Revelation Within On the Go!
Embracing God's Presence Amid Discomfort
Ever feel like discomfort is something to be avoided at all costs? You're not alone. This week on Revelation Within On the Go, we're diving into the often avoided yet profoundly significant topic of discomfort. From the hustle and bustle of family life to the worries that keep us up at night, Heidi and Christina share their personal journeys of navigating these challenges. They reveal how they’ve learned to stop turning to food, social media, or alcohol for comfort and instead invite God into their most uncomfortable moments. Through real-life stories, they emphasize the transformative power of relying on God to redeem our struggles and grow spiritually. Whether dealing with chronic pain, illness, or just a chaotic day, they share practical ways to seek God’s presence and find peace. From passive mind renewal techniques to listening to quiet praise music, they offer actionable steps to rely on God's strength rather than counterfeit comforts.
Get details about our class starting July 17th at https://www.revelationwithin.org/blueprint
Learn more about our Revelation Within Community: https://www.revelationwithin.org
Ever feel like discomfort is something to be avoided at all costs? You're not alone. This week on Revelation Within On the Go, we're diving into the often avoided yet profoundly significant topic of discomfort. From the hustle and bustle of family life to the worries that keep us up at night, Heidi and Christina share their personal journeys of navigating these challenges. They reveal how they’ve learned to stop turning to food, social media, or alcohol for comfort and instead invite God into their most uncomfortable moments. Through real-life stories, they emphasize the transformative power of relying on God to redeem our struggles and grow spiritually. Whether dealing with chronic pain, illness, or just a chaotic day, they share practical ways to seek God’s presence and find peace. From passive mind renewal techniques to listening to quiet praise music, they offer actionable steps to rely on God's strength rather than counterfeit comforts.
Get details about our class starting July 17th at https://www.revelationwithin.org/blueprint
Learn more about our Revelation Within Community: https://www.revelationwithin.org
Hi and welcome to our podcast Revelation Within On the Go. I'm Heidi Biles-Mepperson, one of your hosts and the owner and lead coach of the RevelationWithinorg ministry.
Speaker 2:And I'm Christina Motley, your other host, also a Revelation Within coach and Heidi's partner in all of Revelation Within on a show.
Speaker 1:Welcome, welcome, so glad to have you with us. This week we're going to talk about how God wants to use something that we try to avoid. Yes, we try to avoid it for all. We're worth many of us, and it's what takes us to food or other counterfeit comforts, and it's discomfort.
Speaker 1:When I am uncomfortable with something, when something makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up, or when I'm just feeling unsettled, when I'm feeling lonely all these different things. God wants to use that in my life and I'm busy trying to stifle it. I want to stop feeling it and I run to food, or I run to scrolling, or I run to alcohol or I run to something other than the Lord. So let's talk about that a little bit. Is that uncomfortable for you? Yeah, I think I'm feeling uncomfortable.
Speaker 2:I'm going to go get something to eat. Okay, I'll be right back. I need to check Instagram. No, that is so important what you just said, let me just say, let me just get this straight. Did you just say that God can use the discomfort that we're feeling? I mean, I don't know, aren't we supposed to just escape it Not?
Speaker 1:only will he use it, but he will redeem it if we let him. But we've got to let him and so, okay, we've got to somehow recognize and sit with it. That doesn't sound like anything that anybody wants to do I know, and we just lost a whole bunch of listeners.
Speaker 2:They're all turning it off and turning on the other podcast about joy or whatever. No, but it's true, one of the questions that if I'm brave enough and bold enough that I ask in the morning, when I'm talking with the Lord in the morning, I might say God, when am I going to be uncomfortable today? What's coming my way? I can think of some things.
