Latest / The Father's Business Podcast / Finding God in Difficult Days: Embracing Faith and Resilience (Part 2)

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Finding God in Difficult Days: Embracing Faith and Resilience (Part 2) · The Father's Business Podcast

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: The Father's Business was founded by Sylvia Gunter to encourage people to a deeper relationship with God.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: I'm Elizabeth Gunter Powell.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: And I am Kimberly Roddy.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: Welcome to the Father's Business Podcast.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: We are so glad that you've joined us.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Well, hi there everyone.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: Last week we took a week off from the podcast, but we were very busy because we had an event last Friday.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: It was a celebration of Sylvia Gunter and the Father's Business.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: If you were able to join us, I think you were definitely blessed.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Many people were.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: We heard that it was an awesome time together.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: It was an opportunity to celebrate the legacy that Sylvia has invested into the Father's Business the many years of meeting and sitting with men and women and passing on God's word to them, praying for them, sitting with them and just discipling them and mentoring them and investing so much life into them through the Holy Spirit and we got to hear stories about that, elizabeth.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: I'll let you speak to that in just a minute.
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: But the other thing that was really awesome, the other part of our event, was Sylvia being able to be there and stand up and speak and really pass the baton to you and I as an opportunity to say this ministry is not over.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: The Father's business is not done.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: There is so much work left to be done and that's so much of what this podcast has been about is about taking the resources and putting them in a new format and carrying things into the future.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: So, elizabeth, what was your takeaway from the event and how have you been processing our time together?
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I know at first for mom she was so deeply touched and blessed by the many things that were shared in the ways that generationally we even had people who showed up that the first person received mom's materials many, many years ago and now the younger generation is coming up behind them and so she brought one of the women that she's teaching how to pray through mom's materials, and so just the legacy and the ripple effects of the obedience that my mom has had through the years to write materials to disciple people, to pray for people was just really touching to see and it was I mean, it really is worldwide.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: We had videos from all over the world come in of people thanking mom for the materials that she's written.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: We had people talking about how they got them in their early twenties and prayed them for their kids, who now have their own kids, and so it's parents and children and grandchildren and it will continue on to the next generations after that.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: So it was a beautiful time of celebrating legacy and I know because I've been on the inside of all of this.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: As mom said, when she got up to speak, it was just about being faithful to do the next thing God told her to do.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: She never thought in a million years that her materials would really be read by anybody, much less would they have gone to so many nations around the world.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: Kimberly, you were able to share a map with everyone to just see where even the podcast has been listened to around the world, and it really is stunning to realize what God is doing through our obedience to that, and it was a very powerful time.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: As mom said, that the best way that people can love her and support her, as she is in her 80s and ready to take a step back, is to strongly come alongside you and me and continue to see what the Father's business is up to is to strongly come alongside you and me and continue to see what the Father's business is up to.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: So, kimberly, I know you and I we've prayed about it and planned and talked and dreamed.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of exciting things to come in 2025 and beyond, and so it was just a really special time that people took time out of their lives to either come in person or write a note or send a video just to express how much this ministry has meant to them.
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was very exciting.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: The other thing that we got to do was really release with people the latest book, yeah.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: So Strength to Equal your Days is coming out officially for sale on Wednesday, october 23rd, and so it will be by the time you listen to this podcast.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: It'll be available on our website and then it is launching on Amazon on October 25th, so you can look for them in those two places.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: But super exciting to take the richness of the legacy of what mom has written and then add our own flavor to it as we take some of her materials and turn them into devotionals and then also write new materials for the book.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: So it's a 365-day devotional called Strength to Equal your Days, because the Christian life is not always easy, and Jesus didn't promise us that life would be easy.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: In fact, he promised us that we would have trouble in this world, but what he promised is that he would be with us, and so the book really is a focus in on how do you continue to hear him, see him, feel him, know who he is and who you are in him, whether you're on a mountaintop experience or you're going through a really dark time.
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: So it was an awesome opportunity to be together.
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: We will be releasing over the days and weeks ahead some clips from this event and you can see some of the things that we got to celebrate.
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: It was an opportunity to take a look at all that God has done and step into all that he's going to continue to do.
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: You are a part of that.
