Latest / The Father's Business Podcast / Finding God in Difficult Days: Embracing Faith and Resilience (Part 1)

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Finding God in Difficult Days: Embracing Faith and Resilience (Part 1) · The Father's Business Podcast

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: The Father's Business was founded by Sylvia Gunter to encourage people to a deeper relationship with God.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: I'm Elizabeth Gunter Powell.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: And I am Kimberly Roddy.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: Welcome to the Father's Business Podcast.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: We are so glad that you've joined us.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: Well, hi everyone, welcome to this week's podcast.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: After recording this podcast, we realized that we should probably cut this episode into two different episodes.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Just to give you a little background on September 26, we released an episode that was an insider update.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: It was the launch of our book Strength to Equal your Days and our discussion about that book.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: A week later, we released an episode where we prayed for those that had been affected and were trying to help in the midst of Hurricane Helena.
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: Well, after recording this episode, we discovered that there's another hurricane that is landing as we are uploading this episode to reach you, and so our conversation today and our conversation next week, as it will be continued, is about where is God in the midst of to the hurricanes impacting a lot of the southeastern region of the country, and if you're not impacted by that, you're impacted by something else.
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: So we know that there are people listening all over the world, but I know in our area of the southeast, which a lot of our people live in, we want to acknowledge that there's some major impact going on with these hurricanes, and so we just want to say that we get that it's hard and I'm really sorry if you're suffering and if you're in the midst of walking through darkness right now.
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: I am sorry and I am praying that God will be with you and that he will be present and that you will not lose hope in that.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: So today we are going to offer you part one of a conversation that Elizabeth and I had, and next week we'll come back with part two.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: So we hope that you'll listen today and we hope you'll listen next week as it continues, and that you can kind of join in on our conversation of our wrestlings and our musings of how we wrestle through this and how we see the church and Christians and others wrestling through this.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: We hope that you will wrestle with us in this, but know that we are praying and that we regularly pray for all of you who listen, and we really hope and pray that today's conversation will be something that gets you thinking and that it helps you and encourages you and also encourages you to live this out a little different.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: More than anything, we hope and pray that wherever you are, that you will know who God is and who he has made you to be in him and that he sees you as his chosen and His beloved, and that he is very patient and he is very loving.
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: And there's a lot of things that don't make sense and we cry out, but God.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: Welcome everybody to this week's podcast.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: If you joined us last time, we spent some time just kind of sorting through our own emotions and thoughts about just the devastation that we're seeing all over the Southeast as this hurricane has come through, and we also talked briefly about the new devotional book we have coming out, called Strength to Equal your Days, that we are super excited to be releasing at the end of this month.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: And so Kimberly and I just want to take some time to have some conversation around kind of the themes and the thoughts of this book.
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: And really the reason why we even chose the title Strength to Equal your Days is because life is hard and I think sometimes we may fool ourselves into thinking that once we have a relationship with God and God is for us and God is with us, which is true that somehow life should be easier or that we should be rescued from our storms.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: And really what I have learned, and Kimberly has learned, and definitely my mom, sylvia, has learned as she's walked with God a lot longer than even we have is he doesn't promise that we won't go through trials, but he promises he'll be there with us in them.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: So that is why the title Strength to Equal your Days is so meaningful to us and so, kimberly, I continue to watch the coverage of everything going on from Florida to South Carolina to North Carolina, even up in Virginia and you know you're in the Virginia area and I've heard some stories from there and then we both have connections to people in Georgia and South Carolina and North Carolina.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: And I had a thought this morning as I was watching is yes, it is devastating everything that's going on.
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: But I think what makes it even harder is just how much access we have to the images of it all.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: And I started thinking about I was like what if this happened?