Speaker 2:Most of us kind of have our day set out in front of us, not always, and yes, there's surprises, but it's like you know what, I've got that one phone call that's going to be uncomfortable. So I want to be intentional about, you know, engaging with you, lord, and inviting you into that. Or, wow, I have to go do that. You know, that kind of shopping today I don't want to, or I'm feeling really, you know, not feeling well in my body and I have this before me, those kinds of things. Sometimes it really helps me to look ahead, which is one of our mind renewal tools is looking ahead and thinking it through, looking ahead into my day. That helps me because there is going to be discomfort.
Speaker 1:There is.
Speaker 2:There is, there's a.
Speaker 1:Genesis 3 world that we are a part of, and since it's a Genesis 3 world, there will be things that we will experience that will be uncomfortable. Some of them will be things that we will experience that will be uncomfortable.
Speaker 1:Some of them will be direct affronts to who we are maybe and emotionally rile us up, and others of them might be what we see happening to others. But let's give some examples of what we're talking about, this discomfort thing, and I think, for me, one of the what we're talking about, this discomfort thing, and I think, for me, one of the I'll never forget when I realized for the first time that this was an issue for me.
Speaker 2:When.
Speaker 1:I have a disagreement or falling out with somebody, usually in my family, that level of discomfort, I mean it's so intense for me. I don't like being at odds with somebody I live with. For me I'm just the whole. Do you remember Rodney King, can't we all just get along? Type thing. I mean really, can't we all just get along? We're living under the same roof and that that just makes me so uncomfortable and especially if I don't see any way of remedying it now, like now, right now, then I tend to want to go to food or go to soda or whatever it might be, something in my mouth. It's like that's the time for me. If I'm not getting along with somebody under the same roof, I want to go eat there you go.
Speaker 1:How about you? Can you think of an example of a discomfort that causes you to turn to food or drink or whatever? Many, many many, many.
Speaker 2:Okay, this is the one I was talking to the Lord about this morning. I was sitting out in my front yard for just a few minutes after a walk and I said, lord, I'm really struggling with this and that is and I know many of you are struggling with this worry about my adult kids. I don't want them to have any discomfort. This is what I told God. I said I want you to protect them from injury, from illness. I want you to protect them from injury, from illness. I want you to protect them from relationships that go sour. I want you to protect them from absolutely anything and everything.
Speaker 2:And I could kind of you know, sense that he was kind of thinking oh okay, christina, you know, kind of like you live in a fallen world and, of course, god has lived here too. Jesus came and lived here, so he knows how hard it is. And so I felt like he was very lovingly and gently telling me yes, your kids are going to. They're going to have illness, they're going to have injury, they're going to have problems in relationships, they're going to have financial stress, they're going to have all of that stuff, Christina, but guess what? I'm going to be there. I'm going to be there, and so your worrying is this is not going to help anything.
Speaker 2:It's not going to help, but I promise that I will be there every moment of every day and night for them, just as I am for you. So that's a big one for me. I feel uncomfortable in my worry and stress over my adult kids.
Speaker 1:And do you tend to go to food?
Speaker 2:Yes, absolutely Absolutely, or or other other distractions, but that's always been my number one go-to.
Speaker 1:Yeah, another one, and again this has come up in our coaching group for nighttime eaters who want to break free, and that is. There's something that happens for many of us in the evening hours. There's like an unsettled sensation, maybe in our spirits, our minds, and we just want to stifle it. The last thing we want to do at those moments unless we've been intentional to do otherwise is the last thing we want to do is sit with it and talk to God about it.
Speaker 1:We want to stop it, we want to distract ourselves from it, and this, I believe, is one reason why those habits that we struggle with in the nighttime hours are perpetuated, whether it's binge watching a show, or scrolling or playing games until all hours of the night. Whatever it might be overeating, overdrinking, that all seems to happen. The worst time for probably 80% of the people we talk to is those evening hours, and there's something that is there in my heart that I think God wants me to make an appointment with him to talk about, to actually feel it, to say, okay, I'm feeling it right now. Tie me to make an appointment with him to talk about, to actually feel it, to say, okay, I'm feeling it right now. Tie me to the chair, lord, because I'm heading for the pantry. If you don't Set your Holy Spirit on me, make him heavy, lay him on me so that I will process this with you, instead of run from.