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: You are a direct part of that If you listen to this podcast.
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: We desire your contributions, we desire your input on the podcast.
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: You can leave us reviews, you can give us feedback, you can offer things that you would like for us to talk about.
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: We also value your prayer support.
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: We value you passing on these resources as they have impacted you, passing them on to other people, and we also depend on your financial contributions.
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: This is a ministry that has reached the world and you will get to see if you follow us on social media.
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: You'll get to see the map and the way that the podcast not and that's just a map of the podcast Like we have story after story of of the places that that the books have reached over the years and it's pretty incredible is, but I know it's like a lot of countries.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's over 150 countries that people have received some of mom's resources in, and a lot of those have been either missionaries who have taken them overseas, or someone who knows someone in another country and buys the book and sends it to them.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: But one of the stories I told at the event that I think is one of my favorites.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: We still don't know how this happened, but someone contacted us from the Philippines and said I found a copy of one of your books in the trash.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: Can I get more of these?
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: And we're like, absolutely Well, you know, you pay the cover, the cost of shipping, we'll ship them anywhere in the world.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: So we were able to ship more books to the Philippines because of that.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: How did the book get there in the first place?
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: Why was it in the trash, can?
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: I'm not really sure, but God has a way of spreading his word around the world in ways that we can't even ask or imagine.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and there is a cost to printing the books.
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: There's a cost to the podcast.
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: There's a cost to the event we did this weekend.
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: There's a cost to all these things.
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: And so if you feel compelled and if you desire to support us financially, you can always go to our website at thefathersbusinesscom and there's a donate button there where you can click to donate to the Father's Business.
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: We greatly appreciate the contributions.
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: They are tax deductible and we appreciate every bit of that.
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: And so, for today, we want to pick back up on the conversation that we were having two weeks ago.
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: We were talking about how you find God in difficult days, how we can walk out our faith, and Elizabeth and I had a pretty lengthy conversation, so we divided up into two different episodes.
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: You can go back to October 10th and pick back up on that part one episode if you have not heard that one yet.
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: So today we are releasing part two of that conversation, and the conversation really came out of talking about the idea of how we have strength to equal our days.
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: So we'd love for you to go back and listen to part one if you haven't already, and today we will continue that conversation.
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: We hope you enjoy it.
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: We come from all sorts of different backgrounds and denominations, religious beliefs, traditions.
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: Within the scope of Christianity, where I've come from, primarily in my background, theology has been really important.
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: Orthodoxy has been really important.
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: Understanding the theology of Scripture is what orthodoxy is right, like understanding Orthodox Christianity, where it's come from, how we got here, what does Scripture really say?
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: And let's be true and accurate to that Scripture.
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: So in our theology let's come up with the systems we can follow, let's lay it all out.
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: And it is an intellectualism at times it could become an intellectualism, right, let's know what we know, let's believe what we believe, let's make sure that we believe the truth.
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: And, again, nothing wrong with that right.
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: Like lots of good books written that I've taken students through in youth ministry days on how to know why you believe what you believe, how to know what you believe.
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: Let's walk through scripture and really look at this and take it apart and understand the essentials, right.
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: And then there's the orthopraxy of how we practice practically.
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: How do we live out that faith, right, how do we live that out, flesh it out, walk that out?
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: But a word I heard recently in that orthodox tradition was the word orthopathy.
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: So you got orthodoxy, orthopraxy and orthopathy.
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: The understanding of the word is it's a response to God's holiness, with our emotions and with our feelings, and so we're talking about I haven't fully fleshed this out, so welcome to my brain on the podcast but we're talking about the mental health crisis of really, I think started with the millennial generation.
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: Gen X didn't really want to deal with mental health stuff.
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: We're like yeah, we're hard, let's go.
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: We're kind of like the rough around the edges.
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, just rub some dirt on it.
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, come on, You're fine.
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: But millennials came along and were like, hey, we're not okay, we're not really okay.
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: And so millennials and Gen Zs are having similar experiences to life that we've always had, but it looks really different and they're waking up to some different things, right or wrong, we can have that conversation, good or bad.
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: We're not here to judge that.
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: We're just here to kind of talk about some of the realities around that.
