52:50Speaker 3: people not only spiritually, but in their immediate needs as well.
- 52:54Speaker 2: I think as I get older, I'm so thankful. Yeah.
- 52:58Speaker 2: for parents, but also their friends. And y'all are that,
- 53:02Speaker 2: and you have been steady through all the tribulations you
- 53:07Speaker 2: faced in the heartache. You've never taken your eyes off
- 53:11Speaker 2: the cross. And I think that was my heart behind
- 53:14Speaker 2: writing these words was that we have a destination and
- 53:17Speaker 2: that destination is heaven. And when we have a destination,
- 53:21Speaker 2: it gives us a hope. And so, We are to
- 53:25Speaker 2: speak it. We are to teach it. We are to
- 53:26Speaker 2: live it with urgency. You've always done that. You've been
- 53:29Speaker 2: a pastor, but you've been an evangelist. Very little do
- 53:32Speaker 2: we see pastors evangelizing behind the pulpit anymore. And I
- 53:36Speaker 2: just want to say thank you. It's not just my
- 53:38Speaker 2: family's legacy. It's their friends that have walked. I've watched y'all,
- 53:42Speaker 2: as you mentioned, Skip, you, we as children, and Dennis.
- 53:47Speaker 2: We've watched y'all live faithfully and never taken your eyes
- 53:50Speaker 2: off the cross, especially in a world where there's so
- 53:53Speaker 2: many pastors. who are fallen with pride or temptation and
- 53:57Speaker 2: some kind of sin.
- 54:00Speaker 1: I'm so grateful for the friendships we have. I think that,
- 54:04Speaker 1: you know, we are called to walk our lives before
- 54:07Speaker 1: the Lord in a relationship with him, a personal relationship
- 54:10Speaker 1: with Christ. But we are also called to be part
- 54:14Speaker 1: of a family and part. I mean, Jesus had Peter, James,
- 54:18Speaker 1: and John. He had 12 apostles. Then he also had
- 54:21Speaker 1: a multitude of people that followed him, others who served
- 54:24Speaker 1: him in ministry, including the women. But he had these
- 54:28Speaker 1: three close friends. And I think that today, in a
- 54:32Speaker 1: day where we have friends on Facebook or followers on Instagram,
- 54:38Speaker 1: these are not people. These are just numbers. Who knows
- 54:41Speaker 1: who they are? But we really need to be rooted
- 54:44Speaker 1: in communities where we have genuine, authentic, godly friendships and
- 54:49Speaker 1: choosing your friends wisely. And we are all influenced. Even
- 54:55Speaker 1: though we would like to think we're not, we are
- 54:57Speaker 1: going to be influenced by the people that are closest
- 55:00Speaker 1: to us. You know, like girls in high school, you'll
- 55:02Speaker 1: find them starting to talk like each other. They'll use
- 55:05Speaker 1: the same expressions or dress alike. You see it oftentimes
- 55:09Speaker 1: in this. But even as adults, we can be influenced.
- 55:12Speaker 1: And so to me, really being intentional in finding godly friendships,
- 55:19Speaker 1: biblical friendships, friendships, people whose highest priority is to follow
- 55:24Speaker 1: the Lord, but also have the love in their hearts
- 55:28Speaker 1: to include others and share. It's not a competition. We're
- 55:32Speaker 1: not trying to outdo each other. We are trying to
- 55:35Speaker 1: encourage each other. What your dad did for Greg saying,
- 55:38Speaker 1: you know, get back in the pulpit is like giving
- 55:41Speaker 1: Greg a focus because sometimes in grief, you can just
- 55:45Speaker 1: get stuck and you just stay sad and you don't see.
- 55:49Speaker 1: And the more you indulge in wallowing your sorrows and
- 55:53Speaker 1: your sadness. You don't want to leave the room. I
- 55:55Speaker 1: can understand that. There were times you just want to
- 55:58Speaker 1: pull the shades and just say, I don't want to
- 55:59Speaker 1: go out. I don't want to see anybody. I want
- 56:01Speaker 1: to do anything. And you just stay stuck. And that's
- 56:04Speaker 1: not good. But grief also needs a purpose. And when
- 56:08Speaker 1: you say heaven is a destination, but heaven is also
- 56:12Speaker 1: a motivation. And God saves us for a reason. He
- 56:16Speaker 1: saves us for a purpose. And I see that in
- 56:18Speaker 1: your life. I see that in Greg's life. I'm happy
- 56:21Speaker 1: to be standing behind him and supporting him in his calling.
- 56:25Speaker 1: That's my calling. I'm called to be his wife. So
- 56:29Speaker 1: that's a great joy for me and for my ministry
- 56:32Speaker 1: to come alongside and complement his ministry, which is obviously
- 56:36Speaker 1: leading a church and what he does with evangelism.
- 56:40Speaker 3: Coming back to you. Sorry.
- 56:41Speaker 1: Oh, just to finish up. But yeah, discovering that calling
- 56:46Speaker 1: and that purpose is... It's not just like you're going
- 56:48Speaker 1: to be saved and then he's going to pluck you
- 56:50Speaker 1: out and take you to heaven one day. It's like
- 56:51Speaker 1: you have a path to follow. You have a purpose
- 56:54Speaker 1: for your life. You need to find out what that is.
- 56:57Speaker 1: God gives you gifts for a reason. He gives you
- 57:00Speaker 1: opportunities for a reason. And that we are to leverage
- 57:04Speaker 1: those for the kingdom because for me one day it's
- 57:06Speaker 1: going to be done. You won't be leading anybody to
- 57:08Speaker 1: Jesus when you get to heaven. They'll all be there.
- 57:11Speaker 3: I wanted to tell you one more story about your grandfather.
- 57:13Speaker 3: He was speaking in Portland, Oregon. And it was almost
- 57:18Speaker 3: a revival-like atmosphere, just amazing response. So he comes off
- 57:22Speaker 3: the platform, and he's walking to his car, and there's
- 57:25Speaker 3: crowds of people on both sides. They're looking at him like,
- 57:30Speaker 3: it's Moses. And it was Billy. And I was walking
- 57:33Speaker 3: behind him. And so we got into the car. So T.W. Wilson,
- 57:38Speaker 3: Billy's longtime friend, was driving. I was riding shotgun, your
- 57:42Speaker 3: father and your grandfather in the backseat. So we're driving out.