Speaker 1:I think sometimes, if we could just, instead of allowing that feeling, that angsty, whatever it is feeling, to come over us and trigger us to eat, if we could instead train ourselves to let it be a trigger to go to God, trigger to invite him in, a trigger to pray, trigger to renew our minds, trigger to even get out the Bible. I mean that's I don't like saying that because so often we'll get out the Bible and we'll think it's supposed to be like a magic book. It takes work. It takes work in these moments to really find something at all that I can allow to minister to my soul. In those moments when I just want to run, I want to run to food, run away. I mean, can you relate to that, christina? Can you relate to that feeling? It may not be nights for you, it may be a different time of the day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I call it. For myself. It feels like frantic eating, because you're really not, you don't even really know what you're eating, you're not really engaged with it, you don't know how much you've had. There's kind of this real frantic, frantic piece to it for me, and that's when I know I mean, I know I knew before, but that's when I really know that I'm trying to escape a feeling of unsettledness or fear. Another big one, I think, is sorrow and loss. That's a huge one. If there's something going on with a loss for me, with sorrow maybe someone has passed, or maybe it's a different kind of loss, because there's all kinds of losses that's a big one for me. It's like oh man, I don't want to feel this. I don't have time, I don't want to cry right now. What if I start crying and I never stop?
Speaker 2:You know, those kinds of thoughts come in, and then all of a sudden, I'm in the kitchen and I'm frantically eating something. I don't even know how much it was. It's almost like I've turned off my senses. I've turned off my brain.
Speaker 1:It's, I think, what we call numbing out, really yeah.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, I can definitely relate. But I can also relate to what you said, heidi, about what if it triggers us to go to the Lord. And in the moment, yeah, maybe I don't have time, that's okay. I've got work, I've got things going on Well. Like you said, heidi, I can make an appointment with the Lord, and does it have to be hours long sitting on a mountaintop? No, it can be a five minute appointment I'd like to give it at least as much time as I would give to eating.
Speaker 1:And I would like to do it as immediately as I would, to avoid the feeling when I turn to food. It's like for me, if I try to put it off, that means I am personally making provision for my flesh. If I put off going to the Lord boy, for me that means I'm planning on doing what I want to do and I probably won't come back around to it but I can like like right now.
Speaker 1:Looking over the previous two weeks, I see that you know, coming off of the virus that I had and what followed in that kind of the unsettledness in my spirit about relationship in my life, I see that I have turned to food. I'm not in the middle of it right now, but I can see the pattern. So that is a great time for me to make an appointment with the Lord about what's been going on in those evening hours again for me, which I had been walking in, such freedom from that, and making an appointment that doesn't have to be long but talking to him about okay, this has been happening in the evenings, but talking to him about okay, this has been happening in the evenings.
Speaker 1:What is the feeling that I'm trying to avoid? What do you want me to do with that? What is true, lord? What is true about whatever it is that's going on? I want to embrace, I want to think with the mind of Christ at those moments. Instead of avoiding, instead of turning to food, I want to let the truth set me free and, you know, facing into it with you. And he's given us everything we need for life and godliness, and he waits to show me compassion. So I'm not really sure why I want to avoid him. But as I look back now, I don't have to be in the moment.
Speaker 2:I can make that appointment with God now about those moments that have happened over the last two weeks, when you and I started coaching 10 years ago, more than 10 years ago, there was one thing that it just kind of bugged me at first and then I was like oh my gosh, and I came to understand. So my go-to, one of my go-tos, big, big, big go-tos for me for many, many years was calling a friend. Calling a friend and eating. I would stand in the kitchen and eat while I was talking on the phone to a friend about my discomfort and just kind of ranting and venting and I thought that was the best thing. I mean, I guess I must've believed that was the best thing. And so I remember when you and I started coaching, I would say I'm really struggling with this, will you talk with me about it? Or we were emailing at the time and having a phone call a week and you would say have you gone to the Lord? I was kind of frustrated by that.