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: And if we haven't really been, if the church hasn't really been discipling people beyond orthodoxy and orthopraxy, if we haven't really been looking at how do our feelings and, like you said, a true, felt, experienced, acknowledged response, not a hyped up emotionalism but if we're not really dealing with a felt experience of God's character, then there is a lack in your spiritual discipleship.
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: But not reconciling my emotions and my feelings and my thoughts to that, not letting my emotions trump God and his character and his word, but bringing them to alignment like Father, son, holy Spirit, spirit, soul and Body right, bringing all of that into alignment, then that's where we do have a crisis spiritually among younger generations as far as how does this really work?
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: I mean, I'm describing exactly what we talk about when we talk about full alignment in the Ruach journey and under a lot of the podcasts we do, of that alignment of our spirit, soul and body, father, son and spirit.
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: All of that is what I'm talking about, which is why, elizabeth, we're so passionate about giving this message.
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: Part of that passion is we have been as Gen Xers.
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: We have been on the cusp of discipling the next generation and we have seen and tried.
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: I'd like to think I haven't been a part of it.
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: I've tried really hard to not be a part of it, but I know that I probably was a part of it at some point.
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: Of that emotionalism, the emotional response I know I grew up in that and part of that's just being a teenager and developing.
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: But we have a height of emotions.
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: But when we can't take our emotions that are a part of our God-given design if we can't take our emotions and our thoughts and our actions and take all of those and filter them through how God calls us to live and what he says about the gospel and what he says about suffering and celebration, then we end up being a short-changed disciple.
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: We're going to have a mental health crisis.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: We.
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: We're going to have a.
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: We're having a spiritual crisis.
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: And when we talk about suffering, let's just be clear Like okay, we prayed for all the effects, all those that have been affected and all the people dealing with Hurricane Helene.
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: That is catastrophic suffering.
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there is no doubt that there is catastrophic suffering going on around us, but what we're primarily talking about is also the ordinary terrible things that we go through.
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: The loss of a parent, the loss of a, the death of a parent, the death of a child, the miscarriages that people suffer, the the, the regular aging process, and how that breaks us down financial troubles.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: Relationships and marriages falling apart, or a friend who betrays you.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: It's deep, hard stuff and I think our first reaction when it happens is either what did I do wrong?
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: Or why does God not care?
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: And I think we have an enemy that also wants to come along and go.
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you are alone.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: And yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, god really doesn't care.
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's where I think good meaning people you mentioned it earlier.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: You know, when we lost our each lost our dads and other people and in my case in particular, some of it was relief.
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: He had Alzheimer's, he was in his 80s, he was scared all the time.
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: So, yes, he is in a better place, that is true, but that doesn't mean I don't miss my dad and I don't miss who my dad was when my dad was fully present, and so I know people didn't know what to say, and so they say that you know, and so I mean, and many years ago, before my dad was even sick and we were struggling with that, I told someone I was like I think sympathy cards should just be blank on the inside.
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: I just say I'm here if you need me, and I'm really sorry because whatever you try to say in the moment, it's you trying to make yourself feel better because you see a friend in pain and you don't want them to be in pain and so you're trying to do something to make them less in pain.
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: If you look through the Psalms and even Job and other places where people have been going through great suffering, great betrayal, great fear for their life, all of the calamities that came against Job, there is such a rawness to their emotion and they express it, they don't deny it, they don't say, well, god is good and so I don't.
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: I don't have the right to feel this way, but immediately coming behind, that is the truth of, and yet I will praise him.
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: And it's that alignment, kimberly, that you're talking about.
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: Our soul is raging and our spirit can be sad and broken and crushed and all of these types of things, and so, and our bodies can ache, like there's things that can happen to all three parts of who we are, that where you feel grief and trauma in all three, and it's about being honest, that, hey, this is where I am.
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: Okay, jesus, will you meet me here and help?
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: And sometimes I pray that and it doesn't get better immediately.
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: I'm not talking about the situation.
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: I'm talking about how I feel on the inside, and so I'm like God, I'm just going to keep saying it and I'm just gonna have to keep trusting you and I'm gonna have to keep praising you and spending time with you and saying I don't like what you're doing, but I'm going to trust you anyway and I surrender and I'm not in charge, and you are, and I mean I mean everything you can think of to say until eventually it starts to feel a little better and you start to get more into that abiding presence with him.