- 57:46Speaker 3: So I wanted to say something to Billy to compliment him.
- 57:48Speaker 3: I turned around and I said, Billy, that was a
- 57:50Speaker 3: great message tonight. Billy looks at me and says, it's
- 57:54Speaker 3: just gospel. I turned back around like, well, okay. I
- 57:59Speaker 3: know that. I was just trying to compliment him. And
- 58:02Speaker 3: then I thought of another. I'll say something specific. I
- 58:05Speaker 3: turned back around. Billy, I loved it when you said
- 58:08Speaker 3: Christ can resensitize your conscience. He said, well, he can't.
- 58:13Speaker 3: I turned back around. But see, I learned something from that,
- 58:16Speaker 3: and that was Billy did not want to bask in glory.
- 58:21Speaker 3: He was done. He did his job. And so we
- 58:25Speaker 3: went back to the hotel, and someone had given him
- 58:28Speaker 3: some sandwiches, some roast beef sandwiches to eat. They were
- 58:32Speaker 3: hot when we got them originally, but by the time
- 58:34Speaker 3: we got back to the hotel, they were cold. So
- 58:37Speaker 3: we go up to Billy's room. He disappears for a
- 58:40Speaker 3: little bit, comes out in his pajamas and his dress shoes.
- 58:43Speaker 3: I don't think he had slippers. His dress shoes. Well,
- 58:47Speaker 3: I guess Billy feels comfortable around me. He's in his pajamas.
- 58:50Speaker 3: But he was surrounded by his friends, including TW. And
- 58:54Speaker 3: they started telling old stories and laughing. And I was
- 58:57Speaker 3: learning as an evangelist. Don't take yourself too seriously. Take
- 59:02Speaker 3: your message very seriously. Deliver your message and return to normalcy.
- 59:08Speaker 3: And that's exactly what he did. He was with people
- 59:11Speaker 3: that loved him. but he could enjoy some laughs. and
- 59:16Speaker 3: And he was very down to earth. And your dad's
- 59:19Speaker 3: that way, too. Your dad, he's a humble guy. He's
- 59:22Speaker 3: very down to earth. He likes basic things. He travels
- 59:25Speaker 3: the world in these most amazing places. And he takes
- 59:29Speaker 3: pictures of himself at McDonald's. People, they go, that's an act. No,
- 59:34Speaker 3: he likes that food. He actually did a post about McDonald's.
- 59:38Speaker 3: Bringing back the.
- 59:40Speaker 1: Fried apple pie. They are good.
- 59:42Speaker 2: And they came back for the 250th anniversary of America.
- 59:46Speaker 2: I'm going to thank dad and his social media after
- 59:48Speaker 2: all those years of campaigning.
- 59:50Speaker 3: But that's just, you know, I just said, I mean, boom,
- 59:53Speaker 3: I think it's closed or maybe it's open still. We
- 59:55Speaker 3: always went to a place called Woodlands.
- 59:57Speaker 2: Okay. So funny story. Woodlands closed down a few years.
- 1:00:01Speaker 2: years back. And I mean, we would go as a
- 1:00:04Speaker 2: family multiple times a week. I mean, they knew dad
- 1:00:08Speaker 2: and they did all the catering anytime. Like I remember
- 1:00:11Speaker 2: that for the Billy Graham library opening, the presidents were there,
- 1:00:13Speaker 2: they did the catering. So long story short, a barbecue
- 1:00:17Speaker 2: place just opened back up in that restaurant. So we
- 1:00:19Speaker 2: went down there and they sat us down in the
- 1:00:21Speaker 2: basement because we had kids. We realized they were putting
- 1:00:23Speaker 2: kids down the basement. We talked about you and we
- 1:00:26Speaker 2: were just reminiscing about all the times. And I said,
- 1:00:29Speaker 2: do you remember when we brought Greg Laurie here? And
- 1:00:32Speaker 2: these are just memories, funny memories that stick out. You
- 1:00:35Speaker 2: put Simpsons on the TV. You were watching The Simpsons
- 1:00:37Speaker 2: downstairs at Woodlands.
- 1:00:40Speaker 3: I was.
- 1:00:40Speaker 2: You had bought some kind of gag gifts at a
- 1:00:42Speaker 2: toy store and you were playing with Jonathan and I
- 1:00:44Speaker 2: and all this. And dad goes, I remember that day.
- 1:00:47Speaker 2: And it's just, there's sweet memories and friendships that, and
- 1:00:53Speaker 2: a loyal. I mean, dad is loyal to his friends.
- 1:00:56Speaker 2: He loves his friends. fiercely and he's there anytime you
- 1:01:00Speaker 2: need him but I'm just I've loved watching y'all's ministries
- 1:01:04Speaker 2: grow little did y'all know what God had planned for
- 1:01:07Speaker 2: Harvest and Perseverance Purse and if you had known you
- 1:01:10Speaker 2: probably wouldn't have done it but it's been nice to
- 1:01:13Speaker 2: look back just even as children and seeing God's faithfulness
- 1:01:17Speaker 2: in our parents lives.
- 1:01:18Speaker 3: Well I maybe should be referring to you as Ambassador
- 1:01:22Speaker 3: Graham because no not yet well okay but let's Tell
- 1:01:27Speaker 3: them why we would even say that. You have been
- 1:01:30Speaker 3: nominated by the president to become the ambassador at large
- 1:01:35Speaker 3: for the international religious freedom. Am I saying it right?
- 1:01:39Speaker 3: That's right.
