Seeing God When Seasons Change - Episode 1111

November 3, 2025 | S7 E1111 | 52:34

A new job, a big move, a loss, or a celebration--our lives are constantly changing. In every season, God is at work. He equips every new beginning, reminds us of our true identity, and reveals His purpose step-by-step. | TBN Prayer Line: 714-731-1000

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Better Together | Seeing God When Seasons Change - Episode 1111 | November 3, 2025
  • - scripture tells us there's a time and a season for
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  • Everything.
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  • Seeing god when seasons change can help us stay present and
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  • Learn all that he has for us right now.
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  • Come on, let's talk about it.
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  • ♪ (music playing) ♪
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  • - there's some verses in the bible, you know, ecclesiastes
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  • 3, most of us would know them.
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  • You know, it starts out saying there's a time for everything
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  • And a season for every, i think one translation says, a
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  • Season for every activity under heaven.
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  • So when i look at that, it means that there's a right
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  • Time for something and a wrong time for something, right?
  • 00:00:58.704 --> 00:01:00.239
  • And then it lists all these at time to's, right?
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  • A time to be born, a time to die, time to plan, a time to
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  • Weep, a time to laugh, castaway stones, a time to
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  • Fight, refrain from fighting.
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  • Although i might lean more toward the fighting parts over
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  • Refrain.
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  • But it lists all these time to's.
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  • And so for me, it makes me think that we're like, you
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  • Know, trapped in the realities between those two extremes.
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  • And i think that's life on planet earth, right?
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  • And yet, at the end of all those the time to's, it says
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  • That he's put eternity in our heart.
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  • So while we feel trapped, there's this longing in us for
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  • Something that's beyond that.
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  • And so i started just even thinking about how this verse
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  • Might relate just to my life.
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  • And, you know, philip and i pastored a church in los
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  • Angeles for 35 years.
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  • And, you know, we birthed that baby, you know, in home bible
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  • Study and went through all of the, you know, had our kids
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  • While we were doing that.
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  • We gave our life to building a church in a very secular city.
  • 00:01:56.662 --> 00:01:59.865
  • It was an urban city.
  • 00:01:59.865 --> 00:02:03.235
  • This was, everybody else was running for the suburbs and
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  • Certainly not in l.a., and we hunkered down and built the
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  • Church in los angeles.
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  • And so gave our life to do that.
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  • And then a few years ago, we just realized that it was time
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  • To hand it over to the next generation.
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  • You know after 35 years it was time for somebody else,
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  • Another couple to take it and lead.
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  • And i think it sounded so good and it is good sometimes
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  • People hold on too long to things they need to let go and
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  • I'm sure that will be our conversation we talk about so
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  • We handed it off and it was fine until i realized that was
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  • Such a change and realized that had been my identity.
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  • That had been what i'd done for so long.
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  • And now i'm in this new season.
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  • And the season, there's weeping and joy all in the
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  • Same moment, right?
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  • Because there's joy, because it was the right thing, and
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  • I'm excited, and i mean, and they're crushing it.
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  • They're doing great.
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  • But then there's just sad because this was what i had
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  • Known.
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  • Right.
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  • This was where i was.
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  • And so i think sometimes when we are stepping into something
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  • New, when a change is happening, i don't know.
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  • And we instigated it, sometimes change we instigate
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  • You tend to like more.
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  • Nobody appreciates change that you inflict on you but you
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  • Like it more but still.
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  • And still, there was just that tension between the time to's,
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  • And it was the right thing it was the right time to.
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  • Right?
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  • And still there was all the emotions that come with
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  • Change.
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  • I had to navigate some of that.
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  • And the good thing, like it freed me up, and there was
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  • Always things that were desires in my heart that i
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  • Wanted to do and accomplish that now i feel like i can,
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  • That i didn't have the time to when i was doing the day in
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  • And day out of leading a church.
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  • So there's great things that have come out of that.
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  • But man, for the first few months after that, it was
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  • Tricky for me.
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  • Yeah.
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  • It was tricky just kind of navigating a change that
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  • Philip and i instigated.
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  • Right?
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  • - change can come a variety of ways.
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  • Sometimes it's because of decisions we make.
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  • Sometimes it's what god allows.
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  • But what i have learned to see over time is that god weaves
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  • Things together for our good.
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  • That's the truth of romans 8:28.
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  • It doesn't always feel good when you're in the middle of
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  • It, but if you get past it and you choose to believe that,
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  • When you look back at it, you can see god's hand.
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  • Sometimes it takes a week, sometimes it takes a year,
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  • Sometimes it takes a decade.
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  • But the question is that i always ask myself anyway,
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  • Where was god?
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  • Where is god in my story?
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  • And if i look and believe i find him, i always do.
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  • - it's interesting when you talk about something you and
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  • Philip both knew, it was the right time.
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  • But there's still this shift.
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  • You suddenly wake up the next morning and you're not the
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  • Pastor of, da, da, da, da.
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  • And for me, it was a different kind of thing because i was, i
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  • Co-hosted the 700 club for five years.
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  • And then my life kind of crashed, and i ended up in a
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  • Hospital.
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  • And, i actually remember the psychiatrist saying to me, who
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  • Are you?
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  • And i said, i'm the co-host of the 700 club.
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  • And he said, no.
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  • That's not who you are.
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  • That's what you do.
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  • And he said, so who are you?
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  • And i said, i don't know.
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  • And he said, i know that.
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  • And that's why you're here.
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  • And it was so interesting because rather than, i mean, i
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  • Was there for a month, but rather than going back into
  • 00:05:28.507 --> 00:05:30.475
  • Business as usual, i thought, you know what, lord, i went to
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  • Seminary when i was 19, and consciously to learn
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  • Everything i need to do to make sure you never stop
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  • Loving me.
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  • Because i really thought god's love was transactional.
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  • Because my father had loved me and then didn't love me,
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  • Apparently.
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  • So i thought the same could apply to god.
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  • Wow.
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  • I thought, no.
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  • And so i actually went back to seminary and i'm gonna write
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  • Down everything that you've already done, you know.
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  • But it was still this huge shift of, you know, waking up,
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  • Knowing where i'm going, a salary, a position, all this
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  • Stuff, suddenly that was all gone.
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  • But it actually was really good for me, because it made
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  • Me feel like it's just me, you know, here we go, lord.
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  • Let's start all over.
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  • - you know, that, in the end of that portion in
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  • Ecclesiastes, it says, i think, in verse 11, it says
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  • That he's made everything beautiful in its time.
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  • And one translation of that verse says, basically, beauty
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  • Takes time.
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  • And so a life that's beautiful, it actually takes
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  • All of the seasons.
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  • I mean, i want to focus on the left side of that, a time to
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  • Laugh, a time to be born, a time to you know, i like all
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  • Those.
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  • But a beautiful life takes, it takes all of them.
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  • It takes the change that comes from laughing to weeping.
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  • And, ugh, i just don't like that, though.
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  • Sometimes we might be, like, overwhelmed with whatever
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  • Season that we're in the middle of, and so we just want
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  • To get through it fast.
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  • We want to rush through it.
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  • And i understand that feeling.
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  • It's you know, when i was navigating cancer and i was
  • 00:07:14.012 --> 00:07:16.114
  • Dealing with radiation, i just wanted to get through that
  • 00:07:16.114 --> 00:07:18.683
  • Season.
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  • And and understandably, who wants to deal with that and at
  • 00:07:20.385 --> 00:07:24.523
  • The same time i realized i was in that season that the people
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  • I got to care for and love on and pray for were in that
  • 00:07:28.426 --> 00:07:33.732
  • Radiation waiting room, so it was the tension between trying to
  • 00:07:33.732 --> 00:07:38.904
  • Rush through something and yet being alert and awake to the
  • 00:07:38.904 --> 00:07:42.874
  • Season that i'm in right now, because here i am, so might as
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  • Well love these people.
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  • And so i just want to caution you.
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  • I know you might be in the middle of a hard season, but
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  • Why don't you just pray and ask god for wisdom?
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  • Like what?
  • 00:07:53.385 --> 00:07:55.420
  • And he says he'll give it to us freely.
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  • That's what it says in the book of james, right?
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  • He'll give it to us freely.
  • 00:07:58.823 --> 00:08:00.225
  • And so maybe ask him for, you know, wisdom, for how to
  • 00:08:00.225 --> 00:08:03.495
  • Navigate this season, or is there anything that you need
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  • To learn while you're here?
  • 00:08:05.463 --> 00:08:06.565
  • Because it will change.
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  • This season will change.
  • 00:08:07.766 --> 00:08:09.301
  • And so i just want to make sure we get from the season
  • 00:08:09.301 --> 00:08:11.836
  • That you get from the season what you need to get from it
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  • So don't rush through it, let's just ask god what we
  • 00:08:15.206 --> 00:08:18.076
  • Need to learn as we're navigating.
  • 00:08:18.076 --> 00:08:20.011
  • - i was listening to both of you it was drudging up all
  • 00:08:20.011 --> 00:08:25.183
  • These memories because over the last year i have navigated
  • 00:08:25.183 --> 00:08:28.954
  • A pretty significant transition in my own life.
  • 00:08:28.954 --> 00:08:33.058
  • And, you know, i've been in executive leadership at some
  • 00:08:33.058 --> 00:08:36.795
  • Really large companies for the last, like, 20 years, and the
  • 00:08:36.795 --> 00:08:39.030
  • Lord called me away.
  • 00:08:39.030 --> 00:08:41.800
  • Now, here's the thing.
  • 00:08:41.800 --> 00:08:43.001
  • I knew maybe two years ago that that season was over.
  • 00:08:43.001 --> 00:08:46.905
  • Like, i knew that the lord was calling me into ministry in a
  • 00:08:46.905 --> 00:08:50.842
  • Very vocational way.
  • 00:08:50.842 --> 00:08:55.180
  • - how did you know?
  • 00:08:55.180 --> 00:08:55.847
  • Like, how did you know?
  • 00:08:55.847 --> 00:08:57.115
  • - oh, well, it was, it was a sense that, and again, it's
  • 00:08:57.115 --> 00:08:59.851
  • Just, it was a sense that i had done all that i could do.
  • 00:08:59.851 --> 00:09:02.554
  • So you'd finished, like, it was almost, like, i had
  • 00:09:02.554 --> 00:09:05.023
  • Finished.
  • 00:09:05.023 --> 00:09:07.325
  • - yeah, it was like, i found myself kind of lifting out of
  • 00:09:07.325 --> 00:09:09.027
  • One organization into another organization, and it was
  • 00:09:09.027 --> 00:09:11.463
  • Basically like a copy-paste situation, you know?
  • 00:09:11.463 --> 00:09:14.099
  • It's like i wasn't learning new things.
  • 00:09:14.099 --> 00:09:15.567
  • I wasn't being stretched.
  • 00:09:15.567 --> 00:09:17.102
  • It was basically just porting what i did in this season to
  • 00:09:17.102 --> 00:09:19.938
  • Another season, well, the lord called me away.
  • 00:09:19.938 --> 00:09:23.108
  • And i remember when i was very, when i was very sure
  • 00:09:23.108 --> 00:09:27.178
  • That that whole part of my life was over, the first
  • 00:09:27.178 --> 00:09:30.915
  • Question that popped up in my mind was, but if i'm not an
  • 00:09:30.915 --> 00:09:33.251
  • Executive, what am i?
  • 00:09:33.251 --> 00:09:34.619
  • You know, if i'm not the chief of this, if i'm not, you know,
  • 00:09:34.619 --> 00:09:40.659
  • Senior vp of that, like, what am i?
  • 00:09:40.659 --> 00:09:43.395
  • And as i reflect over this last year, i realize now,
  • 00:09:43.395 --> 00:09:45.797
  • Because the first few months of it was very disconcerting,
  • 00:09:45.797 --> 00:09:49.401
  • Very disconcerting.
  • 00:09:49.401 --> 00:09:51.269
  • I mean, i didn't have meetings.
  • 00:09:51.269 --> 00:09:54.205
  • I didn't have reports.
  • 00:09:54.205 --> 00:09:56.641
  • You know, i didn't have all these big projects that i was
  • 00:09:56.641 --> 00:09:58.677
  • Stewarding.
  • 00:09:58.677 --> 00:09:59.644
  • I didn't have all of that.
  • 00:09:59.644 --> 00:10:00.912
  • It was literally just me.
  • 00:10:00.912 --> 00:10:02.247
  • And so i found myself creating work for myself because i...
  • 00:10:02.247 --> 00:10:05.250
  • - that was comfortable.