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: Like when our grandparents were alive or even when we were kids, you know, because we did not have smartphones, kimberly, when you and I were in elementary and junior high and high school, even college, we didn't really have smartphones.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: And you know, I remember when CNN got started, so I mean, I'm kind of dating myself here, but there is now this 24-7 access to everything and so many people can just pick up a phone and be like, hey, I'm in drawn to watch these things on TikTok and Instagram and Facebook and other places because I want to know what's going on.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: But I can also feel the weight of it on my shoulders if I keep watching for too long, and I don't think the human heart and the human mind were built to consume this much information as we do.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: I mean, we've talked about that some in some other podcasts we've done, and so if this had happened in our childhood or even in our like, say, when our grandparents were alive and with us, they would have heard that what happened, but it would be a short news report or it'd be something in a newspaper those things we don't even print anymore because no one has them but it wouldn't be just the emotional pull and just the heaviness of of what we are are dealing with now.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: And so I think part of guarding my own heart and protecting my own heart is having to get to a point of going okay and really got kind of convicted this morning is that Holy Spirit is so good at doing of basically saying, okay, how much of your time are you focusing on the tragedy and the stuff that happened versus how much are you focusing on me and who I am and who I can be in that?
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: And I was like, yeah, I'm out of balance and that's why my soul just feels so heavy.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: And that's not to mean that I want to dismiss or downplay the things that people are going through, but I think we got to somehow find that balance of holding on to who God is in the midst of these things.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: But it's hard, because then those questions come up that you and I were talking about last week, which is well, where was he and why did it happen?
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: And so there's layers upon layers of things that we can talk about today, kimberly.
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: There has been a lot to process and see.
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: I feel like I was.
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: I feel like initially there, I wasn't seeing a lot.
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: So then I, like you, I started seeing too much.
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: Maybe you know, like you said, there's things that we wouldn't have been able to see just because we have a device that we carry around in our pocket that gives us access to everything.
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: Yesterday was kind of a.
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: I had a cool moment happen yesterday.
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: I had a friend from high school posted and tagged a whole bunch of us in it and said hey, she lives in Asheville, her parents still live in South Carolina, where I grew up in the Greenville area, just outside of Greenville, and she was going to be making a trip back to Asheville and they were going to be making toilets because they don't have running water so you can't flush a toilet or do a lot of things, and so they were making toilets for everyone.
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: And then they were also making special toilets for elderly or disabled people that would be a little more sturdy and easier to use.
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: And she had two friends that were going to be making those and they just needed supplies.
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: And so she posted that if anybody wanted to bring supplies to her parents' house.
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: She'd be leaving later yesterday afternoon.
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: She's going to be going to Lowe's and getting things.
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: And so I messaged her and I was like, hey, I'm not in the area but I'd love to.
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: Is there anything I can do?
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: Like, can I send you some cash to get some supplies?
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: And then shortly after that, apparently several people asked her that because then she started posting hey, several of you are asking about sending me money.
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: Here's my Venmo, paypal, whatever accounts and so I was able to send her some money.
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: Another friend of mine sent her some money to buy the supplies, and then a bunch of people she put a picture online of a bunch of people dropped off supplies at her parents' house and that was a moment of okay, take a step back from observing and being overwhelmed by taking in all the images and focusing on the destruction and what's going on.
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: And it was a moment to go.
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: Hey, I can be a part of helping here.
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: And my friend and I were actually talking about that right after that happened and she said I'm kind of welling up with emotion right now, like just sadness, because I finally feel like that was a place where I could help, because I felt helpless and I thought, yeah, this is like there are different places where our attention gets pulled when things like this happen, as you were just talking.
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: And just that moment yesterday is a picture where it was an opportunity for me, practically, because I had a friend who was doing something practical in the area.
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: I practically had an opportunity to give and again, nothing wrong with giving to big organizations or that kind of thing, but it was an opportunity to help someone I specifically knew who was helping people she specifically knew, and so it was a moment to just take a step back and go okay, I can be a part of helping, which is being the body of Christ, which is some of what we talked about in our podcast last week, where we spent some time specifically praying for people that have been affected and those that are helping, and I think that's where we get to offer comfort and hope.
