The Lord in the Vineyard

Cydni and Sher took it upon themselves to prove that the definition of adventure was indeed hazardous. Sher loses her voice but podcasts anyway. Cydni leaves on her adventure and all she gets is a swollen eye and free hand sanitizer. The takeaway is adventures aren’t always what we have in mind. The hope for today’s episode is discovering the truth that sometimes life’s adventures are difficult, don’t go the way we want, and can be especially hazardous. Yet, we are not alone. Just like in Jacob 5, the Lord of the vineyard diligently works and refuses to give up; so does our Lord in our own personal vineyards. He is with us through the difficult times. He cares deeply about our success and happiness. Today’s episode is “The Lord in the Vineyard,” and we are so glad you are here.

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Transcript

The Lord's Vineyard

Cydni: [00:00:00] this is 

Sher: Cydni and I'm Sher.

 And each week we get together to share with you a message of hope.

Cydni: It is through 

our own study and our personal experiences that we offer the reminder to not only seek the light, 

Sher: but be the light. You can find peace and there is hope

Cydni: and as long as one of us is slightly caffeinated, there will be laughter. 

Sher: Today's episode is The Lord in the Vineyard 

Cydni: And we're so glad you are here 

Sher: All right, Cydni. So today we're gonna talk about the Lord in the Vineyard but before we get to that, our last episode, we talked about adventure. And. Quite honestly, Cydni we need to start choosing different subjects or topics either that or from now on, all of our podcast episodes need to end with something like, and then they all lived happily ever after.

Cydni: I was thinking our next episode should be titled, how to get used to having. So many people [00:01:00] serve you how to manage so much money. Because everything we pick tends to happen. And I'm wondering, are we manifesting it or is God just guiding us to prepare for what's coming? I don't know which one.

Sher: You please tell us what the definition of adventure is again that we used?

Cydni: Yes, I will. . An unusual, and exciting, typically hazardous experience or activity. But, wait, before you say anything, I have to tell you that on Urban Dictionary, It does give a few definitions as well. So you have adventure, something that is most likely a very, very bad idea, but sounds like it would be exciting, so you try it anyway.

There's also what every girl on Tinder says she likes to do while she watches Netflix all day. And then there's just this one too. For some it's a new pair of underwear. That was it. I liked it. Anyway, so let's go back that it's a hazardous, depressing experience or something. I don't know if depressing was in there, but it should be added.

Sher: It should be, but I really did like all those definitions. I just can't laugh or else I'll just start coughing, [00:02:00] because you've had your own definition. Adventure. Adventure going on. Well, let's start with you, though, last we left, Cydni told us that she was looking forward to her adventure visiting her brothers. what happened, Cydni? 

Cydni: Oh, it was an adventure, Sher. There I was, sitting on a plane, feeling fine, completely fine, when suddenly my left eye started to itch a little bit. I really wanted to use my phone as a mirror, but I was so afraid they would think I was about to record a tick tock or something and I just couldn't handle it. So I sat there blinking my eye. I got to my brother's house. I was saying hellos and then like, All of a sudden, my eye it looked like I got stung by a bee.

I think I got pink eye on the airplane. And I have not seen cousins for 20 years. And I still didn't see them because I had to wear glasses, so I didn't see anybody and I couldn't see out of my swollen shut eye the whole time.

But let me tell you the best part of this. I thought it was going to get better. I was so sure I said to myself, Sher and, I just did an episode on miracles. I do believe I believe in miracles. And I got down on my knees in the room that I stayed [00:03:00] in and I prayed and I made a deal with God.

I was like, I will be so well behaved. Around family you will be so proud, but please just fix my eye I will be the best I won't be a prideful little brat and nothing that swells within my heart naturally the natural human that I am. I'll just be so well behaved.

Can you please? Fixed my eye and in the morning, it was horrible. So I thought I don't have to be a good person today. don't know if that's how that works, but that's probably why your eye state's 

Sher: swollen. 

Cydni: Probably, it probably is. So then I went found my brother and I said, hey, would you mind taking me to the gas station? I need. some caffeine, a pair of sunglasses, and I'm going to need some hand sanitizer, all in that order. That was the importance order, caffeine down to hand sanitizer.

So my brother and I, we go to the gas station early in the morning I get some sunglasses, I get some caffeine, and then I can't find hand sanitizer anywhere. then we ask an employee if they have any, and she doesn't think so. But then the other employee said, you silly. And he pulls up this [00:04:00] one liter of hand sanitizer.