  • 00:10:05.250 --> 00:10:07.318
  • It was comfortable.
  • 00:10:07.318 --> 00:10:08.186
  • It was familiar.
  • 00:10:08.186 --> 00:10:09.788
  • And as i sit here, you know, a year later, i realized that
  • 00:10:09.788 --> 00:10:12.123
  • The lord was not calling me away from a job.
  • 00:10:12.123 --> 00:10:15.627
  • He was literally calling me away from an identity.
  • 00:10:15.627 --> 00:10:17.328
  • And the thing about seasons changing and you both kinda
  • 00:10:17.328 --> 00:10:21.833
  • Mentioned this.
  • 00:10:21.833 --> 00:10:23.168
  • What i realize now is when the lord changes a season he isn't
  • 00:10:23.168 --> 00:10:26.705
  • Just changing your vocation he isn't just changing your title
  • 00:10:26.705 --> 00:10:30.408
  • He is changing your identity so we cannot take your old
  • 00:10:30.408 --> 00:10:33.712
  • Identity into a new season.
  • 00:10:33.712 --> 00:10:36.681
  • And it made me think about moses.
  • 00:10:36.681 --> 00:10:39.184
  • I was actually as we were having this conversation, when
  • 00:10:39.184 --> 00:10:43.254
  • The lord called moses, when he called him, it says in exodus
  • 00:10:43.254 --> 00:10:47.459
  • Chapter 4, verse 10, he's going back and forth with god,
  • 00:10:47.459 --> 00:10:51.196
  • And he's like, you got the wrong guy, right?
  • 00:10:51.196 --> 00:10:53.765
  • So he says to god, he says, pardon your servant, lord, i
  • 00:10:53.765 --> 00:10:57.302
  • Have never been eloquent, neither in the past, nor since
  • 00:10:57.302 --> 00:10:59.971
  • You have spoken to your servant, i am slow of speech
  • 00:10:59.971 --> 00:11:04.375
  • And tongue.
  • 00:11:04.375 --> 00:11:05.577
  • And the lord said to him, who gave human beings their
  • 00:11:05.577 --> 00:11:06.010
  • Mouths?
  • 00:11:06.010 --> 00:11:06.745
  • Who makes them deaf or mute?
  • 00:11:06.745 --> 00:11:07.879
  • Who gives them sight or makes them blind?
  • 00:11:07.879 --> 00:11:09.547
  • Is it not i, the lord?
  • 00:11:09.547 --> 00:11:10.482
  • Now go.
  • 00:11:10.482 --> 00:11:11.783
  • I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.
  • 00:11:11.783 --> 00:11:13.918
  • I think what caused moses to question what god was calling
  • 00:11:13.918 --> 00:11:19.591
  • Him to is who he had been in the past.
  • 00:11:19.591 --> 00:11:21.192
  • And i think that is what limits us from being able to
  • 00:11:21.192 --> 00:11:24.295
  • Change, is our understanding of who we are in the past,
  • 00:11:24.295 --> 00:11:26.865
  • What we were not able to do in the past.
  • 00:11:26.865 --> 00:11:29.534
  • But when god calls us to a new season, he gives us exactly
  • 00:11:29.534 --> 00:11:32.070
  • What we need for the new season, and we have to trust
  • 00:11:32.070 --> 00:11:35.373
  • Him.
  • 00:11:35.373 --> 00:11:36.441
  • And so i just want to encourage anyone who's
  • 00:11:36.441 --> 00:11:38.076
  • Navigating a season now where you're like, i just don't feel
  • 00:11:38.076 --> 00:11:40.779
  • Equipped for this season.
  • 00:11:40.779 --> 00:11:41.846
  • It's okay.
  • 00:11:41.846 --> 00:11:42.914
  • - and the old season wasn't wrong.
  • 00:11:42.914 --> 00:11:45.316
  • Right.
  • 00:11:45.316 --> 00:11:46.651
  • Sometimes i think that's what people do is so then they step
  • 00:11:46.651 --> 00:11:48.586
  • Into something new and they go, oh, because that was bad.
  • 00:11:48.586 --> 00:11:51.890
  • No, no, no.
  • 00:11:51.890 --> 00:11:52.590
  • It got you here.
  • 00:11:52.590 --> 00:11:53.792
  • Absolutely.
  • 00:11:53.792 --> 00:11:54.759
  • There's something in it.
  • 00:11:54.759 --> 00:11:56.227
  • - i think of it in terms of assignments.
  • 00:11:56.227 --> 00:11:58.096
  • I know in a transition that my husband and i went through, it
  • 00:11:58.096 --> 00:12:00.398
  • Was so helpful for me when i started thinking in terms of,
  • 00:12:00.398 --> 00:12:04.302
  • If you think of a student going to a classroom where a
  • 00:12:04.302 --> 00:12:08.273
  • Teacher gives an assignment and you go home and you do the
  • 00:12:08.273 --> 00:12:12.110
  • Assignment, you turn the assignment in, and you're not
  • 00:12:12.110 --> 00:12:14.712
  • Finished, but you also don't redo that assignment.
  • 00:12:14.712 --> 00:12:17.916
  • You get a new assignment.
  • 00:12:17.916 --> 00:12:19.417
  • And when i thought of that in kingdom terms, that some
  • 00:12:19.417 --> 00:12:22.487
  • Assignments are short.
  • 00:12:22.487 --> 00:12:24.823
  • Ours was 20 years long.
  • 00:12:24.823 --> 00:12:26.591
  • I mean, you don't know the different times of the
  • 00:12:26.591 --> 00:12:28.660
  • Assignment, but when it's time to turn that assignment in, if
  • 00:12:28.660 --> 00:12:31.396
  • You will, the joy there is understanding that you always
  • 00:12:31.396 --> 00:12:34.966
  • Get a new assignment.
  • 00:12:34.966 --> 00:12:36.234
  • And if you can see it that way, that assignment was great
  • 00:12:36.234 --> 00:12:39.304
  • For the time, but it's also great when that time ends and
  • 00:12:39.304 --> 00:12:44.676
  • You get a new one.
  • 00:12:44.676 --> 00:12:46.711
  • And it's because god has a new thing for you.
  • 00:12:46.711 --> 00:12:50.215
  • We always, sometimes, i don't want to say always, but
  • 00:12:50.215 --> 00:12:55.019
  • Oftentimes we're so aware of what we've lost that it's hard
  • 00:12:55.019 --> 00:12:58.223
  • For us to really embrace what we're gaining.
  • 00:12:58.223 --> 00:13:00.658
  • Because it's familiar to us, you know.
  • 00:13:00.658 --> 00:13:03.361
  • And even what i was hearing you guys say, some of the
  • 00:13:03.361 --> 00:13:07.599
  • Biggest shift, i think, for people, is because rhythm gets
  • 00:13:07.599 --> 00:13:10.735
  • Off.
  • 00:13:10.735 --> 00:13:12.036
  • You've been in a rhythm for so long.
  • 00:13:12.036 --> 00:13:14.305
  • So, yes, it is your identity, but it's also just your
  • 00:13:14.305 --> 00:13:16.241
  • Comfortability of the rhythm you're living.
  • 00:13:16.241 --> 00:13:18.409
  • It's the life you were living.
  • 00:13:18.409 --> 00:13:20.044
  • Yes.
  • 00:13:20.044 --> 00:13:21.346
  • And sometimes whatever your new assignment is creates new
  • 00:13:21.346 --> 00:13:22.313
  • Rhythms that feel uncomfortable.
  • 00:13:22.313 --> 00:13:24.716
  • Yeah.
  • 00:13:24.716 --> 00:13:26.017
  • And it's getting more familiar and comfortable with living
  • 00:13:26.017 --> 00:13:27.952
  • With new rhythms.
  • 00:13:27.952 --> 00:13:29.287
  • - you might feel as if you're kind of stuck in a season.
  • 00:13:29.287 --> 00:13:32.724
  • You know, you watch other people getting new
  • 00:13:32.724 --> 00:13:35.260
  • Opportunities or stepping into new things, and you feel like
  • 00:13:35.260 --> 00:13:38.229
  • You've just been doing the same thing kind of over and
  • 00:13:38.229 --> 00:13:40.598
  • Over and over again.
  • 00:13:40.598 --> 00:13:42.000
  • When i've been in a season like that, one of the things
  • 00:13:42.000 --> 00:13:44.736
  • The lord has taught me is just to stay faithful in that until
  • 00:13:44.736 --> 00:13:48.339
  • The lord opens another door.
  • 00:13:48.339 --> 00:13:50.041
  • And sometimes it takes longer than we think, but when you
  • 00:13:50.041 --> 00:13:52.877
  • Trust god's timing, his timing is perfect.
  • 00:13:52.877 --> 00:13:55.380
  • So even though it might seem like you're waiting for a
  • 00:13:55.380 --> 00:13:59.183
  • While, wait with him.
  • 00:13:59.183 --> 00:14:00.518
  • - listen, if you are thinking you've wasted a season or
  • 00:14:00.518 --> 00:14:06.457
  • Seasons and have ignored the lessons god has been trying to
  • 00:14:06.457 --> 00:14:09.994
  • Teach you, the good thing is we quote it all the time in
  • 00:14:09.994 --> 00:14:13.698
  • Church, but it's so true.
  • 00:14:13.698 --> 00:14:14.866
  • Romans 8:28, he uses all things to work together for
  • 00:14:14.866 --> 00:14:17.735
  • The good of those who love god.
  • 00:14:17.735 --> 00:14:20.038
  • And if you have wasted seasons like, let's not pretend that
  • 00:14:20.038 --> 00:14:23.174
  • That's not the truth.
  • 00:14:23.174 --> 00:14:24.676
  • But then use that as fuel to be super intentional in the
  • 00:14:24.676 --> 00:14:28.012
  • Season that you're in.
  • 00:14:28.012 --> 00:14:30.548
  • If you've fallen behind in a race, you don't give up.
  • 00:14:30.548 --> 00:14:32.417
  • You just run faster, run with more intentionality and more
  • 00:14:32.417 --> 00:14:35.620
  • Focus in the season that you're in.
  • 00:14:35.620 --> 00:14:37.789
  • So know that god can use everything, even failures, to
  • 00:14:37.789 --> 00:14:40.391
  • Accomplish his purposes in the world and in your life.
  • 00:14:40.391 --> 00:14:44.362
  • And don't think that because you haven't done it right in
  • 00:14:44.362 --> 00:14:46.798
  • The past, that that is an indicator of what god can do
  • 00:14:46.798 --> 00:14:49.467
  • With your present and your future.
  • 00:14:49.467 --> 00:14:50.969
  • Lean in, love god, be intentional.
  • 00:14:50.969 --> 00:14:53.771
  • Start today and move forward.
  • 00:14:53.771 --> 00:14:56.975
  • - god created us to be in community, and we want you to
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  • Join ours.
  • 00:15:00.078 --> 00:15:01.813
  • - follow us on social media and join our conversation.
  • 00:15:01.813 --> 00:15:04.415
  • - let's keep the conversation going.
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  • Favorite listening platform.
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  • Subscribe today.
  • 00:15:13.191 --> 00:15:14.359
  • - i remember at one point being almost angry with god
  • 00:15:14.359 --> 00:15:17.992
  • - i remember at one point being almost angry with god
  • 00:15:17.992 --> 00:15:23.135
  • Because i was thinking about what i lost.
  • 00:15:23.135 --> 00:15:28.507
  • I was like, but the prestige and the resources and you got
  • 00:15:28.507 --> 00:15:33.679
  • The paycheck and you got the team, you got the whole thing.
  • 00:15:33.679 --> 00:15:36.382
  • The resume.
  • 00:15:36.382 --> 00:15:38.450
  • I was angry.
  • 00:15:38.450 --> 00:15:39.752
  • And the lord basically took me to the verse where it talks
  • 00:15:39.752 --> 00:15:41.286
  • About blessed are those who mourn for they will be
  • 00:15:41.286 --> 00:15:43.789
  • Comforted and he said no there's a difference between
  • 00:15:43.789 --> 00:15:46.558
  • Grieving and mourning.
  • 00:15:46.558 --> 00:15:47.760
  • He said right now you're grieving which means you're
  • 00:15:47.760 --> 00:15:49.762
  • Looking at what you lost, which makes you angry, he said
  • 00:15:49.762 --> 00:15:52.164
  • Mourning however you still have a sense of loss but
  • 00:15:52.164 --> 00:15:57.669
  • There's also gratitude for what you had.
  • 00:15:57.669 --> 00:15:59.171
  • And i was not taking inventory of the goodness of god in the
  • 00:15:59.171 --> 00:16:03.142
  • Previous season.