Speaker 1:Well, as they say, you want to run to the throne instead of the phone.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I remember just feeling like what Well, you're my coach, talk to me right now If you have time. If you don't, I understand, but if you have time, this is what you would say. You would say I'm looking forward to talking to you after you've gone to the Lord. And I was like whoa, but you were so right. You were so right and it took me actually a long time to figure that out. It took me a long time. I continued to call. I have certain friends that they do the same with me. We're constantly like oh my gosh, and this is happening, and this is happening. And what do you think about this? And just when you were talking, I realized I don't do that anymore. I do go to the Lord most of the time now.
Speaker 1:That's awesome.
Speaker 2:It took me a while, though it was a hard one. I really struggled. And then I would be so disappointed if nobody was around, if everybody was busy, if all I got was answering machines and voicemails, or if nobody called me back, or maybe the person I was calling. They turned the conversation into their own problems and I was like oh, but that didn't. It didn't satisfy me, it didn't help me. Not that friends aren't amazing.
Speaker 2:I mean I love, friendship, for sure, but going to the Lord first really changed things for me and does change things for me.
Speaker 1:Right, right. So there are other times of the day that some of our listeners might struggle with. Those of you that have school age kids, it might be pickup time. It might be when you're bringing them back into the house, that time of day that has often been called pit hour, even though it lasts several hours, you know, between usually two, 30 in the afternoon and five, 30 or six, or maybe on into the rest of the night. But there's that. Here come the kids. The fun is over, it's time to be a mom. I don't know, I don't mean that literally, but I think there's that okay, I've got to be present to my kids now and I'd rather be doing something else with my life, at least that's how I felt oftentimes, my kids only went to school for one year.
Speaker 1:I homeschooled them the rest of the time, so I was always on duty. But I guess that's true Every mom. We're always on duty, aren't we? No matter what, that year that they both went to a site-based school, you know, and I did the pickups and the drop-offs and all of that, that was a year where I had a lot of that angsty thing going on when I would go to pick them up and bring them back. I might've had a day filled with good eating choices and good movement choices and good other kinds of choices, but I remember noticing, wow, my hunger graph, which was a thing within tool we would sometimes use, is looking pretty bad at three o'clock every day. And so that is an opportunity.
Speaker 1:I want to start thinking, and I have wanted to think this way. I want to think of that discomfort as an opportunity to build my intimacy with God, Because if I get in the habit, if I allow it to be a trigger to run to him instead of run to the pantry or the freezer or the chip bag or whatever, I want to build that intimacy with him. You know, and here's the thing, A lot of times the moms who are picking up their kids. They come home, the kids grab snacks and then the kids leave it out on the counter. I remember your house, Gosh. When I come and visit you I'm like man, there was like a tornado came through here and there's milk left out and there's bread open and all this stuff. But what happens so often is these moms.
Speaker 1:I don't know if you struggled with this or not, they would need to clean that up, yeah. And then they would start grabbing whatever it is and eating it and it sort of meets that need of I don't want to be present and I want to eat and I have to clean up anyway. So look at this mess. I deserve to eat right now.
Speaker 2:I'm going to clean up anyway. So look at this mess. I deserve to eat right now. I'm going to clean this up again For me.
Speaker 2:Even before, before having kids as a teacher, it all started at school.
Speaker 2:As soon as the students went out the door, oh, wow, and it was all of us, I mean.