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: I also don't want people to be disillusioned that, oh well, you just pray a quick prayer of alignment and everything's fine.
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: Sometimes it does help and other times there's a journey and a process to it.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: Much like Jesus didn't wake up as soon as the storm started.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: He slept for a while and let people feel the fullness of that storm, before he then showed up and then the other time there was a storm.
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: He didn't stop the storm, he showed up in it.
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: He invited Peter to walk on the water, but it never says in scripture.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: And then Jesus said peace be still.
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: And the storm stopped.
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: You know, and as you were talking and talking about us discipling the next generation.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: I couldn't help but think about mom and how this whole ministry even got started.
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: Was young moms, young single women showing up?
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: They were always at my house.
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: There's, more times than not, there's a crying woman on the couch being go play somewhere else for a while.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: That were in the real struggle of either I just broke up with my boyfriend, or I want to be married and I'm not, or we want to have kids and we can't, or I have a child and I don't know like.
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: They're driving me crazy.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: I don't know how to be a parent and mom would just keep showing up and going yep, been there.
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: Yep, understand that.
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: Yes, this is hard and at the same time, here is who God can be for you in this and Kimberly, I think, if we're honest and we really think back, and even if our listeners think back, where are the times that are like those monumental times in your life?
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: You know how they used to build altars, when God would do something big to remember that place, where your memory stones would be and where mine would be.
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: There may be one or two where it's like, yeah, I was at this experience and I really felt the presence of God in a real way.
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: But I would say 90% of my memorial stones come in the midst of hard places where I felt God show up for me in a way that he couldn't have shown up if everything was going well.
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: And I was thinking about that this morning because I knew we were going to be talking about this topic and I had one just even this week.
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: That was that way.
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: And then I thought of one that happened about a year and a half ago and I was like I long for that feeling.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: I remember we even talked about it on an Advent conversation we had, where I was like, in some ways, I long to get back to the darkness so that I can see the light, and so I want the feeling that I felt of just almost feeling Jesus in the room with me in that moment.
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: But if you ask me, do you want to go through again what you had to go to before?
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: You felt that?
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: No, I do not, and that is the tough part about this Christian life is nine times out of 10, you're not going to have one without the other.
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think about when I lost my dad.
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: I was in my 20s, he was in his 50s and I had a friend recently ask me when your dad got sick and he passed away, did you wonder what you did wrong?
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: Because that's sometimes the theology right, like, if something happens, did you feel like you did something wrong and I didn't journal and praying for my dad that God would heal him.
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: And when he wasn't healed on this earth, when he wasn't healed like I thought he was going to be, I didn't wonder what did I do?
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: That wasn't my story.
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: My story was God.
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: I prayed faithfully and I really thought I heard you.
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: I really thought I sensed you say that dad was going to be healed.
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: And so I actually didn't think did I hear him wrong?
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: I actually thought why did you lie to me?
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: Why didn't you tell me the truth?
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you broke your promise.
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what I felt.
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: And yet I worked my way through that and it took a while.
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: It took counseling, it took friends, it took church, it took being mad at God and being able to express that and feel that God and being able to express that and feel that.
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: And in that I know without a shadow of a doubt that I am a different person as a result of walking through that grief.
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: But I'll be honest, I'll be real honest and I mean this I walked through the grief.
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: I didn't, I didn't feel like I had a choice, but to walk through the grief, yeah.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: But it was hard.
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: It was hard as hell.
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: To be honest, and that's the real part is when we like I say this all the time we don't want to watch a movie or read a book that doesn't have conflict in it, but we don't want to walk through the conflict ourselves.
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: Right, exactly, and I sat with a couple the other day who's divorcing and it's painful and it's hard, and I just looked at them and I just said I'm really sorry.
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: I'm sorry this is so hard and they're not believers.
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: I try to offer them hope and I do that in the best ways that I can, but it feels shallow at times to say it's true, but it feels shallow.
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: I think I said this to them a little bit.
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: I remember walking through something that I thought would devastate me, and it did devastate me and yet it also changed me for the better, and that doesn't remove the grief, also changed me for the better, and that doesn't remove the grief.