  • 00:16:03.142 --> 00:16:05.444
  • So i wasn't mourning.
  • 00:16:05.444 --> 00:16:07.980
  • I was grieving.
  • 00:16:07.980 --> 00:16:09.248
  • And he said, nona, when you get to the place that you're
  • 00:16:09.248 --> 00:16:10.516
  • Actually thankful for what i did in the previous season,
  • 00:16:10.516 --> 00:16:13.052
  • You will still mourn the loss.
  • 00:16:13.052 --> 00:16:16.121
  • But there won't be the anger.
  • 00:16:16.121 --> 00:16:17.456
  • There won't be the bitterness.
  • 00:16:17.456 --> 00:16:19.792
  • There won't be the, why did you do this?
  • 00:16:19.792 --> 00:16:20.926
  • Like, why?
  • 00:16:20.926 --> 00:16:21.827
  • And i think that really freed me.
  • 00:16:21.827 --> 00:16:23.195
  • And i was able to then begin mourning what was lost as
  • 00:16:23.195 --> 00:16:25.764
  • Opposed to being angry.
  • 00:16:25.764 --> 00:16:28.200
  • I think gratitude is so important for all the reasons
  • 00:16:28.200 --> 00:16:32.271
  • That we know right, for one we are told in the word to be
  • 00:16:32.271 --> 00:16:35.707
  • Grateful but i want to just give a different perspective
  • 00:16:35.707 --> 00:16:39.311
  • That imagine that in a day you have so many thoughts in a day
  • 00:16:39.311 --> 00:16:44.750
  • And your thoughts are going to be filled with something good,
  • 00:16:44.750 --> 00:16:48.854
  • Bad, we even talked in the show that the majority of the
  • 00:16:48.854 --> 00:16:52.257
  • Thoughts we have if we're not conscious of it could be
  • 00:16:52.257 --> 00:16:55.227
  • Negative imagine you go through the whole day and
  • 00:16:55.227 --> 00:16:58.063
  • Those are going to be filled with something.
  • 00:16:58.063 --> 00:16:59.765
  • If you do not choose gratitude, i do believe that
  • 00:16:59.765 --> 00:17:06.138
  • The default of human nature is to fill those thoughts every
  • 00:17:06.138 --> 00:17:08.740
  • Day with something negative.
  • 00:17:08.740 --> 00:17:09.942
  • So i want to encourage you and it's not just because
  • 00:17:09.942 --> 00:17:12.778
  • We're told to in the bible, but there is a quota of
  • 00:17:12.778 --> 00:17:15.581
  • Thoughts that you have all day that is a non-negotiable you
  • 00:17:15.581 --> 00:17:19.952
  • Do not go through your day not thinking.
  • 00:17:19.952 --> 00:17:24.490
  • So if you're going to be thinking i want to encourage
  • 00:17:24.490 --> 00:17:26.125
  • You to make sure those thoughts are full of
  • 00:17:26.125 --> 00:17:28.327
  • Gratitude.
  • 00:17:28.327 --> 00:17:29.628
  • - dharius daniels i love him, i love listening to him, he
  • 00:17:29.628 --> 00:17:32.931
  • Has an entire teaching on mastering the art of exits
  • 00:17:32.931 --> 00:17:37.503
  • And so much of mastering the art of exits is about that.
  • 00:17:37.503 --> 00:17:40.639
  • One of the things you have to master to make your exits
  • 00:17:40.639 --> 00:17:44.042
  • Well, knowing that exits are going to be a part of life.
  • 00:17:44.042 --> 00:17:47.146
  • Just if entrances are, then exits are.
  • 00:17:47.146 --> 00:17:49.114
  • - we want the entrance, but not the exit.
  • 00:17:49.114 --> 00:17:50.549
  • - that's right.
  • 00:17:50.549 --> 00:17:52.017
  • And gratitude.
  • 00:17:52.017 --> 00:17:53.218
  • Gratitude is one of the greatest things you have to
  • 00:17:53.218 --> 00:17:55.020
  • Master when you exit is being so grateful for what god did
  • 00:17:55.020 --> 00:18:00.225
  • In that season.
  • 00:18:00.225 --> 00:18:02.227
  • And sometimes we start telling ourselves that because a
  • 00:18:02.227 --> 00:18:06.665
  • Season ends, either we've fallen out of favor or we've
  • 00:18:06.665 --> 00:18:10.369
  • Done something wrong or something that- there's a
  • 00:18:10.369 --> 00:18:13.105
  • Reason.
  • 00:18:13.105 --> 00:18:14.306
  • There can't ever just be, well, no, a season ends.
  • 00:18:14.306 --> 00:18:16.675
  • Even though we live, our human experience is in seasons.
  • 00:18:16.675 --> 00:18:20.245
  • So we know that seasons change.
  • 00:18:20.245 --> 00:18:23.115
  • Yet when ours change, we think, well, what did i do
  • 00:18:23.115 --> 00:18:25.450
  • Wrong or why does god's favor left me?
  • 00:18:25.450 --> 00:18:27.920
  • That kind of thing.
  • 00:18:27.920 --> 00:18:28.987
  • - don't you think we have to like normalize?
  • 00:18:28.987 --> 00:18:30.055
  • We have to normalize transitions and change.
  • 00:18:30.055 --> 00:18:30.722
  • Right.
  • 00:18:30.722 --> 00:18:32.758
  • Normalize it.
  • 00:18:32.758 --> 00:18:34.026
  • I just remember even leading a staff, leading a team, you
  • 00:18:34.026 --> 00:18:36.228
  • Know, people would get all freaked out or bothered when
  • 00:18:36.228 --> 00:18:38.697
  • Somebody's gonna leave the team and move across the
  • 00:18:38.697 --> 00:18:41.133
  • Country and then they're like, no, this is normal.
  • 00:18:41.133 --> 00:18:43.869
  • It's like normalizing change and transition.
  • 00:18:43.869 --> 00:18:46.538
  • So then when it happens, we're not shocked, although i find
  • 00:18:46.538 --> 00:18:49.942
  • Ourselves always shocked.
  • 00:18:49.942 --> 00:18:51.276
  • Now, you probably never had to navigate change.
  • 00:18:51.276 --> 00:18:53.879
  • Ever, ever.
  • 00:18:53.879 --> 00:18:54.780
  • Never, ever.
  • 00:18:54.780 --> 00:18:56.415
  • - no, i think, i love what you were saying because i, you
  • 00:18:56.415 --> 00:18:59.251
  • Know, in our conversation about the seasons, it is
  • 00:18:59.251 --> 00:19:01.520
  • Normalized.
  • 00:19:01.520 --> 00:19:02.454
  • Yeah.
  • 00:19:02.454 --> 00:19:03.789
  • And so we expect it.
  • 00:19:03.789 --> 00:19:06.225
  • In fact, everything that we're saying mimics the calendar the
  • 00:19:06.225 --> 00:19:08.794
  • Way it works.
  • 00:19:08.794 --> 00:19:10.462
  • We cannot wait in the heat of summer for it to start to cool
  • 00:19:10.462 --> 00:19:12.631
  • Off.
  • 00:19:12.631 --> 00:19:14.533
  • And then it cools all the way off and we can't wait for it
  • 00:19:14.533 --> 00:19:15.934
  • To start to warm up.
  • 00:19:15.934 --> 00:19:17.102
  • And then we get into the spring and we're like, oh my
  • 00:19:17.102 --> 00:19:19.037
  • Gosh, when will it stop raining?
  • 00:19:19.037 --> 00:19:20.372
  • I mean, there's always-we were glad for it to come, and then
  • 00:19:20.372 --> 00:19:24.343
  • We get into it, and we can't wait for it to be over.
  • 00:19:24.343 --> 00:19:26.845
  • And if you live your life hoping that the last season
  • 00:19:26.845 --> 00:19:32.417
  • Ends, only to get into the new season, to hope that that
  • 00:19:32.417 --> 00:19:36.521
  • Season ends, this is how people get to the end of their
  • 00:19:36.521 --> 00:19:39.124
  • Life and realize that it all went fast.
  • 00:19:39.124 --> 00:19:41.393
  • So you engage in each season, choosing to show gratitude and
  • 00:19:41.393 --> 00:19:45.697
  • Enjoying what the season holds because this season won't
  • 00:19:45.697 --> 00:19:49.134
  • Last.
  • 00:19:49.134 --> 00:19:50.435
  • I mean, we all know that, you know, when you, and you
  • 00:19:50.435 --> 00:19:52.704
  • Probably have heard someone say to you and you're raising
  • 00:19:52.704 --> 00:19:55.774
  • Your kids, they're like, enjoy it.
  • 00:19:55.774 --> 00:19:57.909
  • You know, the days are long, but the years are short.
  • 00:19:57.909 --> 00:20:00.312
  • And when you're in it, you want to slap whoever says it.
  • 00:20:00.312 --> 00:20:03.315
  • You know what i'm saying?
  • 00:20:03.315 --> 00:20:05.751
  • And then you realize, oh, the days are long and the years
  • 00:20:05.751 --> 00:20:08.954
  • Are...
  • 00:20:08.954 --> 00:20:10.188
  • And there's a realization where we're always behind the
  • 00:20:10.188 --> 00:20:12.824
  • Eight ball in our natural enjoyment and appreciation for
  • 00:20:12.824 --> 00:20:18.897
  • The season that we're in.
  • 00:20:18.897 --> 00:20:22.367
  • So it takes gratitude, it takes intentionality to kind
  • 00:20:22.367 --> 00:20:25.504
  • Of double down and seeing what there is to be seen,
  • 00:20:25.504 --> 00:20:29.775
  • Appreciating what there is to appreciate, and learning that
  • 00:20:29.775 --> 00:20:32.311
  • This is just the way it goes.
  • 00:20:32.311 --> 00:20:33.979
  • I think, you know, when you mentioned moses, you know, the
  • 00:20:33.979 --> 00:20:38.617
  • Bible talks in exodus 3 and 4 about his struggle of
  • 00:20:38.617 --> 00:20:40.419
  • Insecurity.
  • 00:20:40.419 --> 00:20:42.554
  • And, you know, who me?
  • 00:20:42.554 --> 00:20:43.388
  • I can't do that.
  • 00:20:43.388 --> 00:20:45.357
  • And later on in the new testament, the bible speaks
  • 00:20:45.357 --> 00:20:46.792
  • Very clearly about how he was eloquent and he did command
  • 00:20:46.792 --> 00:20:50.295
  • The space.
  • 00:20:50.295 --> 00:20:53.398
  • So either god saw something in him that he did not see or god
  • 00:20:53.398 --> 00:20:57.069
  • Developed something in him that was a seed.
  • 00:20:57.069 --> 00:20:59.938
  • Either way, god always sees in a future season something that
  • 00:20:59.938 --> 00:21:04.076
  • We don't see in our current season.
  • 00:21:04.076 --> 00:21:06.078
  • - so i want you to think about the way god uses change this
  • 00:21:06.078 --> 00:21:08.814
  • Way.
  • 00:21:08.814 --> 00:21:10.949
  • If you were to sit with your legs crossed, and let's just
  • 00:21:10.949 --> 00:21:13.985
  • Say you sit that way for, i don't know, five or six
  • 00:21:13.985 --> 00:21:16.488
  • Minutes, there's going to come a point where you're going to
  • 00:21:16.488 --> 00:21:20.625
  • Feel some discomfort and that's going to cause you to
  • 00:21:20.625 --> 00:21:24.262
  • Change position.
  • 00:21:24.262 --> 00:21:27.065
  • Discomfort is what god uses to cause us to change position in
  • 00:21:27.065 --> 00:21:32.971
  • The natural, and he uses that discomfort as almost like a
  • 00:21:32.971 --> 00:21:37.776
  • Signal that something has to change.
  • 00:21:37.776 --> 00:21:39.778
  • So i often tell people when you feel that sense of being
  • 00:21:39.778 --> 00:21:43.081
  • Unsettled don't forsake that because the lord is speaking
  • 00:21:43.081 --> 00:21:46.585
  • Through it.
  • 00:21:46.585 --> 00:21:49.988
  • - the israelites weren't grateful.
  • 00:21:49.988 --> 00:21:54.059
  • And, you know, they left and they were like, how are we
  • 00:21:54.059 --> 00:21:55.293
  • Going to eat?
  • 00:21:55.293 --> 00:21:56.528
  • And then god gave them men, and they were like, but we
  • 00:21:56.528 --> 00:21:57.062
  • Missed the leaks.