Speaker 2:I'm thinking back to one school that I worked at that I just loved, loved working there so much and I had a team teacher. As soon as the kids left, we would sit down in our chairs, completely exhausted, and start pulling out snacks, and that's what we did, and we weren't giving any thought to what our body needed. We just knew that we were completely spent, completely exhausted, and had been pulled on by these precious little seven-year-olds, six-year-olds, all day long, and it was time to pull out the candy and the treats and the snacks and all those things. And boy, we did a lot of that every single day, because there was a discomfort there in feeling so drained and tired. Because there was a discomfort there in feeling so drained and tired and I know that so many of us struggle with that of all professions, whether you're stay at home, whether you're working outside the home, coming home from work even if you work at home, like leaving, turning off your computer and going into your house or whatever, off your computer and going into your house or whatever.
Speaker 2:Yes, so many of us struggle with the transition times between a full day of busyness and work and activity and getting things done and pressures, and then coming home to an evening where you're going to do what you know. Somehow you got to deal with that discomfort of feeling exhausted and drained.
Speaker 1:What would it look like? Let's talk about that. We've talked about different scenarios and the challenges and the discomfort that we want to run from If God wants to use it in our lives. How can I let that happen? What do I have to do or what can I do? Are there strategies that I can use to help me be willing to be uncomfortable and turn to him? Do you have any thoughts about that?
Speaker 2:Okay, Well, going back to my eating at school, when I was a teacher, one of the things that I started doing after learning how to renew my mind and just really trying to be intentional with food and eating was I would stay and wait until I had a little bit of privacy at my desk which you know sometimes it was a little longer than other days and I would spend time with the Lord before even leaving the school.
Speaker 1:That's a great idea.
Speaker 2:Just me and him at my desk, you know, and maybe the vacuum going in the hallway or whatever, and it really wasn't more than five minutes, and I would maybe read some scripture, personalize it, pray it, or I would renew my mind with a truth list, or I would do a praise fest, you know, praise him. I might sit and thank him for things that went well during the day, or kind of debrief with that really difficult thing that happened. And then here's one of my other favorite things that I did during that time and this came about from the nighttime eating class as well that Heidi and I have taught for a long time, and that was the letter from God. This is what we call it. And so I sat down with the Lord one day, and I did spend a lot of time on this a lot, you know, compared, not five minutes, I probably spent an hour on this but I wanted to hear from God about what he was speaking to me in those moments when I came home, and at that time I was also struggling with Lyme disease, which I still am, and so not only was I exhausted and drained, but I felt sick, really, really sick, and so and I had my kids at home too. So it was just really a difficult time to come home.
Speaker 2:And so I went to the word. I looked up verses on comfort and rest and safety and security and all those kinds of things and then, using those scriptures, I wrote a letter from God to me. It started out with welcome home, christina. You have worked so hard today and I'm so proud of you and it's like even just saying that really touches my heart right now.
Speaker 2:And I wrote this whole letter and it was all from God's words, from scripture. But it was him speaking to me and inviting me into a time of rest with him and a time of refreshment with him, whether that meant, you know, laying on the couch or engaging with the kids, but in a kind of a quieter way, or whatever it was. I might've been hungry. If I was hungry, it might've involved, you know, something to fuel my body. That wasn't a just right amount, that would make me feel better, that kind of thing, but a lot of times I wasn't hungry when I first came home. Anyway, I took that letter and I wrote it on stationery and I put it in an envelope and I taped it to my front door.
Speaker 2:We have a closed in porch and so the front door actually is not like outside, so I was able to put that there and for quite a while I would come home and pull that letter out and read it out loud yeah, and the kids were busy playing and running around and dropping their backpacks and grabbing the snacks, so I had time to do that and God was welcoming me home, affirming my exhaustion I know you're exhausted, my dear beloved girl, you know and just affirming me and loving me in that and that reminded me I don't need a counterfeit comfort right now. I love that and it filled me like nothing else ever has with a transition like that.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's an amazing story. You've told me that before and I love hearing it again. It's so good you know it's interesting. You mentioned tiredness. I feel like that is a big one, that discomfort. It's hard to describe but that is a piece of it, that tiredness, and we want to avoid feeling whatever that is. It's like the activities we choose in response to our desire not to feel tired oftentimes make us feel tired, you know, like scrolling, endless scrolling for the rest of the afternoon.