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: And, elizabeth, I think that's one of the things that you were specifically praying people would have hope.
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, praying people would have hope.
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: I think that is a huge question that we often are left with in suffering is how does hope and suffering go together?
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: And that's a problem for a lot of people.
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: It's a reason that there have been a lot of stories that we've seen where people walk away from their faith because they walk through a very dark time or they live through a dark season and they don't know how to have hope.
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: And it's not.
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: We've alluded to this before.
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: It's not that simple.
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: Give them Romans 8, 28, which says hey, guess what?
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: God works together for the good of all those who love him and are called according to his purpose.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: Right Like we can't twist and utilize certain scriptures to make people feel a certain way.
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: In some ways, that's manipulating God's word.
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: Some way it's manipulating people's emotions and I think that that's been very destructive to American Christianity probably Christianity at large, but I can speak to you've lived overseas more than I have, but I can speak to American Christianity.
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: At the very least we have definitely given people an idea of who God is in the midst of suffering.
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: That isn't necessarily Christian the fully orbed gospel picture of who God is in the midst of suffering.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: Oh, absolutely.
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: I agree with that and I think, taking a step back even from that, I think we've the Christianity that is presented a lot in this country and other places, and that I'm going to go ahead and say it.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: I'm not talking about everybody, but there is this basic undercurrent of all of our lives, myself included, that because I'm a follower of God, my life should be smoother, my life should have more peace, my life should be easier.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: And even when you quote Romans 8, 28, that God works all things together for the good, I have a very different, very different definition of good.
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: Good means I don't have any trials, I don't have any stress.
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: When I go to the store, it's easy to get in and out, there's a parking spot for me right up front.
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: I, you know, everything that I want is given to me right when I want it.
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: If I'm, if we're, I'm being really honest, what is a good day for me?
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: It's a day when no one irritates me, when everything happens when I want to happen.
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: It's a very self-centered definition of good.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: And so when we're in a crisis or there are other people in crisis and we're like, well, you know, god says he works all things together for good.
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: The condemnation that falls on me when I hear that, when I'm struggling, is well one.
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: Yes, I know the end of the story and in the end of time this is all going to turn out okay, but right now it doesn't feel okay, it doesn't feel good, whatever.
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: And so, therefore, not only are you not listening to me, be honest and say I'm hurting, you're also in some ways condemning me that I can't feel happier about it, and I think we have so sold short the gospel if we don't understand how much suffering is a part of it.
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: I was thinking this morning just even about the two times that there are storms mentioned with Jesus in the Bible.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: One time he's asleep in a boat, the other time he's not even in the boat and he doesn't do anything about it either time, until the people accuse him of not caring.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: And I was wondering about the time when he's asleep in the back of the boat and they're in a storm and the disciples are like you don't even care if we drown out here.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: And I was like if they hadn't gone to Jesus and asked that question, how long would Jesus have kept sleeping?
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: And I think a lot of times.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: We want instant fixes.
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: We want quick end of suffering because, I mean, does anyone love suffering?
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: No, but I think there is so much that God is wanting to do, and he's promised us in his word that suffering is a part of the deal.
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: And if we are only trying to share the, you know God loves you part of the gospel, which is true, and we all desperately need it.
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: But if we don't also go and in this life, you're going to have trials, and so here's how you learn to walk through those and lean into who he is for you, even when the circumstances don't change, we are creating malnourished Christians who only know how to follow God when life is okay and, as we can see, our world's not getting better.
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: I mean, look around at any arena, whether you want to talk about politics or economy, or even the climate, or I mean whatever, whatever area.
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: This, this world, is not evolving into a better place.
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: We are living in a fallen world and it is going to be fallen, and so if we do need to be strength to equal our days and that's really the passion behind these devotionals is that maybe we can just be a person who, for a few moments a day, can come alongside you and go okay, yeah, today's hard, or okay, yeah, it feels like God is being silent and he's a thousand miles away from you.