- 1:01:39Speaker 2: Ambassador at large for international religious freedom. It's a position
- 1:01:42Speaker 2: that's been held since 1998. And it's really to advance
- 1:01:47Speaker 2: religious freedom around the world, to recognize those who violate
- 1:01:51Speaker 2: religious freedom, to help the U.S. in foreign policy. on
- 1:01:55Speaker 2: where we can hold strong on religious freedom. And, you know,
- 1:01:59Speaker 2: just to really hold those accountable. When we look at
- 1:02:01Speaker 2: what the world is facing, especially when we look at Christians,
- 1:02:04Speaker 2: what's happening right now around the world, we've been blessed
- 1:02:09Speaker 2: beyond imagination in this nation that our forefathers recognized the
- 1:02:14Speaker 2: need for religious freedom, that that's the bedrock of this nation.
- 1:02:18Speaker 3: That's right.
- 1:02:19Speaker 2: And this is not a phone call I ever expected.
- 1:02:22Speaker 2: It took me by surprise. And something I probably didn't
- 1:02:27Speaker 2: even want to do, not because I don't see the need,
- 1:02:30Speaker 2: but I have three children at home.
- 1:02:32Speaker 3: Yes.
- 1:02:32Speaker 2: I'm a mom. And to work in D.C. and to
- 1:02:36Speaker 2: travel back and forth, but praying with it with my husband.
- 1:02:39Speaker 2: My husband, Corey, was so clear. He says, if the
- 1:02:42Speaker 2: President of the United States called and offered you this,
- 1:02:45Speaker 2: you accept and we will find a way.
- 1:02:46Speaker 3: Good.
- 1:02:47Speaker 2: And that I'm thankful for a supportive husband. But it's
- 1:02:50Speaker 2: if I'm confirmed by the Senate. So I have to
- 1:02:52Speaker 2: have a Senate hearing.
- 1:02:53Speaker 3: Does it make you nervous to think about that? Absolutely. Absolutely.
- 1:02:57Speaker 2: I wrote this book, Stand Steady, and now I have
- 1:03:00Speaker 2: to have a Senate hearing?
- 1:03:02Speaker 1: The timing could not be more. I'm like, Lord, what
- 1:03:05Speaker 1: are you doing?
- 1:03:06Speaker 2: You know, I got that phone call and then nothing
- 1:03:08Speaker 2: ever happened. And I prayed about a week before I
- 1:03:12Speaker 2: turned in my final manuscript. I said, Lord, why did
- 1:03:15Speaker 2: that phone call come about maybe being an ambassador and
- 1:03:17Speaker 2: nothing ever happening? He said, I need you to finish
- 1:03:19Speaker 2: this project before I give you the next. And here
- 1:03:22Speaker 2: it is just coming weeks after I finished the book.
- 1:03:24Speaker 2: But I was reading. Does it make me nervous?
- 1:03:29Speaker 1: Yes.
- 1:03:30Speaker 2: My prayer has been Acts 9 through this whole thing
- 1:03:32Speaker 2: is that I would walk in the fear of the
- 1:03:35Speaker 2: Lord and be comforted by the Holy Spirit. Because I
- 1:03:39Speaker 2: look at the job that is before me. I look
- 1:03:40Speaker 2: at the rise of anti-Semitism in this world. Yes. I
- 1:03:43Speaker 2: look at the weird Muslims in China that have been
- 1:03:47Speaker 2: fiercely persecuted. I look at Christians at large being persecuted
- 1:03:51Speaker 2: at such a high rate and at this time in history.
- 1:03:56Speaker 2: But I worry for my children as a mom being
- 1:03:57Speaker 2: gone more. And it was funny.
- 1:04:01Speaker 3: I was reviewing.
- 1:04:02Speaker 2: I told Kathy before we started, I was reviewing my
- 1:04:04Speaker 2: book because as a writer, you know, you write this
- 1:04:06Speaker 2: book a long time ago. And then I was studying
- 1:04:09Speaker 2: because I was so afraid you might ask me a question.
- 1:04:11Speaker 2: I'm like, oh, I don't remember what page that's on,
- 1:04:13Speaker 2: if I was to be honest.
- 1:04:14Speaker 1: It's funny.
- 1:04:16Speaker 2: And I highlighted this because I needed it. And it said,
- 1:04:20Speaker 2: it's when the storm hits and all you want to
- 1:04:22Speaker 2: do is return to shore. To stay quiet, stay hidden,
- 1:04:25Speaker 2: and avoid the fight. We'll do anything to try to
- 1:04:28Speaker 2: get back to the normality of yesterday. The tempest tempts
- 1:04:31Speaker 2: us to panic and become overwhelmed by our feelings and confusions.
- 1:04:35Speaker 2: Have I been overwhelmed at the task ahead of me?
- 1:04:37Speaker 3: Absolutely.
- 1:04:39Speaker 2: Don't fall for it. Like David, choose to stand steady
- 1:04:42Speaker 2: and say, when I'm afraid, I put my trust in you.
- 1:04:45Speaker 2: I needed my own words. I shouldn't say my own words,
- 1:04:50Speaker 2: the words God had given me to write down.
- 1:04:53Speaker 3: You're going to be confirmed, I believe. And I think
- 1:04:55Speaker 3: you're going to do a great job. And, you know,
- 1:04:58Speaker 3: I've seen you in settings with the president and in
- 1:05:02Speaker 3: You know, I'm not surprised at all that he would
- 1:05:04Speaker 3: choose you. When I heard it, I was just delighted.
- 1:05:08Speaker 3: And I think you're so uniquely qualified because not only
- 1:05:12Speaker 3: of your spiritual foundation, but your experience traveling the world
- 1:05:15Speaker 3: with your father, you've seen far more than a young lady.
- 1:05:19Speaker 3: And you're still a young lady, by the way. Thanks.
- 1:05:21Speaker 3: 40 is young. Well, you know what? When you're 40,
- 1:05:24Speaker 3: you think, oh, I'm getting old now. But when you're 73,
- 1:05:27Speaker 3: like me, you go, oh, 40, I was still young, right?
- 1:05:29Speaker 3: So you are young. I just want you to know that.