  • 00:21:57.062 --> 00:21:57.829
  • Right.
  • 00:21:57.829 --> 00:21:59.030
  • You know, and then god gave them quail and then our
  • 00:21:59.030 --> 00:21:59.931
  • Stomachs are upset.
  • 00:21:59.931 --> 00:22:01.199
  • I mean, we have mastered the art because we are imperfect
  • 00:22:01.199 --> 00:22:05.404
  • Creatures of being unappreciative and ungrateful,
  • 00:22:05.404 --> 00:22:09.574
  • Which lends us to not appreciating the season that
  • 00:22:09.574 --> 00:22:12.544
  • We're in.
  • 00:22:12.544 --> 00:22:13.512
  • So it is all about reframing.
  • 00:22:13.512 --> 00:22:15.814
  • It's all about learning to reframe in the current season
  • 00:22:15.814 --> 00:22:17.282
  • So you can see what there is to be seen.
  • 00:22:17.282 --> 00:22:19.551
  • So when you were talking about people in your life, i mean,
  • 00:22:19.551 --> 00:22:23.855
  • Yes, it is devastating.
  • 00:22:23.855 --> 00:22:26.291
  • I remember i read it on twitter that's now x or, you
  • 00:22:26.291 --> 00:22:32.063
  • Know, whatever we call it, i still call it twitter.
  • 00:22:32.063 --> 00:22:33.465
  • But i don't know who this pastor was, but he made the
  • 00:22:33.465 --> 00:22:35.233
  • Statement that he was exiting the ministry, he said, because
  • 00:22:35.233 --> 00:22:39.137
  • Of how painful it was to have to keep receiving people and
  • 00:22:39.137 --> 00:22:42.207
  • Giving them your whole heart to only have to release them
  • 00:22:42.207 --> 00:22:45.610
  • And say goodbye.
  • 00:22:45.610 --> 00:22:48.380
  • He said it is, he said, nobody talks about how painful and
  • 00:22:48.380 --> 00:22:51.049
  • How raw my heart is from having to do this over and
  • 00:22:51.049 --> 00:22:53.752
  • Over and over again.
  • 00:22:53.752 --> 00:22:56.922
  • For years.
  • 00:22:56.922 --> 00:23:00.025
  • They come into the church, you give them your whole heart,
  • 00:22:58.723 --> 00:23:01.059
  • And then they leave sometimes disgruntled.
  • 00:23:01.059 --> 00:23:02.727
  • The church isn't meeting my needs.
  • 00:23:02.727 --> 00:23:04.496
  • You know, there's some people factor, whatever it is.
  • 00:23:04.496 --> 00:23:08.300
  • He said, i just over and over it, he said, and i can't take
  • 00:23:08.300 --> 00:23:09.401
  • The ongoing grief of the change of the seaons.
  • 00:23:09.401 --> 00:23:12.938
  • He said, i just can't take it.
  • 00:23:12.938 --> 00:23:15.073
  • And i've been thinking about what that looks like in my own
  • 00:23:15.073 --> 00:23:17.309
  • Life because i think whether it's people that i have the
  • 00:23:17.309 --> 00:23:20.312
  • Opportunity to work with in ministry or even my children
  • 00:23:20.312 --> 00:23:22.380
  • As they leave and they go or relationships that end.
  • 00:23:22.380 --> 00:23:25.851
  • And i thought, you know, we were going to be in it
  • 00:23:25.851 --> 00:23:28.453
  • Forever.
  • 00:23:28.453 --> 00:23:29.688
  • The grieving and the morning, both shades of that, that
  • 00:23:29.688 --> 00:23:32.924
  • Happened in my own life.
  • 00:23:32.924 --> 00:23:34.092
  • But there's a level of acceptance that i have learned
  • 00:23:34.092 --> 00:23:37.629
  • To have and even with people as they come and go, to look
  • 00:23:37.629 --> 00:23:43.301
  • At them when they walk in the door and to be able to say to
  • 00:23:43.301 --> 00:23:45.937
  • Them as i say to my children, i don't know how long you'll
  • 00:23:45.937 --> 00:23:48.206
  • Be here but for the time that you're here let's talk about
  • 00:23:48.206 --> 00:23:52.978
  • How we can the most out of this, how this is good for
  • 00:23:52.978 --> 00:23:56.982
  • You, how this is good for me.
  • 00:23:56.982 --> 00:23:58.350
  • It's the, you know, the conversation i have with my
  • 00:23:58.350 --> 00:24:00.285
  • Kids.
  • 00:24:00.285 --> 00:24:02.254
  • Like, the seasons are changing and learning how to recognize
  • 00:24:02.254 --> 00:24:03.321
  • The seasons are changing.
  • 00:24:03.321 --> 00:24:04.589
  • The thing that has helped me to kind of connect with many
  • 00:24:04.589 --> 00:24:07.726
  • Of the things we've been talking about is to realize
  • 00:24:07.726 --> 00:24:10.762
  • That if i feel disconnected from a season, if i feel
  • 00:24:10.762 --> 00:24:13.098
  • Disconnected from a person, if i'm feeling lament and loss,
  • 00:24:13.098 --> 00:24:16.468
  • It's to check my attachment.
  • 00:24:16.468 --> 00:24:18.970
  • And i'm thinking about john 15 when the bible says, i'm the
  • 00:24:18.970 --> 00:24:22.307
  • Vine, you're the branches.
  • 00:24:22.307 --> 00:24:24.042
  • If i am feeling disconnected, which is a lot of times what
  • 00:24:24.042 --> 00:24:26.845
  • The season change is, it's a sense of disconnection, okay,
  • 00:24:26.845 --> 00:24:29.414
  • Can i check my connection to the lord?
  • 00:24:29.414 --> 00:24:32.450
  • Because every season is designed to take me from glory
  • 00:24:32.450 --> 00:24:35.387
  • To glory and every season is designed for me to become more
  • 00:24:35.387 --> 00:24:37.989
  • Like christ.
  • 00:24:37.989 --> 00:24:39.658
  • So if i'm feeling that loss, where am i needing attachment?
  • 00:24:39.658 --> 00:24:43.628
  • Good.
  • 00:24:43.628 --> 00:24:45.564
  • So that i am getting my sense of connection and consistency
  • 00:24:45.564 --> 00:24:48.466
  • From the one who i will be connected to forever because
  • 00:24:48.466 --> 00:24:50.869
  • Eternity is in our hearts.
  • 00:24:50.869 --> 00:24:53.438
  • - i think one of the things has helped me recognize god's
  • 00:24:53.438 --> 00:24:56.174
  • Hand in seasons of change is simply looking back a little
  • 00:24:56.174 --> 00:24:58.910
  • Bit.
  • 00:24:58.910 --> 00:25:02.013
  • Because even when i go back to my childhood and all the years
  • 00:25:02.013 --> 00:25:03.782
  • Since i've been in relationship with the lord, i
  • 00:25:03.782 --> 00:25:08.587
  • See that god's hand shows up in ways that surprised me at
  • 00:25:08.587 --> 00:25:10.755
  • Times, ways where the timing was not expected.
  • 00:25:10.755 --> 00:25:13.391
  • But the one thing that i could tell you, absolutely, is that
  • 00:25:13.391 --> 00:25:18.797
  • God has been faithful.
  • 00:25:18.797 --> 00:25:20.098
  • And i know that if god shows up once, god is going to show
  • 00:25:20.098 --> 00:25:22.767
  • Up again.
  • 00:25:22.767 --> 00:25:24.369
  • - and then the question would be to also ask, have i made an
  • 00:25:24.369 --> 00:25:25.870
  • Attachment to the person or the job or the whatever too
  • 00:25:25.870 --> 00:25:30.008
  • Much, that that maybe was an idol in my heart?
  • 00:25:30.008 --> 00:25:33.244
  • - because you're here.
  • 00:25:33.244 --> 00:25:34.713
  • I can touch you, i can see you.
  • 00:25:34.713 --> 00:25:37.449
  • The situation is easy.
  • 00:25:37.449 --> 00:25:38.817
  • And so when the situation of the person is gone, it's like,
  • 00:25:38.817 --> 00:25:40.051
  • Oh, where was i building in that way?
  • 00:25:40.051 --> 00:25:42.220
  • - there was this movie that came out, maybe 20 years ago
  • 00:25:42.220 --> 00:25:45.090
  • Or so called click.
  • 00:25:45.090 --> 00:25:48.526
  • And the lead actor was given this remote that whenever
  • 00:25:48.526 --> 00:25:52.497
  • Things got uncomfortable, do you remember this?
  • 00:25:52.497 --> 00:25:56.501
  • He could fast forward it.
  • 00:25:56.501 --> 00:25:57.802
  • He could fast-forward through it.
  • 00:25:57.802 --> 00:25:59.504
  • And so at first, it was just a hard season.
  • 00:25:59.504 --> 00:26:03.008
  • But then he started doing it more and more and more.
  • 00:26:03.008 --> 00:26:06.344
  • So that he was fast-forwarding.
  • 00:26:06.344 --> 00:26:08.179
  • And so while he's busy fast-forwarding, then he's
  • 00:26:08.179 --> 00:26:11.049
  • Present, but not present with people.
  • 00:26:11.049 --> 00:26:13.184
  • And so by the end of his life, everybody around him said, i
  • 00:26:13.184 --> 00:26:17.555
  • Never felt like you were here.
  • 00:26:17.555 --> 00:26:19.991
  • You were present with us.
  • 00:26:19.991 --> 00:26:22.894
  • And so i started thinking.
  • 00:26:22.894 --> 00:26:23.728
  • He was always somewhere else.
  • 00:26:23.728 --> 00:26:24.696
  • He was always going ahead.
  • 00:26:24.696 --> 00:26:25.730
  • Because it was a season that that was hard.
  • 00:26:25.730 --> 00:26:28.266
  • And i started thinking, hello, childbirth.
  • 00:26:28.266 --> 00:26:29.367
  • Wouldn't you like to go on?
  • 00:26:29.367 --> 00:26:30.669
  • Just get to the end or, you know, cancer diagnosis or you
  • 00:26:30.669 --> 00:26:35.440
  • Want to just quick get to the end of it.
  • 00:26:35.440 --> 00:26:37.575
  • But if we believe that like a life of beauty takes all the
  • 00:26:37.575 --> 00:26:39.878
  • Seasons, then it's what you said, it's being present in
  • 00:26:39.878 --> 00:26:41.646
  • All the seasons.
  • 00:26:41.646 --> 00:26:44.082
  • - well, there was a study done i don't know how many years
  • 00:26:44.082 --> 00:26:48.887
  • Ago this was, but it found that so we have about 12,000
  • 00:26:48.887 --> 00:26:51.823
  • Thoughts a day if not more.
  • 00:26:51.823 --> 00:26:53.258
  • And at least 85% of those thoughts are negative and they
  • 00:26:53.258 --> 00:27:01.766
  • Are consumed either with a past we cannot change or a
  • 00:27:01.766 --> 00:27:05.336
  • Future we don't control.
  • 00:27:05.336 --> 00:27:08.540
  • And so we don't live our lives in the present and what's
  • 00:27:08.540 --> 00:27:13.978
  • Amazing is all we have is now.
  • 00:27:13.978 --> 00:27:16.548
  • This moment is all we have and i was thinking about as you
  • 00:27:16.548 --> 00:27:19.584
  • Were talking about attachment, attachment is really about
  • 00:27:19.584 --> 00:27:22.687
  • Grounding because when you are connected to something it's in
  • 00:27:22.687 --> 00:27:29.527
  • The moment and when i think about the lord and our
  • 00:27:29.527 --> 00:27:33.098
  • Connection to god, when we are truly grounded in the lord,
  • 00:27:33.098 --> 00:27:36.334
  • It's like he calls us to the moment because we can only
  • 00:27:36.334 --> 00:27:39.137
  • Represent him in the moment.
  • 00:27:39.137 --> 00:27:42.173
  • We can only minister to someone in the moment, when we
  • 00:27:42.173 --> 00:27:44.576
  • Pray we are praying in the moment, studying in the moment
  • 00:27:44.576 --> 00:27:46.678
  • All we have is the moment.
  • 00:27:46.678 --> 00:27:48.613
  • We can't change the past you can't change the future, all
  • 00:27:48.613 --> 00:27:51.282
  • You can do is shape the future in the present and you can
  • 00:27:51.282 --> 00:27:55.320
  • Affect the past in the present.
  • 00:27:55.320 --> 00:27:58.256
  • But even that requires the grace of god.
