Well, good morning and welcome back to another
or good afternoon or good day.
Well, good morning because I'm recording this in the morning and I don't know when people are going to listen and so I'm going to live in the present which is right now.
Speaking of people,
yes,
that are listening, I want to give a couple of shoutouts. I want to give a shout out to a young gal in I don't know if she's in Rhode Island.
Yes.
Is she? I'm not going to use her name, but she sent a text via our daughter about listening to our podcast and, it just surprised us that somebody in Rhode Island was listening to us and I've met her a few times and she's a delightful young woman with I think she and her husband have maybe four kids, five kids, I don't know. Anyway, it really meant a lot to me that she would take the time to do that. So, I want to shout out to Rhode Island.
Well, yeah. And I mean, beyond just being surprised, it was a great encouragement to us. because we never know who's listening and we're not exactly the marketing geniuses of the world. So,
speak for yourself.
Yeah, well, I will. but anyway, so let's get back to what we want to talk about today.
Okay.
Um,
oh, wait a minute. I also want another shout out.
Okay.
There's a young mom, well, she's probably not that young anymore because we're all aging rapidly. a friend of our eldest daughter in particular who is in Greensboro and she listens and I've known her for a long time and I just want to shout out and say hi.
Well, you know, our marketing strategy actually is through our kids and it's their friends who listen. But anyway, let's talk about what we want to talk about today, which is something that stirred inside of you. So, why don't you pick it up and take us to where you want us to go today?
this is going to be a little different than some of the other podcasts that we've done and I'm hoping that this is Holy Spiritled and not Suzyle. but I have been experiencing in my soul, not just physically, but a weariness.
Yeah.
That has surprised me and trying to think of why am I soul weary. my time with the Lord has begun this summer in a real strong way and I'm thankful for that. I get a lot of encouragement from you, Jimmy, about that and I have some friends that constantly challenge me to walk with the Lord and be in his word as I hopefully do for them as well. But I think that where it comes from is somehow in my brain I thought that as I got older that my life as a believer following Christ would be more peaceful and more like a Hallmark movie. I'm going to be honest here. I really thought it would get, you know, I would have so much experience of being with him and walking with him and studying his word and being a pastor way for a million years it felt like. But I find that is not the case. It hasn't it's not about ease as much as I don't know.
Well, it's that sense of
yeah, that you know, my way of viewing that is as I was younger in my walk with the Lord was it was going to be like an escalator ride.
that we would start down at one point and then go smoothly up towards heaven and we would just keep climbing and it keep the cares of this world would fall away and we would get closer and closer to what has been promised in eternity.
it's just not that smooth.
It's more like a set of stairs that Yeah, I think we are moving forward and we are moving closer to heaven. I mean, by our age, we're not going to live forever, but it's you know, those first 14 steps you're climbing and you're full of excitement and like yay and then life happens in various forms and things come into your life that they just wear you out again I would say my soul has felt weary
right and so we look at for example John 16:33 which I know we've rever referred to at other times when Jesus said in this world you will have trouble, I don't know that we fully understand or comprehend that we I don't think I really go here, but it's like we would lean more towards a prosperity gospel type thing. You know, that you could have you could have it all and you could have it now,
right?
And that doesn't necessarily mean wealth and that doesn't necessarily mean all those things that typically come with prosperity gospel, but it means that you can have the life you always wanted right now.
Right. And with us being in this different time of our lives. after you being a pastor for so many years and us both being so active in life, I think in my immaturity, I assume that we would be like the quintessential older people. And I hate even using that word because in my brain, I'm like 40 and still kicking it.
Yeah. And again, I'm not even sure that was a true thing. As much as what we observed when we were younger and thought that older people didn't have the cares of this world and they kind of they kind of were easing through life, I don't know that has ever been true.
but it certainly was what we perceived and maybe what even people who are listening to the podcast who are younger think that well there'll come a day when my kids are grown, my kids are out of the house where I will have everything I've always wanted and I just don't know that's possible. So the result is not just It's not physically tired. It's as you said, it's soul tired.
And I have found that when I have been in that place of being soul tired that if I am not connected to God and his word that I can go downhill really quickly. Now, it might be the way I'm designed. I don't know. You know, there might be this line of what kind of person is that like Eeyore? I'm not Eeyore, I hope.
But and I've referred to this a million times, so forgive me y'all, but I told you about when life was really hard for me and the Psalms were my ballast and my anchor. Well, in the last few months, what has been that to me has been the book of Romans and also in conjunction with that, I'm studying the names of God because what I have found and this is a plus of being older is I have found through experience but mostly and accurately through the word of God is that I cannot do this Christian life without the spirit of God, without the father and because of the son. I can't do it. And when you're young and you've got a lot of energy and a lot of stamina and a lot of excitement, it feels like you can do it. And again, it's not a matter of aging and being physically tired as much as because it is like a reality. No, I cannot do it. And
so go.
Yeah. No, and I think what you said is key. Now, for you in the last few years, it's been the Psalms and as you said, now Romans and studying the names of God. It really comes down to a connection to God through his word.
Yes.
And the scripture needs to be the foundation not just of knowledge. You know, for the years we were a church, we had different val values that we talked about and one of those values was we wanted church to be a place where you are stirred by the scriptures which meant I don't want to just have information dump about what God says in his word. I want it to be transforming
and I wanted to stir my life to the point that there's a difference in how I live and how I choose to live and the choices I make because the scriptures provide that basis of what God wants for me and therefore through his spirit what brings about real change and lasting change.
Okay, something just clicked in my head and that's always scary when it comes to me like that. But as a woman, this is what I think or I believe this is how I had framed out what was going to happen to me as I grew older is that as a believer I would be, you know, before I knew Christ, I was a slave to sin. So then God through his son through the Holy Spirit enters my life and becomes the main force of my life, the force of my life. And I believe that I thought that it was going to be like a makeover, like I would have been, you know, need of a good haircut and some better clothes and maybe, you know, you know, better vocabulary, more education, that there would be this gentle makeover of my life and my soul and I would wake up one day and I would be, you know, not perfect by any means, but it would be done like the makeover would be complete in this world. I'm not thinking eternity cuz I think there were a number of years there that I just thought, well, it's just going to get I'm just going to get better. I'm not going to wrestle with the things I wrestled with as a young woman. And that part is true, but I'm wrestling with deeper things and a harder things than when I was in my, you know, 40s and even 50s and 60s.
Yeah. And so, so the whole idea that we're moving towards something, we're not there yet. and we won't be there until we cross over into eternity. it won't be a complete makeover. Now, are there things that are different? I hope there are about you and me, and I'm sure there are, and I hope that's true for people out there listening who know Christ, that there's there is change happening through the spirit. But again, the foundation comes back to God's word.
And so, reading the word of God is not it's not a requirement. And I don't want to view it that way. I think I for years I did. It was kind of like I check it off my list that I got something done. I read God's word today. But now it's more like I can sit with one passage. I can sit with one verse. I can sit with one phrase in a verse and just kind of have it run around in my mind till I can see the value of what it does for me and the changes that it brings about based upon what God says and what he says in his word. And as we head to next week, we're going to take a look at Romans a little bit. Not the whole book cuz that would be like, you know, way overwhelming, but just kind of camp on the ideas that we just talked about of what's it look like to realize that the makeover, I'll use your word, is not complete, nor will it be until I get to eternity. So, hope you'll join us again next week.
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