- 1:05:31Speaker 3: But You know, you're a mature young person. Maybe we'll
- 1:05:36Speaker 3: call you a very young, older person. But whatever you
- 1:05:39Speaker 3: want to say, I think your unique experiences with your grandfather,
- 1:05:44Speaker 3: with your father, with your mother, with your upbringing, with
- 1:05:47Speaker 3: your travels and all the things you've seen. I can't
- 1:05:50Speaker 3: think of a more qualified person around to take this position.
- 1:05:54Speaker 2: Thank you. And I say, am I nervous? It's more
- 1:05:56Speaker 2: for my family being gone. I'm excited. I am excited
- 1:06:00Speaker 2: when God calls us to do things. It's exciting. And
- 1:06:04Speaker 2: so I am excited for it. I got to get
- 1:06:06Speaker 2: through a Senate confirmation before the Foreign Relations Committee so
- 1:06:10Speaker 2: I could use prayers for those listening. My family and
- 1:06:12Speaker 2: I will need your prayers, especially as I prep for that.
- 1:06:15Speaker 2: That could be a difficult day. But if confirmed by
- 1:06:17Speaker 2: the Senate, you know, we got two years left. To
- 1:06:21Speaker 2: work hard and to pray that the Lord would give
- 1:06:23Speaker 2: me the wisdom and discernment to do this job.
- 1:06:25Speaker 1: And he will. That's the kind of prayer he wants
- 1:06:28Speaker 1: to answer.
- 1:06:28Speaker 3: He'll give you what you need when you need it,
- 1:06:30Speaker 3: not before, never after.
- 1:06:31Speaker 1: And prayer is that resource that we have when we're
- 1:06:36Speaker 1: feeling overwhelmed or uncertain about what the future might hold.
- 1:06:39Speaker 1: We have that line to heaven that is our first
- 1:06:43Speaker 1: line of defense, as you wrote in your book. Prayer
- 1:06:46Speaker 1: is a first line of defense. It is also how
- 1:06:48Speaker 1: we fight the battle. It prepares us for the battle.
- 1:06:52Speaker 1: And we just will be praying for you to see
- 1:06:55Speaker 1: God's going to be with you. And we have to
- 1:06:58Speaker 1: look at this as just this incredible opportunity that is
- 1:07:01Speaker 1: a season. And whatever it is, and however long that lasts,
- 1:07:06Speaker 1: he's going to equip you because he's called you.
- 1:07:09Speaker 3: Yes.
- 1:07:10Speaker 1: When the Lord opens a door like that. to serve
- 1:07:13Speaker 1: on a national level.
- 1:07:14Speaker 3: Imagine that little girl on pigtails.
- 1:07:16Speaker 2: Playing games with Jonathan.
- 1:07:19Speaker 3: Playing games. Do we call you Madam Ambassador? What is
- 1:07:23Speaker 3: the right term?
- 1:07:23Speaker 2: I'll let you know. I don't know yet.
- 1:07:25Speaker 3: I'm still going to call you Sissy. In its formal setting,
- 1:07:28Speaker 3: I'll call you Ambassador.
- 1:07:30Speaker 1: But before the Senate, you will probably be Jane Austen Lynch.
- 1:07:33Speaker 3: It is.
- 1:07:33Speaker 2: It's Jane Lynch. It's funny because when they announced it,
- 1:07:36Speaker 2: my name had gotten around D.C. that I was going
- 1:07:39Speaker 2: to be announced. And that had been around for months, but...
- 1:07:42Speaker 2: When they announced it as Jane Lynch, people were calling, saying,
- 1:07:45Speaker 2: who's Jane Lynch? Nobody knew.
- 1:07:47Speaker 3: I read it and go, wait, this is Sissy.
- 1:07:49Speaker 2: People remember me as Sissy Graham.
- 1:07:51Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 1:07:51Speaker 2: Sissy Graham, just like you. I mean, Sissy Graham, I've
- 1:07:53Speaker 2: been married for 20 years. People forgot I got the
- 1:07:55Speaker 2: last name Lynch.
- 1:07:56Speaker 3: Yes, that's right. That's right. Okay, Sissy, we've talked about
- 1:08:00Speaker 3: so many profound things, important things. Now let's just talk about, well,
- 1:08:04Speaker 3: we might call them fun things like What is your
- 1:08:08Speaker 3: favorite food? Like go-to food that you would order above
- 1:08:13Speaker 3: everything else?
- 1:08:13Speaker 2: Thai food.
- 1:08:14Speaker 3: Oh, Thai food.
- 1:08:15Speaker 1: Oh, yay!
- 1:08:16Speaker 3: Kathy will like that.
- 1:08:17Speaker 1: Okay.
- 1:08:18Speaker 2: And for dessert, blackberry cobbler with ice cream. Panang curry.
- 1:08:23Speaker 2: Chicken panang curry.
- 1:08:24Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 1:08:24Speaker 3: And what was your dessert?
- 1:08:26Speaker 2: Blackberry cobbler with ice cream.
- 1:08:27Speaker 1: I love cobbler.
- 1:08:28Speaker 2: And you can't get blackberry cobbler. Very rarely do you
- 1:08:30Speaker 2: find cobbler places.
- 1:08:31Speaker 3: There's a place in Boone, North Carolina where you live
- 1:08:34Speaker 3: that It's a teacup place. It has amazing cobbler.
- 1:08:39Speaker 2: What's the name of that place?
- 1:08:40Speaker 1: How do you remember that?
- 1:08:41Speaker 3: Backyard Burgers.
- 1:08:42Speaker 2: It doesn't exist anymore, and we still talk about it.
- 1:08:43Speaker 2: They have another thing, but they don't have the cobbler anymore.
- 1:08:46Speaker 3: No way.
- 1:08:46Speaker 2: Man, you've got a good memory.
- 1:08:48Speaker 3: I always remember food.
- 1:08:49Speaker 2: Yes, and that was the only place I could get
- 1:08:51Speaker 2: blackberry cobbler. That's where the love started. Good memory.
- 1:08:53Speaker 3: So they don't serve it anymore?
- 1:08:54Speaker 1: No.
- 1:08:56Speaker 2: That restaurant doesn't exist, but they've created another one.
- 1:08:58Speaker 3: I love Blackberry Cobbler. No one even makes Cobbler.