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it feels like God is being silent and he's a thousand miles away from you, but let's remember who God is and who you are in him.
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: And so I really am passionate about this project.
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: I'm passionate about this topic because, kimberly, you and I both have been through a lot of seasons in different stages of our lives where we're having to deal with a long period of suffering.
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: It wasn't just we were having a bad day or a bad week, but we have had long-term and are in some ways still in long-term situations where this is going to be hard for a while and that's not fun, but this is where we are.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: And so, okay, how do I get away from the mentality of I will have joy when the circumstance changes to?
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: Okay, how can I know that God is with me and have a feeling of His presence, even when my circumstances would define God as a very uninvolved, uncaring God, which he is not, and that's hard and I don't think you or I would ever come and say we have the answers.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: But I think we can say we're in it with you, and we get that.
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: This is a hard one to wrestle with.
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: I think you're exactly right.
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: When we think about the definition of what our good looks like, I think we often want a particular answer to our prayer when we're in distress.
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: Right, we want, like, not just God come and rescue me, it is God come and rescue me and put me in this situation, his rescue me in this particular way.
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: Right, if we're we, if we're honest we, we don't want the comfort of his presence, which is often what he's referring to.
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: Is that his spirit will comfort us or his body will comfort us?
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: We want the comfort.
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: Creatures of privilege and man.
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: We want the, the, whatever comfort represents to you, right, like the, the perfect living room, the perfect meal, the perfect, I don't know, whatever it looks like.
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: We want that perfect comfort, and I do.
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: I think we're missing that.
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: The comfort is God's presence.
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: That's what scripture says, and so it's interesting because so often when let's just be honest when someone passes away, we often want to say, well, we know they're in a better place, yeah, and it just.
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: I understand sometimes why people say that, like we've lost people.
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: You and I both have lost significant people in our lives, right, and people are not intending to hurt me or harm me.
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: I mean they want to comfort me by reassuring me that, you know, someone I love is in a better place now.
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: But the reality of what that also does is that it reframes, and more than reframes, it removes the grief portion of what the scriptures speak to over and over again that I should be experiencing because I'm a follower of Christ.
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: I will experience grief, I will experience suffering, I will experience loss.
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: And if someone comes along and kind of hijacks that process of grief because none of us really enjoy grief but if someone comes along and hijacks that, or if we allow it to be hijacked by distraction, addictions, momentary comforts.
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: Again, I'm not saying that we don't cope and we don't need reprieves, I'm not saying any of that.
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: But when the process of grieving or suffering gets hijacked, we miss out on the presence of Jesus sitting with us.
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: And so when we, elizabeth, you and I, we've both been in ministry, we've both worked within the walls of the church and unfortunately, the church and the body of Christ is very guilty of saying hey, guess what it's all okay.
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: Hey, guess what it's going to get better.
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: Hey, guess what?
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: Jesus came to make all things new.
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: Hey, guess what?
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: They're in heaven with Jesus.
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: Hey, guess what?
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: They're in a better place.
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: And guess what?
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: God works all things together.
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: None of those things are necessarily wrong or untrue, none of those things are necessarily wrong or untrue, but they are disconnected from a deeper, abiding relationship with Jesus.
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: And the disciples had to walk that out.
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: They are walking with this man.
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: They are giving up their livelihoods to follow, being crucified.
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: Not just dying a painful, you know, a slow death in his sleep or whatever, but being crucified.
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: Not only did they have to endure their friend dying on a cross, they had to endure the hopelessness of was he the Messiah?
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: Why were we following him?
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: What were we doing Like?
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: Did we miss something?
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: Which is often where our questions go when we're suffering.
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: Did I do something wrong?
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: Did I miss something?
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: And that was not.
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: We live on the other side of that story and we're like, oh no, no, it was all working out for the good, that was God's plan.
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: And yet that's how we frame things when our suffering comes along.
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: And I think about we have in 2 Corinthians 1, verse 3, paul says Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord, jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation, and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer.