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: But I feel like I don't want to package it up with a pretty bow on top.
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: I want to give that whole story right.
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: It was devastating and it changed me.
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: So I do think about when we look at the whole story of the gospel, we see.
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: We see creation, fall, redemption, consummation, and in that we often talk about, we want you to know who God is, which is what creation is.
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: It starts with God and all that he did and all that he is in his character.
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: We want you to know who God is and we want you to know who you are in him, and that came about through the fall and the redemption.
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: Where we are right now is in that redemption, consummation story.
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: Right, we're in that fall, redemption, consummation.
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: We're living in all of that.
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: We know God's dignity, we can see his creation, we can see his beauty and we understand that the fall utterly wrecked everything.
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: And redemption comes through those covenant promises that he gives.
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: They gave israel, like you talked about, and they wandered and they fail and they walk through their cycles.
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: But we are awaiting for things to be set right and made new again, and we talked the other day last week in our podcast.
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: We said we were specifically talking about the prayers of groaning and scripture talks about all creation is groaning and that's us, along with the devastation of everything around us, right, like we are groaning for things to be made right, for Jesus to make all things new, for heaven and earth to be one.
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: And we have to mourn that, we have to recognize that there is a reality to the brokenness and the sadness and the sorrow of this world and there is a reality that we can know God, the God who has lived, who died and was resurrected, like.
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: We can't have the suffering without the resurrection.
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: We have to know that both of those realities coexist.
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: Yep.
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, kimberly, as you're talking about the devastation and I mean I had a front row seat to walk with you through the grief of all of that that you went through with your dad and the questioning and the wondering and I mean honestly, kimberly, what worse place to be than in seminary when your dad gets cancer and dies and you're supposed to be studying about all of who God is and you're like I'm not sure I even want to talk to him right now.
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: I remember all of who God is and you're like I'm not sure I even want to talk to him right now.
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: I remember all of that, and so for anyone that is listening to this that finds themselves in this place of devastation, where it just it feels devastating, as you were talking, I was like, yeah, it is crushing.
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: You can feel like you have been pounded into a fine powder, but the one hope that I held on to as I went through my own dark seasons like that was your spirit can't be destroyed, and so maybe for some listening to this right now, that's what they have to hold on to is it is hard, and I don't see it getting any easier, and it feels dark and I'm not sure where God is, but it is devastating but, as you said, kimberly, it's not going to destroy you.
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: There is a way through and it will be hard and it may feel like you are in a raging river and you're holding on to a tree branch for dear life and you're not sure you can hold on for one more day holding onto a tree branch for dear life and you're not sure you can hold on for one more day.
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: But your spirit, no matter how crushed it is, connected to Father, son and Holy Spirit has what it takes to keep going.
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: I heard this verse earlier today, John 17,.
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: Verse 3 says this is Jesus's priestly prayer.
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: He says and this is eternal life that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: And while we long for Jesus to make all things new, the promise of God is that we have eternal life.
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: And sometimes I go, I don't want eternal life, like that sounds exhausting.
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: And then I think, well, I don't want to just go to heaven.
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: Or I do want to go to heaven, like there's all sorts of thoughts in that.
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: But I think we're missing what Jesus is saying here.
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: He's saying eternal life is that they know you.
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: Eternal life is that they know you, jesus, the promise of God, and that is the hope we have.
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: That like oh and yeah, that that's the grief I'm talking about.
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: Like when, like I heard someone say, grief is like white noise, it's just in the background yeah and and there's grief around us all the time when I was in seminary and I go sometimes like, okay, god, what?
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: Like really you send me to seminary to study the deeper things of God and then you take my dad away, right, like it was incredibly painful and difficult to reconcile all of those things in the moment and by moment I mean years and yet in that was where I had to, and still have to, cling to this I kept coming back to if I don't have hope in Jesus and having a relationship with Jesus and knowing that he is eternal life, he is the promised one, he is the true one.
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: I don't know what else I have right.
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: Right, he is the true one.
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: I don't know what else I have right.
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: And that's what he prayed in John 17.
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: I think he prayed that because he's like that's what I got for you.