He said, how would you like free hand sanitizer today? Today we're giving out free hand sanitizer. Wow. Is that wild? So there's the miracle. Exactly. I thought, okay. God didn't answer the prayer how I wanted him to, but what are the chances the gas station is handing out free hand sanitizer?

And my brother said, dude, I hear your stories that you tell. And I'll be honest, a lot of the times I don't believe, or I just wonder if you're exaggerating, but we just got free hand sanitizer when you needed hand sanitizer. Then we left and we were talking about how cool it was. And then , the employee runs out after us.

And he said, Hey, I'm so sorry, I don't know what happened with your card, but the next person you paid for their stuff too. 

Sher: So you didn't get free hand sanitizer 

Cydni: ultimately, but I said, well, what did they buy? I don't know why I asked that, but I was curious mostly. And he said, well, a soda. and two packs of cigarettes. And I said, you know what, you tell him that today it's on me. And then I said, but I want you to tell him that soda is very, very [00:05:00] bad for you. gosh, just stop. was good, right? Mm hmm. 

Sher: You've been working on that all weekend.

Cydni: Yeah. That was part of Okay, I didn't say I thought of it after, but I told my brother I was going to tell everyone that I said it. Oh, of course. Yeah. We'll That was our adventure. My adventure was that my eye was swollen and then my plane ride home was canceled, and then now my other eye is swollen, and now you have to stare at me 

Sher: with a swollen eye. She looks like she hasn't got sleep for about a week, 

Cydni: right? 

Sher: And then my adventure. it started out really well. I was just cruising along and then I got sick again. But it wasn't COVID. It's just a cold, but I can't stop coughing. I'm just going to continue hacking. I had my normal go to the doctor every other day for the stroke thing. And she said I wasn't contagious as long as I didn't blow snot on anybody. I'll try to refrain from blowing snot on you, Cydni.

Cydni: Whatever, I'll try to refrain from not Pink eyeing me? I don't think I have pink eye anymore. I'm saying that to the people I'm around. Yeah, as you give them pink eye. 

Guess the point is that An adventure, we made it sound so fun and [00:06:00] exciting last week, but the word hazardous has a different meaning to us now that sometimes adventures are not fun.

Sometimes you are called to an adventure that isn't what you want to do. when you try to get out of it, it just doesn't work. It does not. But we're going to work.

We're going to labor. And the vineyard, you and I back to that. 

Sher: before we get to the vineyard, we want to bring up one little thing about the adventure is that when we're on the adventure that the Lord wants us to be on. We're promised to have his help.

 Exhibit A is Cydni getting free hand sanitizer. 

Cydni: It was a little tender mercy of God saying, I heard your prayer. I'm not going to answer it the way that you want, but here is some hand sanitizer. 

Sher: Right. And that's what we're talking about. Last week one of the examples that I gave was of Abraham Lincoln and he pointed out how he felt the Lord's guiding hand during the Civil War over and over again.

What he said was, I've had so many evidences Of His direction. So many instances when I have been controlled by [00:07:00] some other power than my own will, that I cannot doubt that this power comes from above., I'm satisfied that when the Almighty wants me to do or not to do a particular thing, He finds a way of letting me know it.

so the Lord has promised us that on our adventure as we go through the hazards and the smooth driving roads, that He will be with us. If we invite him along for the ride and proof that , the Lord wants to help us is, a quote from Elder Holland.

Elder Holland is talking about the Lord working in the vineyard, which Cydni is going to explain in just a hot minute, this quote by Elder Holland says, when after digging and dunging, watering and weeding, trimming, pruning, transplanting, and grafting, the great lord of the vineyard throws down his spade , and his pruning shears, And weeps, crying out to anyone who would listen.

What could I have done more for my vineyard? What an indelible image of God's engagement in our lives. [00:08:00] What anguish in a parent when his children do not choose him, nor the gospel of God he sent. How easy to love someone who is so singularly loves us. I love that quote so much because it shows how much God loves us. He works and he works and he works and he labors on our behalf nonstop.

And he just wants us to invite him to go along For the ride if we follow the path that he has set for us He's gonna be there 100 percent and He wants to go on that adventure with his children 

Cydni: when we picked this topic, it went so well with heeding to the call of the adventure. And the idea was that we're not alone when we are called, even if it's an adventure that you don't want to go on. And some people don't want to go on the adventure of Jacob five, because it's an incredibly long chapter. It comes from Zenos who is a prophet, but a lost book in the Bible and it is found in the Book of Mormon. What it is really [00:09:00] about is the gathering and scattering of Israel.