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: Paul's saying right there to the church in Corinth guess what You're going to suffer?
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: But, with that suffering.
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: That's where you experience the abundant comfort and not the creature comforts, the comfort of God's presence.
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: And we have so deceived in some ways many people a generation, two generations that have come along, that are choosing to walk away from the faith because they're saying, hey, that's what you, that are choosing to walk away from the faith because they're saying, hey, that's what you told me would happen.
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: You told me, if I followed God I would live a life of blessing.
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: You told me, if I followed God I would have a wonderful life that doesn't have suffering, that doesn't look like it's supposed to look.
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: There was a study that Barna did just a few years ago.
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: David Kinnaman's written several books on you Lost Me, the Nuns.
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: You can go read the stuff if you're curious.
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: But they did a study among millennials and Gen Z and in that study the most commonly stated reason for unbelief among millennials and Gen Z is this quote they have a hard time believing that a good God would allow so much evil and suffering in the world.
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: So more Gen Z and more millennials are citing that their struggle is with God.
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: They can't hold that tension.
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: How would a good God allow so much suffering and evil?
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: How can God be powerful and good and yet bad things happen on a regular basis, and I just wonder have we done a good job of discipling them and helping them understand the depths of suffering in Scripture?
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean probably not.
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: I mean that is a prevalent question for them.
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: It's also a question that I think has been a stumbling block for people through the generations.
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: But it's like, if you look through Scripture, if we truly are teaching the full of Scripture, god says to Israel hey, you're my chosen people.
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: And then watch what happens to them through most of the Old Testament Testament let's let you be enslaved by the Egyptians, then we'll get you out, and then we'll put you through the Red Sea.
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: And oh, by the way, now you're going to wander in the wilderness for a while and you know this generation is never going to see the promised land.
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: And then, okay, here's your promised land, but oh, by the way, there's giants in the land and you've got to conquer the land before you're allowed to get into the promised land.
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: And then, more you know, more and more waves of being back under captivity.
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: A lot of the Old Testament is written that way.
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: Even when Jesus comes, they're under the rule of Rome.
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: Right, like it's never easy in the Bible.
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: And yet I think we want to pull out the scriptures that say you know, he's faithful and he's loving, and we have a delightful inheritance, and all of that is so true, but it becomes so much richer in the suffering, not because there isn't any suffering, and I'm thinking about a verse that, kimberly, you actually helped us write a devotional for the new book based on Philippians 3.10, where it talks about that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and I'm like yes and amen and oh yeah, I want to know the power of his resurrection Well, the second half of that verse and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: Well, now that gets a little less exciting.
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: Can I have the resurrection package and not take the suffering package?
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: You know, kind of change the menu a little bit, because Jesus is constantly inviting us to a place of suffering with him.
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: But, yeah, I agree completely with what you're talking about, kimberly.
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: I don't want that and I don't want this to come off as a judgment about anything that I see happening in movements across the United States on university campuses, because I think it is beautiful.
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: I get sent videos all the time of look, there's 10,000 students at this university that have come together for a night of worshiping Jesus.
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: That is awesome, and a lot of those organizations are doing a great job after that event of getting those kids connected to local churches.
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: But when I see those things, I'm like, okay, that is great.
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: And even in my own life, let's say, when we do a Rock Journey conference, it is an amazing three days of pulling away, focusing on who God is, having someone nourish my spirit, whatever.
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: And you just come home to laundry on that, you know, the week after the conference is over and it's back to oh, I've got to go to the grocery store, oh, I've got to go do laundry.
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: There is a depression that can kick in because I want all of life to be like that experience that night, or be like that experience at Ruach, and it was rich and it was delicious and I felt God's presence and everything was going great for me in that moment.
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: But that's not real life, and so I agree with you, kimberly.
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: My heartbeat for these younger generations coming up is that we're honest with them and say, hey, yes, there's a lot of great things.
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: I don't know how anyone does life without Jesus, because life is hard enough.