Speaker 1:I don't think anybody anywhere has ever said that's life-giving or energizing. Most people who I've talked to, who have come to us and been in our classes and so on, have said that's what I end up doing and I end up feeling worse. I think it's really good to recognize what if, when I'm tired at the end of this day or in the middle of the day tired at the end of this day or in the middle of the day, what if I were to let myself feel that and talk to God about it? What if I were to turn to him and say what would you have me do with this sense that physically I'm not enough? Right now there's more day left than there is life in my body left? Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1:It's like tiredness is one of those at the top of the list that we want to avoid. And whenever I talk about this idea that we're trying to avoid something and what if we were to wait for the Lord instead, I'm reminded of when Lazarus was sick and Mary and Martha called for Jesus to come because the one he loved, his friend, was ill and they knew Jesus would come and heal him. But Jesus, we're told in the same account, stayed where he was four days after he got that message, oh my goodness. And then, once he did come, lazarus wasn't sick anymore, he was dead. And sure enough, mary and Martha both meet him by themselves, each one, you know as he came and said Lord, what kept you? If you had come, he wouldn't have died.
Speaker 1:And Martha gets overlooked in this story sometimes because she went a step further and said even now, lord, you could raise him if you wanted to, even now. And I love that. Mary said the exact same thing that Martha did, except she didn't include that. So it's like, okay, martha is redeemed a little bit there in my eyes.
Speaker 1:But Jesus does sometimes let us sit in our discomfort. When I think of Mary and Martha and the discomfort they sat in, and even what Lazarus maybe, as he was dying, was thinking Jesus, why didn't you come, jesus, why didn't you come? That is amazing level of discomfort, and so it's true Sometimes he lets us sit in it. But if we go to the end of that story with Mary and Martha and Lazarus, what was it for? What was the waiting for? What was the fact that Jesus didn't come when they wanted him to come? It was for a greater glory.
Speaker 1:God had something major in mind. Now he may not raise any of our friends or family members from the dead, I don't know but he may want to raise something up inside of me. He may want to lift me up out of some pit that I'm not aware that I've fallen into. He may want to use me to touch somebody else, kind of like he used what happened with Lazarus he called Lazarus out of the tomb and that impacted the whole community. And maybe he wants to do the same with me In my discomfort. If God lets me sit in it, will I choose to believe that he can use not just the discomfort but the length of time it takes him to come to respond and solve that discomfort.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's hard, that's so hard.
Speaker 1:So hard.
Speaker 2:Another one that I think is huge for so many people is pain and illness yes. I was thinking about this yesterday. So many of the ladies that I coach one-on-one are dealing with pain and illness. And maybe it's something chronic and maybe it's recovering from a surgery or something. I mean, there's just a lot of that, especially as we get older, but even younger people, you know, and so that's a big one, that's huge because, well, what if God chooses not to heal and we're waiting for healing and we know that eventually we'll be healed when we get to heaven.
Speaker 2:But we don't know if his plan is healing us right here on this earth. And some have healing and some don't, and then there's different measures of that. But boy, that's hard it is hard to sit in pain it is hard to sit when you're not feeling well and invite God into that without going to a counterfeit comfort. That's a hard one, Really really hard.
Speaker 1:It is. So, again, let's talk about what going to God might look like in those moments, because I know you've done it a lot. You would come home from school after a day and you were dealing with the onset and the continuation of Lyme disease symptoms. What did you do to deal with it? I know you took a nap, but you didn't sleep a lot of times, right? How did you call out to God?
Speaker 2:What did you do? Well, and I still do. I think that I'm a lot better than I used to be in many ways, but it's still there. It just depended kind of on the level of discomfort. I think, for example, if I was completely, completely wiped out and just feeling awful, I would probably do something very passive. I might go into the other room for a few minutes, lay down, put on some music.