 I've read it before but this time when I read it, I decided to look at it a completely different way. The way that I have read this and I have seen it this time is a very personal account. I have noticed that the Lord in the vineyard, the loving care that he puts into the vineyard has really stuck out to me.

The words that are used in this are laboring, pruning, pruning, Digging there's so many action words. And I've thought that you don't use the kind of words and the kind of laboring that he talks about if you don't care about what you're working on.

Not only that, but when the trees are not producing the fruit that he wants, when you read it, it's so sincere and you could feel the words he says over and over that it grieveth me that I should lose this tree and he doesn't feel ready to let it go, there's so much grief in the idea that something he has [00:10:00] labored over with so much love might not be saved.

Sher: Elder Tanner, he said that a key phrase in the allegory is it grievous me that I should lose this tree. It's repeated eight times. The frequent repetition of the line describes the quality of the divine love.

It is unfailing, persistent, tenacious. This message of the Lord's love matters as much If not more than the historical details of his plan to redeem Israel. so just like you were saying, Cydni the Lord is saying it over and over again that he doesn't want to lose us. We're his children and he grieves for us to even think about that we might be lost.

And so because of that threat or that chance of losing his child, As Elder says, he shows how much he loves us in his unfailing, persistent tenaciousness to try to retrieve us all back to him, again. 

Cydni: I really love that. It illustrates a much more clear idea of what I've been feeling when I've been reading [00:11:00] this there are times where I've tried to grow a garden and it just did not work out so great in the backyard honest that I let it go.

It was a loss. I thought, well, darn it. And I remember there was this one spring that I told Ben, I was a hundred percent all in on a garden and I bought boxes and soil and I bought plants and I planted everything and it was so beautiful.

And then I had to have a second spring. Surprise surgery and I didn't tend to the garden for a few weeks. When I got to go back out there, it was a disaster. The weeds had taken over and honestly, it was a loss. That was it. I told Ben, sorry, sometimes people get hobbies and those hobbies don't work out.

Some people think, Hey, look at this green thumb, but no, it is not a green thumb. And it just didn't happen. But I thought. The difference here is that I put in some effort into that little garden but I neglected ;it and then it was easy to kind of forget.

This is different. the Lord in the vineyard is not giving up and it shows to me I will do my best to illustrate how this has made [00:12:00] me feel because when I have read through this, I am continually seeing someone who is not willing to give up.

They're not saying, well, what a loss this year. Let's move on. It didn't work out. And it says things like let us prune it and dig about it and nourish it a little longer. It says that so often. let's try again. Let's nourish it longer that it may bring forth good fruit unto thee. And so many times they're like, maybe this isn't going to bring forth fruits.

Maybe this isn't going to work out, and they did consider maybe it's time to throw it into the fire, but they thought, no, not yet. Let's keep going. We're not going to give up. And this is why it made me feel like this was very personal to me this time, because I thought this is how the Lord feels about us. he's not going to forget us because it also says in Isaiah, Can a woman forget her sucking child? That she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget. Yea, I will not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands. This is what the [00:13:00] vineyard is making me think. You're not going to be forgotten, that someone is there with you trying to bring out the best in you. to me, this time represents how loved we are to each other. And how we are not forgotten and how the Lord is there laboring with us as he brings about the best in us. And I've thought a lot about gardens versus vineyards.

 I thought in a garden it's also a process, right? You have to have the manure and the heat and the water, and it's a process to bring something to blossom. And I thought maybe this is the next thing. The vineyard is the next part because once we blossom, maybe our life is to be moved into a vineyard because in a vineyard, it is to be expected to bear fruit.

And I thought maybe in the Bible, the reason there's so many garden analogies, and then also vineyard analogies is because it goes a line with our life that in the garden, there's a process to blossom, , but then the next step is that you're now in the vineyard, and the [00:14:00] step is to produce fruit. And to me, produce fruit, means to bear His name and how we will do that is the same way it took to get us there. it is laboring. It's trusting the process. It's becoming who you're supposed to be.

And it's transforming. It's an opportunity for us to serve and an opportunity to use challenges that we have gone through to magnify the Lord's name. To show that, hey, look, I have been through some horrible things, I've been through some difficult things, I have been pruned and dug, and it has been a disaster, but I will stand here, and I will bear fruit, I will bear his name, that he was with me through that whole trial.