  • 00:27:58.256 --> 00:28:00.692
  • - that is so good so just how many times have you like,
  • 00:28:00.692 --> 00:28:04.162
  • Heard a song, and it takes you back.
  • 00:28:04.162 --> 00:28:07.332
  • Yes, yes.
  • 00:28:07.332 --> 00:28:08.566
  • Right, it takes you back to the moment that isn't now.
  • 00:28:08.566 --> 00:28:10.769
  • Right.
  • 00:28:10.769 --> 00:28:11.936
  • So you just reminded me, okay, so 20 years ago, i was
  • 00:28:11.936 --> 00:28:14.572
  • Diagnosed with breast cancer, right?
  • 00:28:14.572 --> 00:28:16.207
  • So i began that journey.
  • 00:28:16.207 --> 00:28:18.343
  • And recently, i had just a checkup, just a regular
  • 00:28:18.343 --> 00:28:21.446
  • Oncology checkup, and i go in to that room.
  • 00:28:21.446 --> 00:28:24.783
  • Wow.
  • 00:28:24.783 --> 00:28:28.586
  • I smell the smells, and i was taken, and i'm fine, i'm fine,
  • 00:28:28.586 --> 00:28:30.088
  • But it just like took me back.
  • 00:28:30.088 --> 00:28:36.194
  • Sometimes guys, perhaps more, you know, they relive their
  • 00:28:36.194 --> 00:28:39.697
  • High school days.
  • 00:28:39.697 --> 00:28:41.533
  • If they hadn't blown out their knee, that'd be a professional
  • 00:28:41.533 --> 00:28:42.867
  • Advocate or whatever.
  • 00:28:42.867 --> 00:28:45.370
  • And so then they have like the big statue or trophy, reliving
  • 00:28:45.370 --> 00:28:47.338
  • A day that isn't today.
  • 00:28:47.338 --> 00:28:48.807
  • Okay, so in 1979, some of you watching weren't born, pipe
  • 00:28:48.807 --> 00:28:55.246
  • Down.
  • 00:28:55.246 --> 00:28:56.114
  • So i won, like, a beauty pageant.
  • 00:28:56.114 --> 00:28:57.949
  • Not surprising.
  • 00:28:57.949 --> 00:29:00.285
  • I know.
  • 00:29:00.285 --> 00:29:00.919
  • - can i see the wave?
  • 00:29:00.919 --> 00:29:01.786
  • Do you have a wave?
  • 00:29:01.786 --> 00:29:02.821
  • - i love that.
  • 00:29:02.821 --> 00:29:03.822
  • World peace.
  • 00:29:03.822 --> 00:29:04.622
  • I was dared, yeah, world peace.
  • 00:29:04.622 --> 00:29:07.025
  • I was dared to enter it.
  • 00:29:07.025 --> 00:29:08.726
  • So anyway, it was a long story.
  • 00:29:08.726 --> 00:29:10.428
  • But i won this.
  • 00:29:10.428 --> 00:29:12.297
  • But how weird would it be?
  • 00:29:12.297 --> 00:29:14.799
  • And it was fun.
  • 00:29:14.799 --> 00:29:15.400
  • I enjoyed the year.
  • 00:29:15.400 --> 00:29:16.401
  • It was like, and i'm done with all that.
  • 00:29:16.401 --> 00:29:17.936
  • But how weird would it be if today i showed up with crown
  • 00:29:17.936 --> 00:29:19.904
  • And my banner for you know 40 years later as if it's that
  • 00:29:19.904 --> 00:29:23.541
  • Normal but how many times do we do that that just reminded
  • 00:29:23.541 --> 00:29:27.812
  • Me we bring yeah.
  • 00:29:27.812 --> 00:29:29.681
  • - we can see it in other people because if you showed
  • 00:29:29.681 --> 00:29:32.450
  • Up with a crown and a and banner we'd be like holly we'd
  • 00:29:32.450 --> 00:29:34.819
  • Be like girl let it go you're like if you are in a season of
  • 00:29:34.819 --> 00:29:38.122
  • Your life and you were trying to dress like you're 18 people
  • 00:29:38.122 --> 00:29:40.792
  • Will look at you and be like what does she do yeah so we
  • 00:29:40.792 --> 00:29:43.895
  • Can recognize it in other people.
  • 00:29:43.895 --> 00:29:46.664
  • Yes, but it's hard to recognize.
  • 00:29:46.664 --> 00:29:47.866
  • Yes.
  • 00:29:47.866 --> 00:29:49.167
  • - but when we hold on to that, what we do, and this is the
  • 00:29:49.167 --> 00:29:51.135
  • Heartbreaking part of it, and it gets back to identity, when
  • 00:29:51.135 --> 00:29:54.706
  • We hold on to who we were, we actually can't lay hold of who
  • 00:29:54.706 --> 00:29:58.576
  • God is calling us to be.
  • 00:29:58.576 --> 00:29:59.711
  • Yes.
  • 00:29:59.711 --> 00:30:01.846
  • No, you're right.
  • 00:30:00.979 --> 00:30:03.181
  • Who we are to become is always connected to who we are in the
  • 00:30:03.181 --> 00:30:05.350
  • Moment.
  • 00:30:05.350 --> 00:30:06.651
  • So you can't even become what god is calling you to if you
  • 00:30:06.651 --> 00:30:09.721
  • Are not already who he has called you to be.
  • 00:30:09.721 --> 00:30:11.923
  • And i think that's where we, that's where, again, that's
  • 00:30:11.923 --> 00:30:15.860
  • The enemy's playground, is to make you think, well, if you
  • 00:30:15.860 --> 00:30:19.130
  • Were still the co-host of the 700 club, then you would
  • 00:30:19.130 --> 00:30:22.000
  • Matter.
  • 00:30:22.000 --> 00:30:23.234
  • And so now you're grieving because that is what gave me
  • 00:30:23.234 --> 00:30:26.638
  • Identity and worth, not recognizing that god released
  • 00:30:26.638 --> 00:30:28.539
  • You from that because there's something else he's calling
  • 00:30:28.539 --> 00:30:31.743
  • You to, which is equally, if not more significant.
  • 00:30:31.743 --> 00:30:34.646
  • Because think about it, i mean, the lives that you've
  • 00:30:34.646 --> 00:30:37.015
  • Touched, that the people who have found hope because of
  • 00:30:37.015 --> 00:30:40.685
  • What god took you through had nothing to do with you
  • 00:30:40.685 --> 00:30:44.589
  • Cohosting the 700 club.
  • 00:30:44.589 --> 00:30:45.823
  • Because you didn't fast forward through a season that
  • 00:30:45.823 --> 00:30:47.892
  • Was horrible.
  • 00:30:47.892 --> 00:30:50.028
  • You walked through the season so god was able to create
  • 00:30:50.028 --> 00:30:52.897
  • Something in you that now became a platform for other
  • 00:30:52.897 --> 00:30:54.532
  • Peoples' healing.
  • 00:30:54.532 --> 00:30:55.833
  • But imagine if you would've said but i was the co-host of
  • 00:30:55.833 --> 00:30:57.235
  • The 700 club and you never stepped into that new
  • 00:30:57.235 --> 00:30:59.203
  • Identity.
  • 00:30:59.203 --> 00:31:00.972
  • - it's so, so good, nona, because i remember the last,
  • 00:31:00.972 --> 00:31:04.442
  • Very last day when you check out of a psych hospital, i've
  • 00:31:04.442 --> 00:31:07.378
  • Been there for a month, my doctor called out of his
  • 00:31:07.378 --> 00:31:10.815
  • Office window.
  • 00:31:10.815 --> 00:31:12.083
  • I'm walking back to my car, got my car keys back, i'm an
  • 00:31:12.083 --> 00:31:13.985
  • Adult again.
  • 00:31:13.985 --> 00:31:15.720
  • And he said to me, sheila, and i turned around and he said,
  • 00:31:15.720 --> 00:31:19.190
  • Who are you?
  • 00:31:19.190 --> 00:31:20.792
  • I said, i'm a daughter of the king.
  • 00:31:20.792 --> 00:31:22.493
  • It was just this, and that sounds like a very easy thing
  • 00:31:22.493 --> 00:31:25.730
  • To say it, but it was a huge thing for me because growing
  • 00:31:25.730 --> 00:31:27.832
  • Up, if you wanted to be- in my heart if you wanted to be
  • 00:31:27.832 --> 00:31:31.035
  • Significant for god you were in ministry.
  • 00:31:31.035 --> 00:31:32.804
  • Because i was brought up in the baptist church that was
  • 00:31:32.804 --> 00:31:34.272
  • Very traditional, i couldn't be a pastor, so my only choice
  • 00:31:34.272 --> 00:31:36.307
  • Was to be a missionary so that's why i went to seminary.
  • 00:31:36.307 --> 00:31:38.710
  • To train to be a missionary in india.
  • 00:31:38.710 --> 00:31:40.678
  • Because then i would be full time work, i would be in
  • 00:31:40.678 --> 00:31:47.418
  • Ministry and god would love me.
  • 00:31:47.418 --> 00:31:48.586
  • And when everything fell apart, and i was finally, i
  • 00:31:48.586 --> 00:31:52.056
  • Came to a place of realizing, if i work in walmart, i'm in
  • 00:31:52.056 --> 00:31:56.394
  • Ministry.
  • 00:31:56.394 --> 00:31:58.029
  • It doesn't matter anymore.
  • 00:31:58.029 --> 00:31:59.263
  • There was this sense of, you know, you talk a lot about
  • 00:31:59.263 --> 00:32:02.900
  • Identity.
  • 00:32:02.900 --> 00:32:03.601
  • It's huge.
  • 00:32:03.601 --> 00:32:04.302
  • It's everything.
  • 00:32:04.302 --> 00:32:06.404
  • Yeah, it absolutely is.
  • 00:32:06.404 --> 00:32:07.605
  • Because even it's like it's not enough for me to be
  • 00:32:07.605 --> 00:32:09.240
  • Christian's mom or barry's wife.
  • 00:32:09.240 --> 00:32:11.509
  • Any of those things can shift in a moment.
  • 00:32:11.509 --> 00:32:14.245
  • Things can change.
  • 00:32:14.245 --> 00:32:15.446
  • People can be gone.
  • 00:32:15.446 --> 00:32:16.748
  • But who i am, when you have eternity written all over your
  • 00:32:16.748 --> 00:32:19.984
  • Heart, is something that just keeps you taking the next step
  • 00:32:19.984 --> 00:32:22.720
  • Into the next season and not being afraid.
  • 00:32:22.720 --> 00:32:24.689
  • - and that, see, that's the part that helps you navigate
  • 00:32:24.689 --> 00:32:30.161
  • The change of the season because god doesn't change.
  • 00:32:30.161 --> 00:32:31.796
  • Right.
  • 00:32:31.796 --> 00:32:33.464
  • So the season may change.
  • 00:32:33.464 --> 00:32:34.866
  • - i prayed that this morning in the car.
  • 00:32:34.866 --> 00:32:37.168
  • I'm coming here and i'm like, lord, here's one of my
  • 00:32:37.168 --> 00:32:38.870
  • Problems.
  • 00:32:38.870 --> 00:32:39.871
  • I change all the time, and you never do.
  • 00:32:39.871 --> 00:32:42.240
  • And i just want to pause here on the way to the studio
  • 00:32:42.240 --> 00:32:45.243
  • Before i get to better together and say, thank you,
  • 00:32:45.243 --> 00:32:48.046
  • You never change.
  • 00:32:48.046 --> 00:32:49.847
  • And i'm still in a place where i'm thinking, i think god
  • 00:32:49.847 --> 00:32:52.850
  • Thought i did better yesterday than i did the day before.
  • 00:32:52.850 --> 00:32:55.453
  • And i'm like, god is not like that.
  • 00:32:55.453 --> 00:32:58.256
  • You know, the way that we try and project onto god,
  • 00:32:58.256 --> 00:33:01.192
  • Significance, personal based on what kind of day we
  • 00:33:01.192 --> 00:33:04.862
  • Had, as opposed to just...
  • 00:33:04.862 --> 00:33:07.799
  • I mean, i just...
  • 00:33:07.799 --> 00:33:10.001
  • I had a moment in my car.
  • 00:33:10.001 --> 00:33:10.902
  • I was just like, i could just...
  • 00:33:10.902 --> 00:33:12.103
  • - you're having church in your car.
  • 00:33:12.103 --> 00:33:12.703
  • - yes!
  • 00:33:12.703 --> 00:33:13.905
  • I wonder how much of our time is spent, thinking about
  • 00:33:13.905 --> 00:33:17.275
  • Things that happened in the past that we wish we could
  • 00:33:17.275 --> 00:33:20.378
  • Change and thinking about things that might happen in
  • 00:33:20.378 --> 00:33:22.847
  • The future that we have no control over.
