Welcome to another podcast of Struggling Well. this morning I get the opportunity to introduce our time together because it's really near and dear to my heart and a present reality of what we have just experienced a week ago just about a week ago 7 days ago where Jimmy's book struggling well with life finally came out on Amazon I think you can go to good readads and do a review but the exciting thing was we got to have a book launch there were no books because they did not get shipped till the Monday after our event, but that's okay. That's all right. But we had to struggle well, didn't you, babe?
Yes, I did.
Yeah. To struggle well. but we are very excited about this book and we would love for you to have a copy of it. So, if you want to go on Amazon. com, you can either look it up by searching for Jimmy Kallam or you can search it by the title, Struggling Well with Life. Jimmy wrote a book, gosh, 15 years ago or more, maybe more. years ago, but it's under Jim Kallam. That was back when he was trying to act like an adult. Now that he knows who he is, he is Jimmy Kallam. You can go on Amazon. com and order yourself a copy of Struggling Well with Life. And if you would be so kind to leave a review, that would be helpful to us. Our Jimmy's point in writing this book, we're not going to be doing anything, but any proceeds from this go into our ministry. but his desire and my desire is that people get a look at a very concise look at what it means to struggle well with life through the eyes of Job and other biblical characters as well. So we'd love for you to do that. But Jimmy, do you want to share with us something from your book to encourage people to get it?
Yeah, thank you babe for that introduction to all that.
It's quite an introduction. I didn't breathe once.
No, you did not. I don't think you did. well, at the launch party Last week, a friend came up to me and said, "In your book, you say in the fifth chapter, the idea of living in a community with authenticity. What do you do when that doesn't happen for somebody?" They were talking about a situation they were aware of where people don't have that kind of community. And, I think it is an important thing for struggling. Well, it's that the idea that I'm going to commit to live in a community with authenticity. The problem with that is that a lot of communities, church communities, small group communities, Sunday school classes, don't value authenticity. because if you're going to be authentic with somebody about your life, it means you're taking a risk. You're taking a risk that they won't care or that they'll come up with a conclusion about your life that's just not true. And that was the case with Job's three friends. They came up with a conclusion. They thought they understood God. And the conclusion was that Job had done something in his life to deserve all the heartache he had endured, which really wasn't true. And so when we fast forward to our lives today, the idea that we would be judged, the idea that we would have a conclusion about not just this person, but about who God is can cause us to hide.
The problem with that is we're made for relationship.
God built us for relationship and there's a lot of things that it means when he says he created us male and female in his image. Well, what does it mean to be in the image of God? Well, there's a lot of nuancing to that. But one thing I do know is that we're created for relationship because God existed and has existed for all of eternity will exist in an eternal community, father, son, and spirit. I
I think one of the hard things about community is so if you will use that word authent authenticity We'll probably beat it to death before the episode is done, but you go into a community and you're hoping that this will be a safe place and you're hoping that you can share your heart. It takes a long time to get to that place. I think, you know, in the Bible study I do on Wednesday mornings, it's probably taken us three years to get to a place where the girls are willing to tell some of their backstory, some of how they grew up, and some of what formed them, the good, the bad, and the ugly. And I've watched them as they've shared those stories in this small community with a lot of fear and apprehension. and it's probably like you said, if I risk telling you about me and what I'm feeling or if I let you really see me, you're going to either walk away from me or you'll and maybe because you think I'm too messy.
Yeah. And I would say that and I say this in the book, my favorite theological world to describe word to describe life in this fallen world is mess and the good news is that God is committed to helping us live amidst the mess until he returns to redeem it. But that's hard to stay there and live there.
And when you're in I don't know, maybe I'm just thinking this out of my own head, but I know as we have through the years tried to enter into community, whether it's small group, church, whatever, that there is definitely a holding back to begin with. And some of that may come from the times when we didn't hold back and we shared who we were and what was going on. I can remember I mean years and years ago. Do you remember that Sunday might have been a Sunday night and you shared the honest what's the word I want to use? What was happening between you and me marital? Marily, we had young kids at the time, right?
And I remember you were in the pulpit and it was a Sunday night service much more casual than Sunday mornings back when people had Sunday night services and you shared that we were in a tough place and I remember that there were people that left the church because they did not want to hear that their pastor was struggling and they the trying to be honest before them really as we've shared before was weaponized and that was hard.
Yeah. And the flip side for us back in 2019 when we transitioned away from pastoring a church that we'd been a part of for four decades. the ground felt very unstable for several years as we were trying to replace or find a community.
Yeah.
Because that community was gone. And so I do believe that we were made for community. We were made for relationship. the Christian life was never intended to be lived solo. And so when that's not present, It is unnerving. and it's it violates the way God designed us to live.
I also think that when you like let it loose in a group and or with a an individual and you share who you are with them, you that risk that you spoke about before is that they may look at you with horror or they may look at you. The good part is they may look at you and go, I will walk with you. I want to walk with you if you'll walk with me. It's a mutual thing. It's not necessarily a stronger one walking with a weaker person. It's two people mutually, the body of Christ walking together. What that does for someone's heart, the encouragement that gives, the image of God being released in the person who's walking with you is incredible. And it gives you that sense of okay, there's a lot to me. There's a lot going on, but like God has gifted this person with the ability to stick with me and hang with me. And that is a beautiful picture of what God does.
Yeah. And so my encouragement to this friend who raised the question a week ago to us when you don't have that type of community. my encouragement is to find at least a few people maybe one other person who you can live authentically.
Yeah.
Authentically
authentically with in a way that releases the life of Christ that is in them and in you. And it's hard, but I would encourage you to keep on the path to keep finding that kind of community. Have a great day. Thanks for joining us. To learn more about the Struggling Well podcast, visit tandemspirituality. com.