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: I want you to know that Jesus, who has walked that dark road of suffering, is the one who knows what you're feeling and will be present with you.
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because we're all downcast, we're all in grief to some degree, or we will be at some point.
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: So, kimberly, I'm not saying we have all the answers and we have our life together, because we don't, but, as we're bringing this podcast to a close, how do we have strengths that equal our days?
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: How do we understand the place that we're in and still have hope?
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: I'm not sure I have all the answers, but I'll offer some thoughts alongside the other thoughts that we've offered today, and I think one is that Jesus told his disciples that if they wanted to follow him, that they must take up their cross and follow him.
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: And so we can't expect for ourselves to be immune from suffering.
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: But I think we have to pause rather and ask what's going on with me.
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: So I think of Psalm 42.
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: It starts off by saying as a deer pants for flowing streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my soul thirsts for God, the living God.
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: So here he is, saying I long for God, I thirst for God.
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all day long where is your God?
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: These things I remember.
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: It gets to verse 5, and it says why are you downcast, o my soul?
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: We mentioned earlier there's this idea of us ignoring grief or downplaying grief.
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: We want to.
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: Hey, you'll be okay.
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: Hey, they're in a better place, right, like that conversation we were having earlier.
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: I think one of the ways that we can actually really practice and live this out is to pause and to really just, with curiosity, ask the question why are you so downcast on my soul?
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: Why so disturbed within me?
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: And we talk about the difference in the soul and the spirit, and you can go reference previous podcasts to know more about that.
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: But you said at the beginning of this podcast, like our soul can just stew and can stir and can be torn up.
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: Our soul can do all these things, but bringing our spirit into alignment with our soul when it sits in that place is where the crux of the matter is.
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: So we have to allow ourselves to ask.
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: Ask yourself, why are you so downcast?
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: Sit with that for just a second as you hear this podcast.
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: Ask yourself why are you so downcast?
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: It's then, it's then when you recognize oh, I am actually downcast, I am troubled by this, I am disturbed by this.
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: That's when the next part says hope in God, for I shall again praise him.
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: So what would it look like to then put your hope in God In the midst of whatever you're walking through, in the midst of the suffering, the reason that your soul is downcast?
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: What would it look like to put your hope in God?
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: I think we have to process and sit with the negative feelings, the uncomfortable feelings, and we have to face our suffering, because that's the very place that Jesus will meet us, because he's beat us there, he's already been there and he's waiting for us in that, and that's the place where we will be comforted by the God of all comfort.
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: That's the best I got, elizabeth, for any answer I don't know.
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: That's the best I got.
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: Elizabeth for an answer.
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: I think, honestly, the best thing we can do is close in a quick prayer.
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: So let me just pray for everyone who's listening to this podcast.
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: Oh, just invite everyone who's listening to this to allow your spirit, soul and body to come into full and complete alignment with Father, son and Holy Spirit.
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: And we thank you that you are a loving Father and Jesus, that you are a friend that sticks closer than a brother, and that Spirit you do groan and intercede on our behalf, and that you are our great comfort and intercede on our behalf, and that you are our great comfort.
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: And so, father, for whatever we're facing whether it's fresh trauma that we are having to deal with right now, or it's old disappointments that we've kind of tucked away and we're just now feeling brave enough to say you know what my soul is downcast because of an old disappointment that I just never dealt with I'm asking for you to come in the fullness of who you are Father, son and Holy Spirit and to speak so tenderly to your loved ones and give them hope.
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: Jesus, you are hope.
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: We don't have to manufacture hope, you are hope, and so we want to receive you as our hope.
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: And, father, you anoint our lips with your praises.
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: We don't have to even manufacture praise on our own.
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: You give us the song to sing.
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: So I'm asking you to tune our hearts and our minds, our spirits, souls and bodies into the fullness of who you are, and give us the hope and the praise that we need to make it through the next days and weeks and years ahead.
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: And we thank you that your promise is true.
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: Our strength, your strength will become our strength and our strength will equal our days, and you never leave us.
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: You never forsake us.
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: Even in the darkness, you are there.
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: So thank you, and allow our spirit, souls and body to receive all of who you are into, all of who we are, and we pray all this in your name, amen.
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: I want to thank you for listening to the Father's Business Podcast.