Sher: What you're saying, I can relate to because when I was reading the allegory, I was actually thinking how desperately the Lord is, working to save us and to get us to bear fruit. It made me think about when I was growing up, I had a neighbor tell me when I was a kid, she said, you're the most free spirited kid I've ever met.

And I, don't know if I was the [00:15:00] most free spirited kid, but I know that I got that personality because my parents allowed me to have that personality. I think one of the reasons, reflecting back on it, the I was able to have that free spirit is because I knew that no matter whatever stupid things I did, that my parents would figure out how to come find me They wouldn't save me if I created a big huge fat mess. They weren't gonna save me. They were gonna let me fall But there was no way they would ever let me do it alone. And I knew that. If I went hiking or I went camping or I was doing something, That if I got lost, I knew that somehow, someway, that my parents would find me, because that's how much confidence I had in them.

Which I think is interesting because As a single woman, my parents gave me a lot of confidence, I felt confident about traveling the world, and I felt confident about driving a trailer, and I felt confident about camping, , and I never had that reservation.

But what I think's really interesting is when my [00:16:00] parents passed away, Suddenly, I was fearful, and I don't know why. It's not like my parents actually went with me on all the things that I did, I remember the first time I went on an adventure. After both my parents were gone, it wasn't a big deal, I was meeting my family, but I was afraid to go off road and get my truck tires dirty.

I was afraid to just go randomly hiking. It's like everything made me nervous, it was really annoying because I had never been like that in my entire life. But I knew this time was different because if I got lost or if something like that happened, I knew that my parents weren't going to come find me this time. while I was preparing and studying this topic, I realized how frustrated my parents Must have been their entire lives that their only daughter did not fit into the little box that Christian women are supposed to fit in but it just made me think of was just one daughter can you imagine how God feels He has all of us All billions of people in the [00:17:00] world, he's stressing over all of us. It's not just his one daughter. And that he's working in the , vineyard for us and trying to save and redeem all of us.

I'm sure that he would really appreciate it if, in return, we would trust him a little bit more, if we relied on him a little bit more, if we obeyed him a little bit more, if we stayed on the path just a little bit more, repented, if we loved him back just a little bit more, that would be great.

Relief that he would fill the lord will always come find us. He will always be with us but I had this thought also he would love to go on that road trip with us My parents were always up for a good road trip. If you ask my parents, hey, do you want to go for a ride?

Do you want to go camping? Do you want to go here? Do you want to go there? They were always down for it. , if they said no, it was a really good reason. And it usually had something to do with, I got to go to a grandkids something or another. But, other than that, they were down for going wherever it was.

that's how the Savior Is with us. God wants to go on all the road trips with us, and he wants to be there. When we feel [00:18:00] alone, when we're feeling happy, when we're sad, when we're Depressed, when we're feeling incomplete or whole. He wants to be there with us. President Monson said, Only the master knows the depths of our trials, our pain, and our suffering.

He alone offers us eternal peace. In times of adversity, He alone touches our tortured souls with His comforting words. Come unto me, all you labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest in your souls.

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Whether it is in the best of times or the worst of times, He is with us. He has promised that this will never change. my brothers and sisters, may we have commitment to our Heavenly Father that does not Ebb and flow with the years or the crisis of our lives.

We should not need to experience difficulties for us to remember him. And we should not be driven to humility before giving him our faith and trust. May we ever strive to be close to our Heavenly [00:19:00] Father to do so. We must pray to him and listen to him every day. We truly need him every hour. Whether they be hours of sunshine or of rain, may his promise ever be watchword.

I will not fail thee nor forsake thee. I love that quote by President Monson because this is how I was feeling when I was reading about the vineyard, thinking about my parents and then realizing once they were gone, that they weren't going to go find me in Australia or wherever I was.

Lord would always do that. The Lord is never going to leave us. He is never going to forsake us. 

He's never going to forget us. And the Lord wants to be with us on all of our travels on all of our adventures. Through the good times and the bad times. He wants us to invite him to be with us. 

Cydni: While you were talking though, I did think when comparing to Jacob five, that at one part, he says, what more could I have done? Because they just don't think they're going to be able to save the [00:20:00] tree. And the servant that's helping him says, you know, what happened here is that the branches just grew too fast and they need to be cut back. And I felt like your story, it was a representation of being cut back to a new start where you know how to do this, you've done it before. And suddenly.

Due to circumstances that are not desirable, you are cut back and it feels like, wait, , I do know how to do these things, but the Lord sometimes needs us to be a little bit different and you grow again, but you grow better and you produce more. It just reminded me of a cutback process. That you got cut back and nobody wants to be cut back. You don't want to have to start all over. but the lord of the vineyard knows why you need to be cut back and he allows it. 