  • 00:33:22.847 --> 00:33:24.849
  • One of the things that god is teaching me, and i say
  • 00:33:24.849 --> 00:33:27.952
  • Teaching me, because it's taking time, is to really be
  • 00:33:27.952 --> 00:33:30.021
  • Present, to really live in the present moment.
  • 00:33:30.021 --> 00:33:33.057
  • I love the fact that when jesus was teaching his friends
  • 00:33:33.057 --> 00:33:36.227
  • To pray he said give us this day our daily bread, not our
  • 00:33:36.227 --> 00:33:39.931
  • Weekly bread, or monthly bread, give us our daily
  • 00:33:39.931 --> 00:33:43.101
  • Bread.
  • 00:33:43.101 --> 00:33:44.602
  • So as much as you can try to live in the moment and see god
  • 00:33:44.602 --> 00:33:47.505
  • Showing up where you are right now.
  • 00:33:47.505 --> 00:33:49.640
  • - be the first to know all the latest better together
  • 00:33:49.640 --> 00:33:53.878
  • Updates.
  • 00:33:53.878 --> 00:33:55.146
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  • And never miss the latest news.
  • 00:33:58.749 --> 00:34:00.918
  • - can we just speak to that tension that some women feel
  • 00:34:00.918 --> 00:34:02.992
  • - can we just speak to that tension that some women feel
  • 00:34:02.992 --> 00:34:08.392
  • When, you know, watching others move forward into a new
  • 00:34:08.392 --> 00:34:11.863
  • Season and they feel stuck?
  • 00:34:11.863 --> 00:34:13.965
  • Yeah, that's real.
  • 00:34:13.965 --> 00:34:15.366
  • That's very real.
  • 00:34:15.366 --> 00:34:16.400
  • Right.
  • 00:34:16.400 --> 00:34:17.602
  • So somebody else is stepping into a new season, you're
  • 00:34:17.602 --> 00:34:18.836
  • Like, i've been in this season forever.
  • 00:34:18.836 --> 00:34:20.438
  • It's called comparison.
  • 00:34:20.438 --> 00:34:22.173
  • Yeah, comparison.
  • 00:34:22.173 --> 00:34:23.407
  • So why don't we talk about that?
  • 00:34:23.407 --> 00:34:24.675
  • One of the revelations the lord gave me about identity is
  • 00:34:24.675 --> 00:34:26.277
  • That insecurity we tend to think insecurity is about low
  • 00:34:26.277 --> 00:34:29.780
  • Self-esteem.
  • 00:34:29.780 --> 00:34:31.048
  • So what we do is say these positive affirmations you know
  • 00:34:31.048 --> 00:34:34.018
  • I'm good enough, i'm smart enough, people like me.
  • 00:34:34.018 --> 00:34:36.020
  • And we say these things thinking that is going to
  • 00:34:36.020 --> 00:34:38.222
  • Somehow you know change how we feel, but insecurity is not
  • 00:34:38.222 --> 00:34:41.659
  • About low self-esteem.
  • 00:34:41.659 --> 00:34:43.661
  • It's about what your identity is secured to.
  • 00:34:43.661 --> 00:34:45.696
  • And so if you are looking at everyone else and what they're
  • 00:34:45.696 --> 00:34:49.167
  • Doing and the applause that they're getting and the likes
  • 00:34:49.167 --> 00:34:51.903
  • That they're getting on their posts and all those things,
  • 00:34:51.903 --> 00:34:55.039
  • You will start to feel like you're less than, which is why
  • 00:34:55.039 --> 00:34:58.709
  • You have to always check what is my identity secured to?
  • 00:34:58.709 --> 00:35:02.613
  • Is it secured to who god says i am?
  • 00:35:02.613 --> 00:35:05.049
  • Yeah.
  • 00:35:05.049 --> 00:35:06.284
  • Or is it secured to the affirmation of man?
  • 00:35:06.284 --> 00:35:07.985
  • Because that changes.
  • 00:35:07.985 --> 00:35:09.120
  • You can be the best thing since sliced bread.
  • 00:35:09.120 --> 00:35:11.222
  • People can be inviting you to all the exclusive events.
  • 00:35:11.222 --> 00:35:13.958
  • You can get invited to all the big platforms one day.
  • 00:35:13.958 --> 00:35:16.160
  • And then the next day, they're like, whatever happened to
  • 00:35:16.160 --> 00:35:18.529
  • Nona jones, i remember her from what ever happened to
  • 00:35:18.529 --> 00:35:20.665
  • Her?
  • 00:35:20.665 --> 00:35:22.166
  • But if you don't know who you are, that's right.
  • 00:35:22.166 --> 00:35:24.535
  • I'm telling you, it doesn't matter what everybody else is
  • 00:35:24.535 --> 00:35:27.705
  • Doing.
  • 00:35:27.705 --> 00:35:28.906
  • You're going to always feel like you're not enough.
  • 00:35:28.906 --> 00:35:30.341
  • - let me first tell you, if you find yourself comparing
  • 00:35:30.341 --> 00:35:33.911
  • Yourself to other people when it seems like they're winning.
  • 00:35:33.911 --> 00:35:36.547
  • It seems like they're in just an amazing season and it feels
  • 00:35:36.547 --> 00:35:41.419
  • Like you have lost or that things aren't going the way
  • 00:35:41.419 --> 00:35:43.454
  • That you would like them to go.
  • 00:35:43.454 --> 00:35:45.456
  • I want you to pause.
  • 00:35:45.456 --> 00:35:46.657
  • I want you to realize that just because it seems like
  • 00:35:46.657 --> 00:35:49.193
  • They're winning, that doesn't mean that you are losing.
  • 00:35:49.193 --> 00:35:51.629
  • Change is an opportunity for god to build and grow
  • 00:35:51.629 --> 00:35:55.600
  • Something new within you.
  • 00:35:55.600 --> 00:35:57.868
  • And so even though it doesn't show up on the outside all the
  • 00:35:57.868 --> 00:36:00.571
  • Time, you have to trust that there is something god is
  • 00:36:00.571 --> 00:36:03.441
  • Working within you.
  • 00:36:03.441 --> 00:36:04.542
  • So be encouraged.
  • 00:36:04.542 --> 00:36:06.043
  • Their win is not your loss.
  • 00:36:06.043 --> 00:36:08.279
  • Their success is not your failure.
  • 00:36:08.279 --> 00:36:12.850
  • - i can think back to seasons where i was raising three kids
  • 00:36:12.850 --> 00:36:15.486
  • And they were little.
  • 00:36:15.486 --> 00:36:17.188
  • And so that, like you said, the seasons, that felt like a
  • 00:36:17.188 --> 00:36:18.789
  • Long time because just as soon as you get one out of diapers,
  • 00:36:18.789 --> 00:36:22.960
  • Another one came and then another one, you know, and i
  • 00:36:22.960 --> 00:36:24.962
  • Remember that time when we had like a party when the very
  • 00:36:24.962 --> 00:36:28.165
  • Last child was out of diapers.
  • 00:36:28.165 --> 00:36:31.002
  • And i remember sitting in nursing mother's rooms or
  • 00:36:31.002 --> 00:36:33.170
  • Whatever with these young moms that we were all in the same
  • 00:36:33.170 --> 00:36:35.606
  • Season thinking, will i ever be anything more than the
  • 00:36:35.606 --> 00:36:39.043
  • Nursing mom or the play date mom or any of that?
  • 00:36:39.043 --> 00:36:42.580
  • And i remember a time when my kids were a little bit older,
  • 00:36:42.580 --> 00:36:48.052
  • They were school-aged, even though we had a homeschool
  • 00:36:48.052 --> 00:36:50.221
  • Component to their education.
  • 00:36:50.221 --> 00:36:52.290
  • But i had a little bit of time that i could start dreaming
  • 00:36:52.290 --> 00:36:56.494
  • Again about something that was maybe more mine, that wasn't
  • 00:36:56.494 --> 00:36:59.997
  • Just mothering and giving.
  • 00:36:59.997 --> 00:37:01.265
  • And i remember thinking, is that, i mean, is that okay?
  • 00:37:01.265 --> 00:37:05.069
  • Can i do that?
  • 00:37:05.069 --> 00:37:06.537
  • Is there more to me than just that mother?
  • 00:37:06.537 --> 00:37:08.939
  • I had gotten so much into seeing myself just as that
  • 00:37:08.939 --> 00:37:14.111
  • Thing, even though i knew inside of me, i had things
  • 00:37:14.111 --> 00:37:16.147
  • Like screaming to come out, you know, desires.
  • 00:37:16.147 --> 00:37:18.249
  • And so i would say to somebody who is feeling like they're in
  • 00:37:18.249 --> 00:37:22.086
  • A season, if they can, i mean, i look back and i think my
  • 00:37:22.086 --> 00:37:26.624
  • Kids are all now...
  • 00:37:26.624 --> 00:37:27.925
  • I've got one married with a grandkid on the way, a baby on
  • 00:37:27.925 --> 00:37:30.027
  • The way, and two in college.
  • 00:37:30.027 --> 00:37:33.130
  • And i think, why would i have ever wanted those seasons,
  • 00:37:33.130 --> 00:37:36.133
  • That season of the littleness to go away so quickly?
  • 00:37:36.133 --> 00:37:38.669
  • So i would just maybe even say to somebody watching who's
  • 00:37:38.669 --> 00:37:41.505
  • Thinking, is this ever going to-- and now i'm comparing it
  • 00:37:41.505 --> 00:37:43.474
  • To motherhood.
  • 00:37:43.474 --> 00:37:45.242
  • It could be whatever season.
  • 00:37:45.242 --> 00:37:45.943
  • Could be single.
  • 00:37:45.943 --> 00:37:46.544
  • It could be single.
  • 00:37:46.544 --> 00:37:47.912
  • - because you got single people who want to be married and you
  • 00:37:47.912 --> 00:37:49.914
  • Got married who want to be single.
  • 00:37:49.914 --> 00:37:51.148
  • That's another show.
  • 00:37:51.148 --> 00:37:55.319
  • That is really true.
  • 00:37:54.452 --> 00:37:58.389
  • And but i think you have to, it's that it's the gratitude
  • 00:37:58.389 --> 00:38:01.726
  • Thing is huge.
  • 00:38:01.726 --> 00:38:03.427
  • But i think you also have to just, you have to check
  • 00:38:03.427 --> 00:38:06.097
  • Yourself on where is my trust?
  • 00:38:06.097 --> 00:38:07.832
  • Do i trust that if i am supposed to move on to another
  • 00:38:07.832 --> 00:38:11.369
  • Season, god will let me know.
  • 00:38:11.369 --> 00:38:12.803
  • He will make me aware he'll start burning things inside of
  • 00:38:12.803 --> 00:38:15.139
  • Me.
  • 00:38:15.139 --> 00:38:21.078
  • He'll start giving me interest.
  • 00:38:21.078 --> 00:38:22.346
  • He'll start, you know, i'm thinking of the single person,
  • 00:38:22.346 --> 00:38:24.715
  • You know, i think, oh, i can understand that that is such a
  • 00:38:24.715 --> 00:38:29.487
  • Long season.
  • 00:38:29.487 --> 00:38:30.654
  • But i do believe that god will begin to move in that
  • 00:38:30.654 --> 00:38:34.558
  • Direction when it's time.
  • 00:38:34.558 --> 00:38:37.428
  • Otherwise, it's almost like if you haven't heard a new thing
  • 00:38:37.428 --> 00:38:40.798
  • To do, do the thing that you know you're told to do last.
  • 00:38:40.798 --> 00:38:45.302
  • Just keep doing that thing.
  • 00:38:45.302 --> 00:38:47.138
  • And just don't get disgruntled.
  • 00:38:47.138 --> 00:38:49.106
  • I mean, it's talked about so often in the bible about
  • 00:38:49.106 --> 00:38:51.542
  • Contentment.
  • 00:38:51.542 --> 00:38:52.977
  • And what does it look like to be content knowing that any
  • 00:38:52.977 --> 00:38:55.446
  • And every season?
  • 00:38:55.446 --> 00:38:57.715
  • In any and every season.
  • 00:38:57.715 --> 00:38:59.984
  • He knew how to be content with much and knew how to be
  • 00:38:58.816 --> 00:39:03.053
  • Content with little.
  • 00:39:03.053 --> 00:39:04.388
  • And there are seasons that you feel like you maybe are in the
  • 00:39:04.388 --> 00:39:06.657
  • Much and seasons you feel like you're in the little.