- 1:09:01Speaker 1: Exactly.
- 1:09:02Speaker 3: Where do you get it? It's hard.
- 1:09:03Speaker 2: I have to make it, I guess. But the question is,
- 1:09:05Speaker 2: do you like it? cake kind or the pie crust
- 1:09:06Speaker 2: kind on top?
- 1:09:07Speaker 3: Probably the pie crust.
- 1:09:09Speaker 1: That's how I am. That's how I am, too. I
- 1:09:11Speaker 1: was afraid to say you might say the cake.
- 1:09:13Speaker 2: I was like, oh, no, no, no.
- 1:09:15Speaker 1: The pie crust.
- 1:09:15Speaker 2: That's the easiest one to make, so that's the one
- 1:09:17Speaker 2: people make.
- 1:09:17Speaker 3: I asked Marco Rubio, who will be your future boss, right?
- 1:09:21Speaker 3: What his favorite food was. I mean, under the president.
- 1:09:24Speaker 2: Did he say Pop-Tart? No.
- 1:09:25Speaker 3: Because he's in the news for Pop-Tart.
- 1:09:26Speaker 2: That was so funny.
- 1:09:28Speaker 3: He told me chicken parm and pizza.
- 1:09:31Speaker 2: Together?
- 1:09:31Speaker 3: Well, just one or the other.
- 1:09:33Speaker 2: Chicken parm or pizza.
- 1:09:34Speaker 3: He likes Italian food.
- 1:09:35Speaker 2: That's good to know. Thanks for the hint, but I
- 1:09:36Speaker 2: need to.
- 1:09:37Speaker 3: Yeah. What is your favorite?
- 1:09:39Speaker 1: Thai food? Oh, to eat?
- 1:09:41Speaker 3: You should go have Thai food with sissy.
- 1:09:44Speaker 2: I'm guessing that is not one of your favorites.
- 1:09:46Speaker 3: No.
- 1:09:46Speaker 1: They have some good.
- 1:09:48Speaker 3: I love fish tacos. I love hamburgers. I love pizza.
- 1:09:51Speaker 3: Everything I love is bad for me and is fattening, period.
- 1:09:55Speaker 3: I'm like, oh, I love tofu. Okay, so do you
- 1:09:59Speaker 3: have a favorite movie? Here's how I define a favorite movie.
- 1:10:02Speaker 3: If I'm flipping the channels and I come to this movie,
- 1:10:05Speaker 3: maybe I've seen it 50 times. I don't know if
- 1:10:08Speaker 3: I've seen any movie 50 times. Maybe I have. But
- 1:10:12Speaker 3: I'll stop and wait till the commercial because I like
- 1:10:14Speaker 3: the movie so much. Do you have like a movie
- 1:10:16Speaker 3: like that?
- 1:10:16Speaker 2: Lassimo Higgins.
- 1:10:17Speaker 3: I love that movie.
- 1:10:18Speaker 2: Daniel Day-Lewis.
- 1:10:19Speaker 1: Oh my goodness.
- 1:10:20Speaker 3: That is one of the most, you don't think of.
- 1:10:22Speaker 1: It, the title doesn't give a clue.
- 1:10:25Speaker 2: I know.
- 1:10:26Speaker 1: To how romantic that movie is.
- 1:10:28Speaker 2: And he says, I will find you no matter how far. Exactly.
- 1:10:32Speaker 1: And that music as he's running to.
- 1:10:34Speaker 2: Last Mohegan's, hands down, my favorite.
- 1:10:36Speaker 3: Yeah, the music.
- 1:10:37Speaker 2: Did that surprise you with my answer there?
- 1:10:39Speaker 3: That's a good... Okay, I'm going to say, I don't
- 1:10:41Speaker 3: want to sound chauvinistic, but for a girl, that's not
- 1:10:46Speaker 3: normally the movie that a girl would select. But it
- 1:10:49Speaker 3: is incredibly.
- 1:10:49Speaker 2: I had three older brothers and a father that.
- 1:10:51Speaker 3: I would expect a guy maybe... To say that one.
- 1:10:54Speaker 2: I remember going to the theater with my dad to
- 1:10:56Speaker 2: watch that movie, which I probably say because I was
- 1:10:58Speaker 2: young and I think I was rude at all.
- 1:11:00Speaker 3: That's a good choice. I support that choice. Okay, so
- 1:11:04Speaker 3: if you can have a meal with three people that
- 1:11:08Speaker 3: are living, not including Jesus, we would all invite Jesus
- 1:11:13Speaker 3: to that meal. That are living? Living or passed on,
- 1:11:19Speaker 3: but just three figures, three people, who would they be?
- 1:11:23Speaker 2: Okay, two of them, and you might not know their names.
- 1:11:26Speaker 3: Okay.
- 1:11:26Speaker 2: I've always said, Corey laughs because in the world of
- 1:11:29Speaker 2: social media, you feel like you know people.
- 1:11:31Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 1:11:32Speaker 2: Jesse Etzler.
- 1:11:34Speaker 3: Oh, I don't know that.
- 1:11:34Speaker 2: He married the lady that invented Spanx. So Sarah Blakeney.
- 1:11:38Speaker 2: I would probably want to have dinner with the two
- 1:11:40Speaker 2: of them.
- 1:11:41Speaker 1: Short take. She better start there.
- 1:11:43Speaker 2: They're an amazing couple, but he's.
- 1:11:45Speaker 3: I'm wearing Spanx right now. I'm not.
- 1:11:47Speaker 2: He's an entrepreneur in his own right. And they are
- 1:11:51Speaker 2: a fascinating couple to me.
- 1:11:53Speaker 1: And I just- Wait, of all the people in history-
- 1:11:58Speaker 1: Those two, I.
- 1:11:59Speaker 2: Say right now, I would want to have dinner with
- 1:12:01Speaker 2: those two.
- 1:12:02Speaker 3: You're taking two spots up?
- 1:12:04Speaker 1: You said three.
- 1:12:05Speaker 2: They're two.
- 1:12:05Speaker 3: But this is a very special dinner. You're going to
- 1:12:07Speaker 3: have two of them?