Speaker 2:Sometimes praise music with words was too much. Sometimes it had to only be music without words, so it just depended. You know like sometimes I could listen to a video or an audio or a podcast, but, to be honest, most of the time that was too much. It was just too much. I needed something that was so quiet and at the same time quiet was too much, because then I was consumed by it and so I had to find, you know, kind of that happy medium. So I had a lot of go-tos on my phone songs and hymns and mind renewal that was already recorded, for example, a very quiet, slow, soft praise fest. God you are my strength, god you are here. Sometimes, if I was feeling really, really bad, I would choose one statement and just whisper it again and again, and again.
Speaker 1:God, you are with me.
Speaker 2:God you are with me or do breath prayers, so that's kind of the most severe and I know many people struggle with migraines and those kinds of things that just take you down. It's like you can't function and so passive. We call that passive mind renewal when it's just something that is already prepared and you're just listening. Heidi, for many years you know you made me audios too. You would pray for me and send me an audio and. I would just close my eyes and listen.
Speaker 1:I have a whole lot of those still on my phone and the ones you would send me too.
Speaker 2:So special. And then there were other times when I didn't feel as bad and so I would sit down with the kids and watch a show with them you know they love these PBS afterschool shows and I would just sit with them and I would close my eyes and they would watch and be laughing. But I'd still be there with them and that was important to me too. I didn't want to be kind of an absent mom when I wasn't feeling well Right. So those were some of the things. Sometimes a cup of hot tea was helpful, just to kind of sip on something warm, but I went to God with my needs instead of to a counterfeit, and that was new to me. That was like the ultimate challenge for me not to go and try to eat my way out of my discomfort. That's what I had always done.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:I can't even imagine what would have happened if I hadn't learned to renew my mind before getting slammed with Lyme disease. I can't even imagine what I would have done, because in many ways, of course, it's drawn me so close to the Lord, because I'm so dependent. I mean for a while I was so sick that in between groups and classes at school I was laying on the floor trying to feel better, I remember, and that was just horrible. Why didn't God take that away in the moment?
Speaker 2:Why not Well, he had bigger plans and now when I talk to people who deal with chronic illness, boy, I get it. I understand, like I never would have before. So there's definitely an empathy there with people and, of course, he's grown me. He's shown me that he can be my strength, even if I'm called to something that I feel like I can't do.
Speaker 1:One of the things that I would do when I was feeling I'm thinking back to the season when my first husband kind of began to have his meltdown that resulted ultimately in us him dissolving the marriage and me, you know, kind of begrudgingly going along with that but was I would take a hot bath and I would take this hot bath and I would have music that I had chosen.
Speaker 1:That was great for mind renewal and really I wouldn't eat in the bathtub, partly because things get soggy in there. It was one of the best ways of keeping myself from processing the discomfort I felt about what was going on in my marriage. Instead of going to food, going to God, in fact, I kind of felt like it was my holy of holies because I sensed his presence so powerfully. I'd have the lights turned down and the candles going and just sit and listen to the words, let them wash over me like the water was washing over my physical body. It was a wonderful way of being present to God in that discomfort. Something that might be more practical for a lot of our listeners might be to just establish a boundary for yourself when you have the desire to eat. Come up to just kind of covenant with God that you're going to sit in a favorite chair or favorite place for five minutes and just
Speaker 1:ask him what is going on? What should I do with this? I want to be aware, I want to be present to you in this Just kind of promise yourself that before you go get something to eat, before you stifle that discomfort, you will, with an act of your will, imagine being tied to that chair and God is sitting with you in it and talking to him. It's hard when we're not feeling like we want to do that. Of course, again, intentions made ahead of time can have a lot to do with what we will do in the moment. Telling yourself ahead of time okay, if this is what I feel today, after I get home from school, or when the kids come home, or when my husband walks through the door, or when nobody walks through the door, or when nobody walks through the door and I'm lonely, I'm going to choose to sit in my chair and address the Lord hands open. Maybe I'm going to take the posture of surrender and invite him to meet with me.