  • 00:39:06.657 --> 00:39:09.226
  • - my husband and i have three grown children.
  • 00:39:09.226 --> 00:39:12.897
  • It was just last year we went through that season of
  • 00:39:12.897 --> 00:39:15.366
  • Becoming empty nesters.
  • 00:39:15.366 --> 00:39:17.435
  • We have a married child and then two that were in college
  • 00:39:17.435 --> 00:39:20.971
  • And it was a very jarring season for me and in the
  • 00:39:20.971 --> 00:39:25.443
  • Process of what felt like grieving and mourning because
  • 00:39:25.443 --> 00:39:29.280
  • It's interesting right it's all you ever pray for your
  • 00:39:29.280 --> 00:39:31.415
  • Kids you know that they would soar that they would take that
  • 00:39:31.415 --> 00:39:35.119
  • Next step into adulthood and then they actually do it and
  • 00:39:35.119 --> 00:39:38.222
  • You're like why did it have to be like this but when i was
  • 00:39:38.222 --> 00:39:40.090
  • Kind of evaluating asking the lord to help me see his
  • 00:39:40.090 --> 00:39:45.629
  • Perspective of this season it really was one of gratitude
  • 00:39:45.629 --> 00:39:49.233
  • Because every time a child went into a different season,
  • 00:39:49.233 --> 00:39:54.605
  • When they graduated from diapers into not having to
  • 00:39:54.605 --> 00:39:58.309
  • Wear diapers anymore, when they graduated from crawling
  • 00:39:58.309 --> 00:40:00.845
  • To walking, you never felt lost about that thing because
  • 00:40:00.845 --> 00:40:03.314
  • You were so excited about what was ahead for them and in the
  • 00:40:03.314 --> 00:40:06.617
  • Same way for me, i realized, even though it did feel like
  • 00:40:06.617 --> 00:40:11.822
  • Lost, my home was quieter, i could sense their presence not
  • 00:40:11.822 --> 00:40:15.259
  • There, i knew that where they were is exactly where god had
  • 00:40:15.259 --> 00:40:20.631
  • Placed them, and they were flourishing in the place that
  • 00:40:20.631 --> 00:40:23.067
  • They were.
  • 00:40:23.067 --> 00:40:24.735
  • They were doing the next thing god had for them, and that
  • 00:40:24.735 --> 00:40:27.705
  • Brought me so much peace as a mom because it's exactly what
  • 00:40:27.705 --> 00:40:30.674
  • I had prayed for them.
  • 00:40:30.674 --> 00:40:32.409
  • - i think there is also a generation that things get
  • 00:40:32.409 --> 00:40:35.212
  • Uncomfortable or hard so they want to change.
  • 00:40:35.212 --> 00:40:40.351
  • Like marriage gets hard, i'm changing to the next guy as if
  • 00:40:40.351 --> 00:40:42.820
  • That's going to make it better.
  • 00:40:42.820 --> 00:40:44.688
  • This job is hard.
  • 00:40:44.688 --> 00:40:45.856
  • God's leading me somewhere, maybe, but maybe not.
  • 00:40:45.856 --> 00:40:47.324
  • Yeah.
  • 00:40:47.324 --> 00:40:49.460
  • Just because something's hard doesn't mean it's time to
  • 00:40:49.460 --> 00:40:52.630
  • Change.
  • 00:40:52.630 --> 00:40:53.731
  • We use that as just try to get out of something.
  • 00:40:53.731 --> 00:40:56.567
  • And then to me, then you'll just be stuck in the next
  • 00:40:56.567 --> 00:41:00.371
  • Thing until you figure out what you were supposed to
  • 00:41:00.371 --> 00:41:02.506
  • Learn in this thing.
  • 00:41:02.506 --> 00:41:03.841
  • So sometimes just our change, we cause change to get out of
  • 00:41:03.841 --> 00:41:06.810
  • Something uncomfortable.
  • 00:41:06.810 --> 00:41:09.513
  • And i don't always think that was god.
  • 00:41:09.513 --> 00:41:11.181
  • - so this is actually good.
  • 00:41:11.181 --> 00:41:12.583
  • How do you know if the hard is the favor is up, the time is up,
  • 00:41:12.583 --> 00:41:17.621
  • The season's changed, or the hard is asking you to find
  • 00:41:17.621 --> 00:41:20.424
  • Some grit and go deeper?
  • 00:41:20.424 --> 00:41:23.527
  • Like, how do you judge?
  • 00:41:23.527 --> 00:41:24.728
  • I want to hear chrystal's thought on this, because...
  • 00:41:24.728 --> 00:41:26.764
  • - first thing i thought when you were saying that is am i
  • 00:41:26.764 --> 00:41:31.769
  • Being stretched or am i striving?
  • 00:41:31.769 --> 00:41:34.171
  • And knowing the difference because being stretched says i
  • 00:41:34.171 --> 00:41:40.344
  • Am growing and developing because of this.
  • 00:41:40.344 --> 00:41:42.880
  • Striving says i am constantly reaching for something that's
  • 00:41:42.880 --> 00:41:48.218
  • Out of my grasp.
  • 00:41:48.218 --> 00:41:49.520
  • One of the indicators for me, if i'm envious or jealous or
  • 00:41:49.520 --> 00:41:52.890
  • Comparing myself to other people to the seasons that
  • 00:41:52.890 --> 00:41:56.026
  • They're in, i think it's a good thing to feel that
  • 00:41:56.026 --> 00:41:58.529
  • Because it's an indicator it's an opportunity for you to look
  • 00:41:58.529 --> 00:42:02.666
  • At what is that telling me about me so i can look at
  • 00:42:02.666 --> 00:42:05.903
  • Somebody and look at what they're showing me on
  • 00:42:05.903 --> 00:42:09.006
  • Instagram and say i feel something.
  • 00:42:09.006 --> 00:42:10.708
  • Why do i want that?
  • 00:42:10.708 --> 00:42:14.211
  • What is that telling me that i don't have that i am coveting
  • 00:42:14.211 --> 00:42:18.215
  • Or desiring?
  • 00:42:18.215 --> 00:42:20.184
  • Because it doesn't have to be negative.
  • 00:42:20.184 --> 00:42:22.052
  • It could be, there is actually something about that life that
  • 00:42:22.052 --> 00:42:26.056
  • I want.
  • 00:42:26.056 --> 00:42:27.191
  • So i can see some, you know, all on social media.
  • 00:42:27.191 --> 00:42:29.193
  • People got their chickens.
  • 00:42:29.193 --> 00:42:30.861
  • They're living on compounds.
  • 00:42:30.861 --> 00:42:32.029
  • Listen, i have my children together.
  • 00:42:32.029 --> 00:42:34.098
  • - they're picking their tomatoes and their peas.
  • 00:42:34.098 --> 00:42:36.634
  • I'm like, how?
  • 00:42:36.634 --> 00:42:37.801
  • - they make their own almond milk and all the things.
  • 00:42:37.801 --> 00:42:40.437
  • It's like, you know, so i can look at that.
  • 00:42:40.437 --> 00:42:43.173
  • Is it that i want the chicken and the, whatever, what is it
  • 00:42:43.173 --> 00:42:45.209
  • That i want?
  • 00:42:45.209 --> 00:42:46.310
  • Okay, maybe i want to be closer to family.
  • 00:42:46.310 --> 00:42:48.178
  • Yes.
  • 00:42:48.178 --> 00:42:49.680
  • So that's not a bad thing.
  • 00:42:49.680 --> 00:42:51.148
  • The problem is wanting what they have, but is it telling
  • 00:42:51.148 --> 00:42:54.785
  • Me something that would not be bad, that it actually could be
  • 00:42:54.785 --> 00:43:00.758
  • God honoring for me to be intentional about time with my
  • 00:43:00.758 --> 00:43:02.726
  • Family, right?
  • 00:43:02.726 --> 00:43:04.028
  • And do i need to stretch something in my life in order
  • 00:43:04.028 --> 00:43:05.996
  • To accommodate something that is god honoring?
  • 00:43:05.996 --> 00:43:09.867
  • Striving would be, now i'm out here looking for land and i'm
  • 00:43:09.867 --> 00:43:13.270
  • Trying to learn about chickens because that actually wasn't
  • 00:43:13.270 --> 00:43:15.372
  • Connected.
  • 00:43:15.372 --> 00:43:17.341
  • - yeah.
  • 00:43:17.341 --> 00:43:18.742
  • That's the point.
  • 00:43:18.742 --> 00:43:20.644
  • - that's really good.
  • 00:43:20.644 --> 00:43:21.979
  • So i think about david in the field and not even being there
  • 00:43:21.979 --> 00:43:23.947
  • When samuel came to jesse and said, where are your sons?
  • 00:43:23.947 --> 00:43:26.383
  • Because one of your sons is going to be a king.
  • 00:43:26.383 --> 00:43:28.118
  • Okay, david was always taking care of his sheep, killing the
  • 00:43:28.118 --> 00:43:32.189
  • Bears and going against the lions and all those kinds of
  • 00:43:32.189 --> 00:43:35.292
  • Things.
  • 00:43:35.292 --> 00:43:36.427
  • And so when he was asked or anointed to be king, he
  • 00:43:36.427 --> 00:43:39.163
  • Brought all of those same things.
  • 00:43:39.163 --> 00:43:40.597
  • He brought it when he killed goliath.
  • 00:43:40.597 --> 00:43:42.399
  • He brought it when he was a mighty warrior.
  • 00:43:42.399 --> 00:43:43.867
  • He brought all of those same things.
  • 00:43:43.867 --> 00:43:46.070
  • So doing those same things was a stretching of the capacity,
  • 00:43:46.070 --> 00:43:48.439
  • But it wasn't striving because he always showed up to the
  • 00:43:48.439 --> 00:43:51.508
  • Next battle, fighting a battle like goliath.
  • 00:43:51.508 --> 00:43:54.511
  • He was like looking around like, are we gonna, are we not
  • 00:43:54.511 --> 00:43:57.081
  • Gonna do anything about this?
  • 00:43:57.081 --> 00:43:59.016
  • Because it was not him striving to do it.
  • 00:43:59.016 --> 00:44:01.418
  • He was stretching a capacity that god had already put in
  • 00:44:01.418 --> 00:44:04.655
  • Him.
  • 00:44:04.655 --> 00:44:05.956
  • So the question is when i feel envious or jealous, is what
  • 00:44:05.956 --> 00:44:08.592
  • Did god already put in me?
  • 00:44:08.592 --> 00:44:10.627
  • And am i supposed to use something that i already have
  • 00:44:10.627 --> 00:44:12.730
  • Or be obedient to the word that god has already given me
  • 00:44:12.730 --> 00:44:15.599
  • To stretch myself in a capacity that's already god
  • 00:44:15.599 --> 00:44:17.735
  • Given?
  • 00:44:17.735 --> 00:44:19.336
  • Or am i striving to do something that was never in my
  • 00:44:19.336 --> 00:44:21.004
  • Capacity to be given.
  • 00:44:21.004 --> 00:44:22.539
  • - it makes me even think whenever you use david as the
  • 00:44:22.539 --> 00:44:25.375
  • Example, and you think about when they put the armor on
  • 00:44:25.375 --> 00:44:26.744
  • Him, that's almost like the example of striving.
  • 00:44:26.744 --> 00:44:29.146
  • That was going to be striving.
  • 00:44:29.146 --> 00:44:30.447
  • And so what you have to conclude there is stretching
  • 00:44:30.447 --> 00:44:34.418
  • Is always a dependence on god.
  • 00:44:34.418 --> 00:44:37.054
  • Because when he took the armor off and he just had his little
  • 00:44:37.054 --> 00:44:39.690
  • Knapsack of rocks, and that was him being stretched, but
  • 00:44:39.690 --> 00:44:43.794
  • He was absolutely reliant that god would find that battle.
  • 00:44:43.794 --> 00:44:47.564
  • - dependent on god and dependent on what god has
  • 00:44:47.564 --> 00:44:49.900
  • Already deposited, which is either what he's put in you
  • 00:44:49.900 --> 00:44:53.437
  • And that needs to continue to be developed, or it's a
  • 00:44:53.437 --> 00:44:56.273
  • Deposit in something you don't think you have, but you're
  • 00:44:56.273 --> 00:44:59.276
  • Walking in obedience to his word.
  • 00:44:59.276 --> 00:45:01.211
  • - the question you had asked in terms of how do i know,
  • 00:45:01.211 --> 00:45:05.482
  • Right, if the favor of god has left me or if this is just a
  • 00:45:05.482 --> 00:45:07.885
  • Hard season, immediately took me to john 15.