- 1:12:08Speaker 2: Hey, this is my moment. Maybe you'll see this. Jesse Hudson,
- 1:12:11Speaker 2: Sarah Blakeney, I want dinner.
- 1:12:12Speaker 1: You asked her the question.
- 1:12:13Speaker 3: She's answering it.
- 1:12:14Speaker 2: It is true. I've sat with some important people in
- 1:12:16Speaker 2: this world.
- 1:12:17Speaker 3: Yes, you have.
- 1:12:19Speaker 2: But those two, they are fascinating. I can tell you
- 1:12:21Speaker 2: more about them. The third one, I would go back
- 1:12:24Speaker 2: to have dinner. Dinner with my grandmother. Because as I said,
- 1:12:29Speaker 2: I wish there were questions I could ask her now
- 1:12:32Speaker 2: as an adult that I didn't know to ask.
- 1:12:35Speaker 1: So good.
- 1:12:36Speaker 3: Good answer.
- 1:12:37Speaker 2: I don't know. Where do you think I was going
- 1:12:38Speaker 2: with that?
- 1:12:39Speaker 3: I get your grandmother. The other two, I missed a point.
- 1:12:44Speaker 3: Do you ever go to, I think we all have
- 1:12:45Speaker 3: Bible verses we go to often. Are there certain verses
- 1:12:50Speaker 3: that you go, I go back to this verse all
- 1:12:52Speaker 3: the time. Maybe a time of stress, you know, don't
- 1:12:54Speaker 3: worry about anything. Pray about everything. The peace of God
- 1:12:58Speaker 3: that passes on understanding will guard your heart and mind.
- 1:13:01Speaker 3: Is there a verse that you go back to again
- 1:13:03Speaker 3: and again? Or maybe someone says, write a verse of
- 1:13:07Speaker 3: my Bible. I like, can you write a Bible verse
- 1:13:10Speaker 3: in my Bible?
- 1:13:10Speaker 2: I've already mentioned it, but for me it was Daniel
- 1:13:13Speaker 2: chapter 11.
- 1:13:14Speaker 3: Okay.
- 1:13:15Speaker 2: Those who know their God will be able to stand
- 1:13:16Speaker 2: in strength and take action. It's kind of been my
- 1:13:18Speaker 2: great verse. The verse that I've adopted is if people
- 1:13:21Speaker 2: say a life verse. Yeah. Yeah.
- 1:13:24Speaker 3: What is your favorite music? What does Sissy listen to
- 1:13:27Speaker 3: when she's just driving around? Oh, man. Taking her kids
- 1:13:31Speaker 3: to school.
- 1:13:31Speaker 2: I have a very wide range.
- 1:13:32Speaker 3: Eating Thai food.
- 1:13:33Speaker 2: I feel like I like it all. I love it
- 1:13:36Speaker 2: when oldie goldies come on.
- 1:13:38Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 1:13:39Speaker 2: Because it takes me back.
- 1:13:40Speaker 3: But what is an oldie goldie to you?
- 1:13:41Speaker 2: Okay, I will say, though, I didn't grow up on Beatles.
- 1:13:43Speaker 3: No.
- 1:13:44Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.
- 1:13:44Speaker 2: Um, my mom was never a fan of Beatles. She
- 1:13:47Speaker 2: liked more of the Motown.
- 1:13:48Speaker 3: Oh yeah.
- 1:13:48Speaker 2: And so when that comes on, cause that's what my
- 1:13:51Speaker 2: mom raised us on. I can still remember. It was
- 1:13:53Speaker 2: like 96.1 oldie goldie. It just takes me back to
- 1:13:57Speaker 2: that moment of riding in the car with my mom.
- 1:13:59Speaker 2: So I've started turning those on for my kids now.
- 1:14:01Speaker 3: Like the Supremes, Diana Russell Supremes.
- 1:14:04Speaker 2: The Four Seasons.
- 1:14:05Speaker 3: Yeah. Smokey Robinson.
- 1:14:06Speaker 1: Yes.
- 1:14:08Speaker 3: It was amazing. Cause here's a time in musical history.
- 1:14:11Speaker 3: You have the Beatles.
- 1:14:12Speaker 2: Yes.
- 1:14:13Speaker 3: But then you have Motown happening at the same time.
- 1:14:17Speaker 3: And now to this very day, these are the songs
- 1:14:20Speaker 3: that people are still listening to over and over again.
- 1:14:23Speaker 1: Absolutely.
- 1:14:23Speaker 3: So much other music has come and gone.
- 1:14:25Speaker 2: And then I'm a product of the 90s. I kind
- 1:14:27Speaker 2: of like 90s grunge, too.
- 1:14:28Speaker 3: Oh, really? Yeah.
- 1:14:30Speaker 1: I don't even know what that is.
- 1:14:31Speaker 3: Did you have a favorite band? Like what, Pearl Jam
- 1:14:33Speaker 3: or Nirvana?
- 1:14:34Speaker 2: Can I say Cranberries? That would be.
- 1:14:35Speaker 3: Yeah, sure. Okay.
- 1:14:36Speaker 2: I like the Cranberries. I don't know if I like
- 1:14:37Speaker 2: the Cranberries. I don't even know what.
- 1:14:39Speaker 1: I've got to look that one up.
- 1:14:40Speaker 3: No, I know who they are. Are you a morning
- 1:14:42Speaker 3: person or are you a night out?
- 1:14:43Speaker 2: Morning. I go to bed way too early.
- 1:14:45Speaker 3: Always?
- 1:14:46Speaker 2: Always morning.
- 1:14:47Speaker 3: I used to be a night out. Then I became
- 1:14:48Speaker 3: a morning person. I can't stand it. Now I'm an
- 1:14:50Speaker 3: inappropriately morning 4.30 even. I can't even text anyone.
- 1:14:55Speaker 2: You get up at 4.30?
- 1:14:56Speaker 3: Sometimes I do.
- 1:14:59Speaker 2: For the evening, not even in college could I pull
- 1:15:02Speaker 2: an all-nighter to do a project.
