Welcome back to another podcast of Struggling Well. We're glad you've joined us again this week. And Suzi, we're in the midst of the beginnings of summer, which means people look to take time away and vacation. We did last week. We got a chance to be away down at the beach and what was on our mind was just getting out of town and relaxing and enjoying a week away. but it was also a great reminder because of what unfolded of the reality that you're never on vacation in your relationship with Christ.
and I wanted to read a verse because then I want you to talk about the story that involved you. in 1 Peter 3, Peter says, "In your hearts, honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for the reason for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and respect." And that idea of always being prepared came into play last week for us as you got to talk to somebody about the hope that we have that you have in Christ.
Thanks, today. for those of you that know me, you know that, I am unafraid to speak to anybody at any time, much to my family's dismay. I think I've mentioned this in past.
Clarify that your family's, not your husband.
No. Oh gosh, no. and that's part of the fun thing about being married to someone who celebrates who you are and what your gifts are. But, I've been known to speak to strangers like crazy. And sometimes, it's forced. I think some times I force it. I don't know why. But every now and then, God uses that ability that he's given me, that lack of fear in talking to people in ways that just stun me. And it really has nothing to do with me. It's all about him. And a crazy story or scenario happened while we were at the beach. We had come down to, you know, how you schle tons and tons of chairs and tents and all sorts of stuff to be at the beach. It's almost counterproductive to wanting to relax. But we had finished lepping our stuff down. I happened to g gaze to the right and there was just a towel and a bag, someone's towel and bag. And I saw this really big black crow. At first I thought it was a person. and
it was big. It was like Titanic big. This thing was enormous. But I saw this crow pecking at the bag that was sitting there. And so I started walking over there. there because I thought if these people have food or whatever in their bag, it's going to be gone. And as I got over there, the crow had taken out of these people's bag, a bag of pretzels or something, and had ripped it open and started eating the pretzels, which just I'm like, "What in the world?" So, I shed the crow away. And as I was doing this and picking up the pretzels, this lady and her little girl started walking up the beach. And I just said, "I am not touching any of your stuff. I promise." But was trying to get rid of the crow. And so we just talked for a few minutes and laughed about the crow and she gave me the bag of pretzels and said, "I don't think I'm going to feed these to my child." So anyway, that was that. So the next day we come down to the beach and I see the same towel with the same bag and I don't see the lady or her daughter again. I thought, "Let me go check the bag to see if there's food at the top."
No crow though this time.
No crow. Just curiosity on my part. So I go down there. As I'm going down, down there, the young mom and her daughter come back up and I started, you know, we started just going back and forth about the crow and the picking off the food and honestly, I cannot tell you how this even happened. I really can't. But we started talking and I started asking questions. She asked me some questions about who we were, where we were from, what she did with her livelihood. And at some point, she said to me something very intimate about her life. and we were talking about children and she's a single mom and we were talking about that and out of the blue she said to me, I wonder sometimes if God is ashamed of me. And that gave me this open door to speak to her about God being a God who uphors sin because he's holy, but that he's a merciful God and he loves that little girl and he loves her. and he wants them to know him. So, this conversation just kind of ballooned into more and more and more. And I didn't know where she stood. I didn't know anything, but it was totally God just giving me the ability to share the gospel with her. And it was just remarkable. I felt like as we ended our conversation after 10 or so minutes, I don't know, as I was walking away, the thing that hit me was God, this was not about me. having this outgoing personality. This was about you wanting to reach that woman on this day with your love and your forgiveness and your mercy. And she needed to hear that. I didn't know that.
Yeah. And I think it's a great picture going back to the verse in First Peter of you shared the reason that you have hope, the reason that we have hope, right?
life for us has not always been what we expected or wanted or hoped for, but Christ has always been at the center of our hope.
The interesting thing too is if you want to follow Jesus and you look at the pattern that he gave us in the New Testament, he was always on the lookout, always on the lookout for people that were marginalized. I know in my own life, the people that he has sent in my life when I was a young person in particular, I was on the margins of my life. my own life, but even marginalized in my community because of just my family upbringing, all sorts of stuff. And there were people that I believe he sent that looked for me and gave me the truth and I will never stop being in awe of that in my own life. And the thrill that there was for me to be able to think, man, God, you were looking for her name was Ashley, you were looking for Ashley. You wanted her to know who you are. You wanted her to know that you love her. You wanted her to be in some way encouraged to seek you. And you let me be a part of that. I'm still in awe of it today. And I don't know what'll happen. I don't know what'll happen next.
Well, and that's it's really not our responsibility to know what will happen. It's our responsibility to be faithful to that. And the idea you did that with gentleness and respect. you I know would we wouldn't necessarily agree with all the choices that she had made that brought her to this point, but we do talk about the hope that is within us with gentleness and respect. It reminds me in the New Testament when Jesus encounters the Samaritan woman at the well,
he didn't necessarily agree with her choices, but he presented hope to her, a hope that no one else had ever given her in her life, and he did it with gentleness and respect.
Yeah. Imagine what that woman at the well must have felt.
She was ostracized from her community because of her choices. So, she would go to the well when nobody else would go, like I think in the heat of the day,
when nobody else would be there. So, she goes and this man starts speaking to her, which was probably like a flag for her because of her past choices. But he sees her. He actually sees who she is and loves her. And I love it when he says, and this is Sus's version, you're thirsty. and I'm going to give you living water that you'll never thirst again. And I think being able to participate in that calling and in that pattern that Jesus had is incredible. Again, it's not about who you are as a person, your personality, whether you're introvert, extrovert, speak to strangers, don't. It's being able to see people and you don't know their story and you have no idea what might be going what might be going on in their lives. Just like Jesus being fully God and fully man, his encounter with that woman at the well was that was determined. And he speaks to her in ways I mean to call out who she is in a way that frees her. And then what does she do? She goes back into her town and says, "I've met somebody who knew everything about me." And in today's world, in today's society where you look at the news and you think we're having civil war here, in the United States, all across the world really, people just want someone to see them and be curious about them and move towards them. And I, you know, when we get to be the hands and feet of Jesus, there's nothing like it.
Yeah. And so here's the reality. We left on our trip, our vacation, drove the three or four hours down to the beach without any thought that we would be asked or have the opportunity to be salt and light. And I would say and challenge all of you as you look forward to this week, whatever the week holds for you, don't negate the fact that God may just provide those opportunities in the mundane events of life, whether it's vacation, whether it's work, whether it's whatever to be salt and light. So always be ready to give an account for the hope that you have with gentleness and respect to the world that desperately needs to see it. Have a great week. Thanks for joining us. To learn more about the Struggling Well podcast, visit tandemspirituality. com.