  • 00:45:07.885 --> 00:45:10.154
  • So i'm the true vine and my father is the gardener.
  • 00:45:10.154 --> 00:45:13.757
  • It says he cuts off every branch in me that bears no
  • 00:45:13.757 --> 00:45:15.626
  • Fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes so
  • 00:45:15.626 --> 00:45:17.795
  • That it will be even more fruitful.
  • 00:45:17.795 --> 00:45:21.365
  • I think one of the greatest signs to me is whether or not
  • 00:45:21.365 --> 00:45:24.902
  • There is fruit.
  • 00:45:24.902 --> 00:45:27.504
  • - you're doing all that you can do, and nothing is
  • 00:45:27.504 --> 00:45:28.639
  • Happening.
  • 00:45:28.639 --> 00:45:29.940
  • - it says he cuts off every branch that bears no fruit and
  • 00:45:29.940 --> 00:45:32.576
  • He prunes the branches that do bear fruit.
  • 00:45:32.576 --> 00:45:34.912
  • So you're cut either way, right?
  • 00:45:34.912 --> 00:45:36.446
  • You're gonna cut either way.
  • 00:45:36.446 --> 00:45:38.148
  • But the difference is, is that there is fruit.
  • 00:45:38.148 --> 00:45:40.717
  • Now, that could be internal.
  • 00:45:40.717 --> 00:45:43.253
  • I'm learning, i'm growing.
  • 00:45:43.253 --> 00:45:44.655
  • My faith is stretching.
  • 00:45:44.655 --> 00:45:45.589
  • I'm experiencing a new level of god.
  • 00:45:45.589 --> 00:45:48.292
  • It could be tangible fruit.
  • 00:45:48.292 --> 00:45:51.094
  • But there's going to be fruit, and there's going to also be
  • 00:45:51.094 --> 00:45:54.898
  • Grace.
  • 00:45:54.898 --> 00:45:56.567
  • - it goes back to what you were saying about, like, somebody
  • 00:45:56.567 --> 00:45:57.534
  • Wanting to leave a job too soon.
  • 00:45:57.534 --> 00:45:59.169
  • It's like, i'm not getting what i want.
  • 00:45:59.169 --> 00:46:01.972
  • I may not be getting the pay or i may not be getting the
  • 00:46:01.972 --> 00:46:04.441
  • Title or not getting promoted.
  • 00:46:04.441 --> 00:46:06.243
  • But one of the questions you can always ask yourself is,
  • 00:46:06.243 --> 00:46:09.780
  • But am i learning?
  • 00:46:09.780 --> 00:46:10.314
  • Am i growing?
  • 00:46:10.314 --> 00:46:11.648
  • Is god doing something in this position where i'm not getting
  • 00:46:11.648 --> 00:46:14.618
  • What i want?
  • 00:46:14.618 --> 00:46:15.919
  • I'd like to move on to a next season of responsibility or
  • 00:46:15.919 --> 00:46:17.888
  • Title or money, but is he giving me something he wants
  • 00:46:17.888 --> 00:46:22.025
  • For me?
  • 00:46:22.025 --> 00:46:23.227
  • - or what if you're in a season where what you're doing
  • 00:46:23.227 --> 00:46:26.163
  • Is affecting someone else?
  • 00:46:26.163 --> 00:46:28.098
  • You're there for someone else.
  • 00:46:28.098 --> 00:46:29.466
  • - oh, see, oh, there's a thought.
  • 00:46:29.466 --> 00:46:31.635
  • Oh, it's not about me?
  • 00:46:31.635 --> 00:46:34.004
  • Right.
  • 00:46:34.004 --> 00:46:35.272
  • - some indicators that god might be calling us into a new
  • 00:46:35.272 --> 00:46:37.574
  • Season are doors that you think should be opening and
  • 00:46:37.574 --> 00:46:41.745
  • They're not.
  • 00:46:41.745 --> 00:46:44.915
  • Doors that you would hope that would close and they are not.
  • 00:46:44.915 --> 00:46:48.585
  • Repetition that you're hearing and seeing the same thing in
  • 00:46:48.585 --> 00:46:52.155
  • The podcast, in the sermon, in your bible study through a
  • 00:46:52.155 --> 00:46:55.592
  • Trusted friend.
  • 00:46:55.592 --> 00:46:56.894
  • God uses our circumstances often to teach us to guide us
  • 00:46:56.894 --> 00:47:00.964
  • And to lead us.
  • 00:47:00.964 --> 00:47:02.733
  • So definitely paying attention to that.
  • 00:47:02.733 --> 00:47:04.501
  • And then just something that you can't shake.
  • 00:47:04.501 --> 00:47:06.303
  • As you study god's word, as you pray, as you listen to
  • 00:47:06.303 --> 00:47:09.039
  • Good wisdom in your life, something you just can't
  • 00:47:09.039 --> 00:47:11.642
  • Shake.
  • 00:47:11.642 --> 00:47:13.577
  • But here's the beauty.
  • 00:47:13.577 --> 00:47:16.680
  • When you don't feel like you're sure about following
  • 00:47:16.680 --> 00:47:18.248
  • God...
  • 00:47:18.248 --> 00:47:19.416
  • But you're sure making that your aim god can hit a
  • 00:47:19.416 --> 00:47:23.253
  • Bullseye with a crooked stick and the longer you make your
  • 00:47:23.253 --> 00:47:25.455
  • Best effort to follow god's leading, the better you get at
  • 00:47:25.455 --> 00:47:28.058
  • Hearing, understanding and decoding his communication
  • 00:47:28.058 --> 00:47:31.962
  • Through the spirit of god in your life.
  • 00:47:31.962 --> 00:47:33.297
  • - there's this scripture in judges three, this random
  • 00:47:33.297 --> 00:47:38.635
  • Little verse and basically, this is when joshua, you know,
  • 00:47:38.635 --> 00:47:41.204
  • They're in the, you know, on the edge of stepping into the
  • 00:47:41.204 --> 00:47:44.641
  • Land of promise.
  • 00:47:44.641 --> 00:47:45.842
  • And it says that god left enemies in the land because
  • 00:47:45.842 --> 00:47:48.378
  • There was a generation stepping into it that didn't
  • 00:47:48.378 --> 00:47:51.181
  • Know how to fight.
  • 00:47:51.181 --> 00:47:52.916
  • And so i think god could have wiped them all out.
  • 00:47:52.916 --> 00:47:55.218
  • - absolutely.
  • 00:47:55.218 --> 00:47:57.187
  • - but he left him in the land.
  • 00:47:57.187 --> 00:47:58.388
  • And so i think there is a generation who doesn't know
  • 00:47:58.388 --> 00:48:00.257
  • How to stand, who doesn't know how to stay, who uses phrases
  • 00:48:00.257 --> 00:48:03.527
  • Like, it's my seasons come to an end as a religious phrase
  • 00:48:03.527 --> 00:48:07.564
  • To get out of something.
  • 00:48:07.564 --> 00:48:09.933
  • When you just need to stay the course and push through.
  • 00:48:09.933 --> 00:48:12.836
  • So we're all going to go through season changes that is
  • 00:48:12.836 --> 00:48:16.740
  • Biblical but we just have to be mindful of that being an
  • 00:48:16.740 --> 00:48:19.443
  • Excuse because we need a generation to carry the baton
  • 00:48:19.443 --> 00:48:22.045
  • Of his word into the future which it's going to be hard,
  • 00:48:22.045 --> 00:48:26.550
  • It's going to be hard.
  • 00:48:26.550 --> 00:48:28.719
  • Alright so i'm going to pray.
  • 00:48:28.719 --> 00:48:29.987
  • Father, you are the god who is present.
  • 00:48:29.987 --> 00:48:33.423
  • Our seasons change but our savior doesn't.
  • 00:48:33.423 --> 00:48:35.492
  • You are present with us in every moment and every season.
  • 00:48:35.492 --> 00:48:39.896
  • And for that we are eternally grateful and i ask god that
  • 00:48:39.896 --> 00:48:43.300
  • You will open our eyes to see perhaps when a season change
  • 00:48:43.300 --> 00:48:47.637
  • Is coming, and also give us the wisdom to know when it's
  • 00:48:47.637 --> 00:48:51.641
  • Time to put our heels down and stay the course.
  • 00:48:51.641 --> 00:48:54.544
  • Keep us from being distracted in a very
  • 00:48:54.544 --> 00:48:58.949
  • Distractable culture.
  • 00:48:58.949 --> 00:49:00.183
  • I thank you father for the wisdom that comes from your
  • 00:49:00.183 --> 00:49:04.921
  • Word, and from your people in jesus name amen.
  • 00:49:04.921 --> 00:49:07.290
  • Amen.
  • 00:49:07.290 --> 00:49:09.092
  • - connect with us on social media and let us know how team
  • 00:49:09.092 --> 00:49:13.263
  • Can pray for you.
  • 00:49:13.263 --> 00:49:21.304
  • - so bekah asks this question.
  • 00:49:22.005 --> 00:49:24.041
  • She watches on youtube.
  • 00:49:24.041 --> 00:49:25.375
  • She says, i just graduated from college and i need
  • 00:49:25.375 --> 00:49:29.179
  • Direction on my next steps.
  • 00:49:29.179 --> 00:49:29.946
  • There's no safety net anymore.
  • 00:49:29.946 --> 00:49:31.214
  • I feel like i'm completely free and freedom is great, but
  • 00:49:31.214 --> 00:49:32.983
  • It's also scary.
  • 00:49:32.983 --> 00:49:35.552
  • I know god guides our steps, but i need a reminder that i'm
  • 00:49:35.552 --> 00:49:37.687
  • Not going to mess up what he has for me.
  • 00:49:37.687 --> 00:49:40.424
  • What is your wisdom for bekah?
  • 00:49:40.424 --> 00:49:42.826
  • - hey, well, first of all, congratulations.
  • 00:49:42.826 --> 00:49:46.797
  • Like, well done.
  • 00:49:46.797 --> 00:49:47.931
  • Well done, finishing something that you started.
  • 00:49:47.931 --> 00:49:49.466
  • If you're a follower of jesus, it says that he orders our
  • 00:49:49.466 --> 00:49:52.502
  • Steps.
  • 00:49:52.502 --> 00:49:53.770
  • So you don't have to feel like you're in a free fall.
  • 00:49:53.770 --> 00:49:56.039
  • Now, it will be different now because some of these
  • 00:49:56.039 --> 00:49:58.742
  • Decisions you get to make.
  • 00:49:58.742 --> 00:50:01.378
  • It's not about you have to show up at your 8 o'clock
  • 00:50:01.378 --> 00:50:02.946
  • Class.
  • 00:50:02.946 --> 00:50:03.747
  • It might be to show up to work.
  • 00:50:03.747 --> 00:50:04.981
  • So it will be different, and there will be some choices
  • 00:50:04.981 --> 00:50:07.250
  • That you get to make that perhaps you didn't get to make
  • 00:50:07.250 --> 00:50:09.419
  • Before.
  • 00:50:09.419 --> 00:50:10.687
  • Find a church that you can connect with people who are in
  • 00:50:10.687 --> 00:50:14.091
  • The season that you're in and the season just ahead of you.
  • 00:50:14.091 --> 00:50:16.226
  • Because we're not designed to do life on our own, and i
  • 00:50:16.226 --> 00:50:20.230
  • Think you use the words you're in a, feel like you're in a
  • 00:50:20.230 --> 00:50:21.898
  • Free fall or something, but you don't have to feel like
  • 00:50:21.898 --> 00:50:24.134
  • That.
  • 00:50:24.134 --> 00:50:25.435
  • So get in a community, if you don't like the first church,
  • 00:50:25.435 --> 00:50:26.670
  • Find another one, but find one that you can connect with
  • 00:50:26.670 --> 00:50:29.439
  • People, get in some small groups.
  • 00:50:29.439 --> 00:50:32.275
  • So there are people who can help you as you face some of
  • 00:50:32.275 --> 00:50:33.810
  • The decisions, because i promise you, there will be
  • 00:50:33.810 --> 00:50:35.745
  • People that you'll meet who have navigated the season that
  • 00:50:35.745 --> 00:50:39.015
  • You're navigating.
  • 00:50:39.015 --> 00:50:40.250
  • - join the conversation on our better together youtube
  • 00:50:40.250 --> 00:50:43.386
  • Channel.
  • 00:50:43.386 --> 00:50:44.955
  • Subscribe today and never miss a new upload.
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