- 1:15:04Speaker 1: I know. I'm right with you. It's like, no.
- 1:15:06Speaker 2: I put my kids to bed.
- 1:15:07Speaker 1: I'm in bed. And then after dinner, it's like, I'm worthless.
- 1:15:10Speaker 1: I can't work on anything.
- 1:15:11Speaker 3: What's something about you that would surprise people? I've heard
- 1:15:15Speaker 3: a couple of things already. Who you would have your
- 1:15:18Speaker 3: special meal with. Thai food threw me too.
- 1:15:20Speaker 2: Can we do a recap? Well, I lived in Thailand
- 1:15:23Speaker 2: for a short time and.
- 1:15:24Speaker 1: I took a Thai cooking class.
- 1:15:25Speaker 3: When did you live in Thailand?
- 1:15:26Speaker 2: My first semester or second, sophomore year in college. I
- 1:15:29Speaker 2: took a semester off. I had struggled.
- 1:15:31Speaker 1: It was.
- 1:15:33Speaker 2: A difficult time in my life. And I worked for–
- 1:15:36Speaker 2: it was actually a lady, Rose Martinez, that is out
- 1:15:39Speaker 2: of Calvary Chapel.
- 1:15:41Speaker 1: I know that name.
- 1:15:42Speaker 2: She left in the 70s and started orphanages in Thailand.
- 1:15:47Speaker 2: So the Thai food. But I will come– hey, pizza is–
- 1:15:50Speaker 2: I mean, I'll take you out for pizza or fish tacos.
- 1:15:53Speaker 2: But what was the last question?
- 1:15:55Speaker 3: The question was.
- 1:15:56Speaker 2: Since I gave disappointing answers so far.
- 1:15:59Speaker 3: Yeah, something that would surprise people about you. I don't
- 1:16:04Speaker 3: even know what I would say.
- 1:16:05Speaker 2: Would you answer that question?
- 1:16:06Speaker 3: I don't know. What would surprise... I don't know. What
- 1:16:11Speaker 3: would you say? You know, honestly, when I preach, I
- 1:16:15Speaker 3: pretty much put it all out there. I don't know
- 1:16:17Speaker 3: if there's anything I would say.
- 1:16:18Speaker 1: Would surprise anyone?
- 1:16:19Speaker 3: Would surprise anyone? I'm not sure. Maybe my prankster.
- 1:16:23Speaker 1: I think what.
- 1:16:24Speaker 2: Would they be surprised that you would walk out of
- 1:16:26Speaker 2: the bathroom with toilet paper hanging out of your pants
- 1:16:29Speaker 2: and walk down the hallway so people could see?
- 1:16:32Speaker 1: You should do that on.
- 1:16:32Speaker 3: They might.
- 1:16:33Speaker 1: Maybe not.
- 1:16:34Speaker 3: I'm not going to do that at church. It's not
- 1:16:35Speaker 3: the time or place. But yes, I've done that more
- 1:16:38Speaker 3: than once and you kids have seen it. Yeah. Maybe
- 1:16:42Speaker 3: they would... How did it get to me? You.
- 1:16:45Speaker 2: Because you ask these questions and people don't have answers.
- 1:16:46Speaker 1: And she turned it back on you and said... That's true.
- 1:16:49Speaker 3: What would surprise them about you?
- 1:16:51Speaker 2: How about you love Seinfeld? Would that... No, that's not surprising.
- 1:16:54Speaker 3: I mean, I don't love Seinfeld. I don't dislike Seinfeld.
- 1:16:58Speaker 3: I like The Office more than I like Seinfeld. I
- 1:17:02Speaker 3: think The Office is hilarious. And apparently I like The
- 1:17:05Speaker 3: Simpsons because I watched it downstairs.
- 1:17:07Speaker 2: And Woodlands.
- 1:17:08Speaker 1: And Woodlands.
- 1:17:08Speaker 3: I don't remember that.
- 1:17:10Speaker 2: I don't know. I'll have to... When I come back
- 1:17:12Speaker 2: for my second round here on your podcast, I'll have
- 1:17:15Speaker 2: an answer.
- 1:17:16Speaker 1: What was the last book you read?
- 1:17:19Speaker 2: A book that I just got to read, Packers, The
- 1:17:23Speaker 2: Knowing God. I just re-bought it. I read it in
- 1:17:26Speaker 2: a long time. And so that's going to be back
- 1:17:29Speaker 2: on my list to read.
- 1:17:29Speaker 1: What is your favorite work of fiction? Like a fiction story,
- 1:17:34Speaker 1: short story, novel? No, no.
- 1:17:37Speaker 2: I'm not a reader.
- 1:17:38Speaker 1: Are you a reader, Kathy? No. I like, I like, yeah, I.
- 1:17:42Speaker 3: Like to read. She listens to a lot of books on. Audible.
- 1:17:45Speaker 3: On Audible now.
- 1:17:45Speaker 1: I do because, because my attention.
- 1:17:47Speaker 3: Really boring books on my dad.
- 1:17:48Speaker 1: I think attention span is like shorter because of all
- 1:17:53Speaker 1: the stuff is so fast on phones.
- 1:17:54Speaker 3: Wait, what were you just listening to? It was like,
- 1:17:58Speaker 3: what was that? Something, not war and peace, but something like.
- 1:18:04Speaker 1: It was, it was the Russian novelist. Yeah, it was, um.
- 1:18:10Speaker 1: Brothers Karamazov. Yeah, I'm like, why? I haven't read so
- 1:18:14Speaker 1: many classics that I'm like, but the way I do
- 1:18:16Speaker 1: it now, because I get sleepy when I'm reading, is
- 1:18:20Speaker 1: I'll go for a walk or I'm folding laundry or
- 1:18:22Speaker 1: I'm doing yard work and I put on an audible
- 1:18:25Speaker 1: and listen that way. What would surprise people about me
- 1:18:29Speaker 1: is how much I love poetry. I love poetry. I love,
- 1:18:35Speaker 1: I bore people with the things I like. I subscribe
- 1:18:38Speaker 1: to a podcast called The Daily Poem.