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: And doing it without Jesus, I don't understand how people do it.
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: But if we are only trying to sell them an experience or a feeling or a God is good all the time, all the time God is good kind of feeling, without giving them a definition of what God's goodness is, then we are definitely doing more damage than we are good for the body of Christ.
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: And so that's where I think we do as speaking to myself and you and all of us who are probably a little older listening to this podcast we have a responsibility to walk alongside these younger generations coming up and going hey, it's hard, life's hard.
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: I had a conversation with a 23-year-old old just the other day, and she was trying to say to me in her great wisdom that she had been to a therapist.
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: The therapist had told her that she needed to forgive people in her life that had hurt her, and she had made a choice to forgive them, and so, therefore, she was done and she was as whole and as healed as she was ever gonna to get.
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: And I was just like, oh honey, no, no, no, no, no, no, we're not there.
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: And she was trying to say, well, my trauma responses and the way I'm going to respond to things, this is just how I'm going to be for the rest of my life, because I have mentally forgiven them for what they did, but I have these trauma responses that I'm going to have for the rest of my life and I was like you don't have to.
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: But I think there is a lot of this younger generation that is very focused in on anxiety, but they are also hyper-focused on their mental health, which I'm so glad.
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: We're talking about that more than we ever have before.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: But I think they're being fed a lie that this is as good as it gets, and they're running towards that because of what you said, kimberly, which is they have rejected the church because y'all are saying that I'm supposed to have this blessed and fabulous life and I don't have it.
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: So obviously you don't have the answer, and so these other people over here are going yep, you're damaged and you're always going to be damaged.
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: So we just need to learn about how you respond and how you get triggered and these types of things.
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: And I was like, guys, there's somewhere in the middle where we, as the body of Christ, need to be and go.
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: You know what.
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: You have been through stuff and you're going to continue to go through stuff and it's going to be hard and it may trigger you, but Jesus wants to be with you in suffering, and so I told that that, 23 year old, I was like, oh, oh, no.
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: I was like I'm not done healing.
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: She's like.
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: She's like, well, when do you get there?
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: I just laughed and she knows my mom and I was like you know, sylvia, she's not done healing either.
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: She's in her 80s.
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, I know, because this walk with God is going to be a continual thing for your entire life, where you're asking him to come in and heal old wounds and also new wounds are going to happen and you're going to have to come back to him again.
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: But what he promises is that he will never leave you.
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: He doesn't promise you that it's going to be great and wonderful and peaceful and easy, and I think that's where we're shortchanging ourselves and we're shortchanging these younger generations coming up by not being honest about the fact that it's going to be hard.
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: But there is strength to equal your days if you want to tap into it.
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: So that concludes our part one of our conversation.
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: Join us next time as we finish this conversation and wrap it up for now, but it is an ongoing conversation.
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: We also hope that next week you'll join us in Birmingham, alabama, as we will be having an in-person event.
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: It's going to be a celebration of Sylvia and the Father's Business.
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: It is Friday, october 18th at Crossbridge Church in Birmingham, alabama.
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: It will be from 11 am to 1 pm.
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: It is a free event where we will be offering you lunch, so we need you to register.
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: If you'll go to thefathersbusinesscom backslash event, you will find where to register for that event so that we can include you in the headcount for our food.
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: You will also be able, at that event, to get your hands on the advanced copy of Strength to Equal Our Days, so we hope to see you there.
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: If you can't join us, please send a note to Sylvia to thank her and tell her about how her ministry and her books and resources have impacted you.
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: You can send a message through a written note or through a video.
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: There are instructions as well at thefathersbusinesscom backslash events.
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: We look forward to seeing you and being with you again, take care.
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: I want to thank you for listening to the Father's Business Podcast.
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: This podcast is made possible through donations by people like you.
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: To donate, go to wwwTheFathersBusinesscom.
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: Be sure to follow us at the Father's Biz on Instagram and Facebook.