Speaker 1:One of the best ways of convincing myself that that's a good practice is to, when I am most willing which is usually a different time of the day renew my mind about what I will do when I am faced with those feelings. So I've made truth lists about when I feel uncomfortable. This is what I will do and this is what it will do with you know in my heart, this is how it will affect me. Telling myself the truth about waiting on the Lord instead of going to food has been a really big way of convincing myself.
Speaker 1:You know, I may not want to in the moment if I haven't prepared for it, but if I've prepared for that moment by renewing my mind, telling myself what is true again and again, then that's the thought that's going to come into my mind. Those renewed mind thoughts are going to pop into my head and I will be much more likely to go to him and at least sit for five minutes. Three minutes If it's five is too long. Three minutes, yeah, I know this that I have never regretted when I have done that. I've never regretted waiting on the Lord, even if I did end up going to food. It was still sweet time with him and there's no regrets to building that intimacy just a bit, a little brick by little brick. Well, anything else we can say on this topic of avoiding discomfort?
Speaker 2:Well, I was just going to say my life. Now I'm in a totally different season, which is kind of amazing to me. So I have flexibility and I work from home and, you know, the bell is not telling me what to do, as it has for so many years at school, and I do miss being at school. Part of my season is flexibility and part of it is also people coming and going constantly and not knowing when I will be alone during the day and sometimes not being alone. So I kind of made an agreement with the Lord that if I have five minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, whatever, where I can steal away or I have some space, I'm going to go to him and I'm just going to check in about how I'm doing and what's happening and just talk to him and just kind of catch up.
Speaker 2:You know what's been happening in the last couple hours. How am I doing? Is there something I'm unsettled about? And just taking that opportunity, even if I'm not unsettled, to connect with him and just to be with him and talk with him. Maybe it's about lighter things, maybe it's not about the heaviest things, it's just about the weather, you know, and what's happening in my daughter's life or whatever you know and what's happening in my daughter's life or whatever, but taking that time to be with him. And then I find that when the discomfort comes, I'm already feeling caught up with the Lord and it doesn't feel as difficult to sit with him.
Speaker 1:Do you know what I mean? Oh yeah, that's great idea. I know what I did when I set the alarm on my my wristwatch to go off to check in with him every couple of hours, no matter what. I was doing. I would say you know this I do to honor and glorify you, show me what you have for me, that you are calling me to, or whatever. Just kind of okay, that's what I'm going to do when the alarm goes off.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and sometimes I will also say, okay, Lord, you show me the opportunity, and so I ask him for that at the beginning of the day, Show me when you and I can meet, Like don't let me miss it by grabbing my phone or doing too much of this or that or filling in those margin spaces, Right. So yesterday was a great example. It was my house was busy, busy, busy. We had I don't know at least seven teenagers here.
Speaker 2:I was coaching my daughter and her boyfriend were in and out and I said, Lord, when can we meet? And there was, sure enough, it took quite a while. And there was a time later in the afternoon where I had about 20 minutes while. And there was a time later in the afternoon where I had about 20 minutes and I was able to just sit outside, put my feet in the grass and just talk with him and kind of debrief, you know, share with him, ask him questions and and kind of just be there with him in the moment and that helps me. So so, so much, just to kind of keep that connection going with him.
Speaker 1:I love it when you talk about this stuff, and it just so encourages my heart, and I'm sure that the listeners have benefited from hearing what you have to say about it too. Thank you.
Speaker 2:I love what you share, heidi, absolutely so. So much I love doing this with you. Well, thanks for joining us. Yes, Thanks for joining us. Yes, thanks for joining us. We hope that there's been something here to encourage you today, and we'd love to invite you to our next podcast, uh, revelation within. Thanks for being here.