- 1:18:41Speaker 2: I would not have guessed that.
- 1:18:42Speaker 1: And they're short, but I.
- 1:18:44Speaker 3: And what would surprise people about me is I write poetry.
- 1:18:47Speaker 1: I don't.
- 1:18:48Speaker 3: I don't.
- 1:18:50Speaker 1: You know what would surprise people about you? Is how
- 1:18:52Speaker 1: much you sing. You sing... all the time at home
- 1:18:57Speaker 1: in the shower and when you sang on sunday.
- 1:19:00Speaker 2: People were like wow what does he sing.
- 1:19:02Speaker 1: Really he sang a hymn he sang a holy spirit
- 1:19:05Speaker 1: song we were praying about the you know being filled
- 1:19:08Speaker 1: with the holy spirit and at the end of the
- 1:19:09Speaker 1: service he led I guess you didn't like the song
- 1:19:12Speaker 1: the worship team picked or you wanted another one, but
- 1:19:15Speaker 1: you came out with this song. And I was like
- 1:19:17Speaker 1: sitting there because we stream live first service to Orange
- 1:19:21Speaker 1: County and I was sitting in the eight o'clock service.
- 1:19:23Speaker 1: And all of a sudden I hear you're singing acapella
- 1:19:26Speaker 1: all by yourself.
- 1:19:27Speaker 3: Wow.
- 1:19:27Speaker 2: That would be my worst nightmare. I mean, I talk
- 1:19:30Speaker 2: about a singing incident in my book.
- 1:19:32Speaker 1: Oh, I know.
- 1:19:32Speaker 2: No, me too. I'm going up to talk. And they
- 1:19:35Speaker 2: have my microphone already on. And there's a song going.
- 1:19:38Speaker 2: I won't sing because I'm so afraid.
- 1:19:39Speaker 3: Singing is just.
- 1:19:40Speaker 2: I still have dreams.
- 1:19:42Speaker 1: Oh, I'm with you on that. He loves to sing.
- 1:19:45Speaker 3: I do.
- 1:19:46Speaker 1: He loves to sing. All the time. Really, all the time.
- 1:19:50Speaker 1: It really makes me happy. It's sort of a release.
- 1:19:53Speaker 1: You know, sometimes even when you're under stress or going
- 1:19:56Speaker 1: through something hard, I'll hear him singing.
- 1:19:59Speaker 2: Can we hear it?
- 1:19:59Speaker 1: And it's like.
- 1:20:00Speaker 2: No. No.
- 1:20:01Speaker 1: He sings a lot of Beatles songs. It's not like
- 1:20:04Speaker 1: he's being very spiritual.
- 1:20:06Speaker 2: I thought one of the questions was he's going to
- 1:20:07Speaker 2: have me name all the Beatles.
- 1:20:09Speaker 3: Oh, no.
- 1:20:10Speaker 2: Can you name them all? Oh, I can't. You asked
- 1:20:13Speaker 2: me this one time.
- 1:20:14Speaker 1: Oh, that's embarrassing.
- 1:20:14Speaker 3: Matthew, Mark, Luke.
- 1:20:16Speaker 1: It's embarrassing how much Beatle trivia he knows. It's like
- 1:20:21Speaker 1: that is occupying too much space in your brain.
- 1:20:24Speaker 2: I did memorize them one time because you did ask
- 1:20:26Speaker 2: me that one time when we were in Israel. And
- 1:20:28Speaker 2: I forgot one. I forget which one I forgot. We
- 1:20:32Speaker 2: were sitting in the King David and you asked me
- 1:20:34Speaker 2: that and I failed. I was the millennial that did
- 1:20:36Speaker 2: not know.
- 1:20:37Speaker 1: Good for you. That's a good thing. It doesn't have
- 1:20:43Speaker 1: to occupy any brain space.
- 1:20:45Speaker 3: It's been so much fun talking to you. We've talked
- 1:20:48Speaker 3: about so many important subjects. We will all be praying
- 1:20:51Speaker 3: for you that you will be confirmed by the Senate
- 1:20:55Speaker 3: for this amazing position. I think it's so great, Sissy,
- 1:20:59Speaker 3: because You know, you're wise beyond your years, and you
- 1:21:03Speaker 3: have so much to say to this younger generation. And
- 1:21:06Speaker 3: they need to hear clear voices. They need to hear
- 1:21:09Speaker 3: biblical voices. They need to hear people that have strong conviction,
- 1:21:14Speaker 3: which you have. I think the title of your book
- 1:21:17Speaker 3: is Perfect Stand Steady, because that's what you're doing, and
- 1:21:20Speaker 3: that's what you will continue to do. And a whole
- 1:21:23Speaker 3: young generation, especially young ladies, but young men too, but
- 1:21:27Speaker 3: especially young girls. They need to hear your voice. So
- 1:21:30Speaker 3: thanks for writing this book. And thanks for your stand
- 1:21:33Speaker 3: for Christ all these years.
- 1:21:36Speaker 2: Thank you for having me today. And as I just said,
- 1:21:38Speaker 2: I'm so grateful. Grateful for y'all's friendship over the years.
- 1:21:41Speaker 2: And you and Kathy have meant more to me than
- 1:21:44Speaker 2: you'll ever know. In your ministry, you've had a huge
- 1:21:47Speaker 2: spiritual impact on my life.
- 1:21:48Speaker 3: And I'm grateful.
- 1:21:50Speaker 1: Sissy, we are so grateful to be recording this podcast
- 1:21:54Speaker 1: with you. You are a delight. It's been a blessing
- 1:21:57Speaker 1: hearing how God is using you, and this book is
- 1:22:00Speaker 1: going to be amazing. It is needed. And then this
- 1:22:03Speaker 1: upcoming appointment and the nomination, God's going to be with you.
- 1:22:07Speaker 1: He's going to take care of all the home stuff
- 1:22:09Speaker 1: and all the kids' stuff and prepare you for that
- 1:22:12Speaker 1: Senate hearing. It's going to be good.
- 1:22:15Speaker 3: We'll be watching and praying. Things are coming.