Sher: I agree with that because, all of us, will always be dependent on the Lord. No matter how free spirited we think we might be, when it all comes down, everything's stripped away, our very breath is all dependent upon the Lord. Everything. All of it. 

Cydni: Ben and I have been talking. [00:21:00] About demolition lately because in our own personal life It feels like there's a whole lot of that happening And once we think we've got something figured out we once again are a pinata and God's like ka bam right there in the face and we just felt like we cannot get one step under our feet and We just had a conversation that it feels like sometimes We think a demolition would be pretty, but it never is.

It doesn't matter how beautiful the building was before when it's getting knocked down. It's debris. I thought about this because I feel like for me, the vineyard this time is the dark night of the soul. It's the rebuilding. And nothing about this. For me was anything but the darkest moments in our life.

It is being moved and beaten until we produce what we're supposed to be. Producing demolition is not a pretty process and the gardening that's taking place when they're almost at the point of throwing the whole tree into the fire is not a pretty process. But I think it's really important to remember that the process is proved.

And that's [00:22:00] why it's done the way it's done, just like a building that's knocked down. It has to be knocked down. Things have to be removed before a new and better building can be built. And the tree situation, it also had to be done a certain way, and it's been proved that it will work.

The point of that is we Ultimately, choosing to follow Christ or to be good people or to take on learning and growing we have taken on the process of becoming better. And what that means is that you will get punched in the face until you produce fruit. That sounds appealing.

Yeah. But this reminded me of a story, , and hopefully this will all work together, but I was listening to someone talk about their experience snowboarding, and he said that he at first hated snowboarding, he wasn't from Utah, and he was from where it was always hot. It was hot, hotter, and hottest, which I relate to.

Growing up in Arizona, but he said that he learned to love snowboarding and he even took it as a course at BYU and one [00:23:00] time they were the last group to go up for the night and a storm was rolling in and he said that he got on the lift and the guy said, you guys are going to be the last bunch to go out because it's getting crazy out there.

We're going to have to shut it down. And he said, I wondered to myself, why is he letting me go on this lift? It was windy, and the storm they could see rolling right into the mountains. So he was on, and then there was two men behind him on another lift. And the wind started to blow and rock the lift back and forth, back and forth.

And he Oh no. I know. And there were the poles holding it up, and he started to get dangerously close to a pole. then it would Calm down. He said he was rocking back and forth and there was a pole approaching and he saw that he was probably going to hit it. And he said a prayer and he felt peace and the wind stopped and he passed by it was so grateful.

But then the wind started again and there was another pole coming. And so he said another prayer. Then he said he felt peace overcome his whole body. And he heard his name and he [00:24:00] heard Listen, you are going to fall. And with that, the lift hit the pole. And he fell out of the lift onto the snow beneath him.

Oh my gosh. Everybody thought he had died. The people behind the man operating the lift thought there was no chance that he was alive, but not only was he alive, he was completely fine. And he was smiling cause he said it was the biggest rush of his life. he said that it looked like he had died because he had kind of gone limp because everything in him told him to.

He felt peace overcome his whole entire body and was told, you are going to fall, but he knew it was going to be okay.

And tying this together I think sometimes we sign up to do something like becoming like Christ and therefore following in his footsteps or he signed up to go snowboarding in a snow storm and there's going to be consequences of that, but we're not alone. He knew he was going to fall.

He was told you're going to fall. And it wasn't, Hey, it's going to be okay. Could the wind stop? Yes, it was proven it could stop. It [00:25:00] stopped right before that. So can God get us out of the storm? Can he get us out of the wind? Can he get us out of this a terrible situation? Can he just heal my eye?

He can. But sometimes we're just given a liter of hand sanitizer and a pat on the back to keep going. Or sometimes we're told, listen, you are going to fall. And we are told that. We are going to fall, but we are not alone. In D and C 84 it says, and whosoever receive with you there. I will be also for, I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left. And my spirit shall be in your hearts and my angels roundabout you to bury you up. I say that we did agree that we heeded to the calling of this adventure, to this hazardous adventure that we signed up for, and we are not alone.

There is a process in our life of becoming, and we have accepted , to learn how to produce the most fruit, to help us to become our best self, and that is a process, and it is [00:26:00] not a pretty process. 

Sher: It's not, especially looking at your eye right now.

Cydni: It's so bad, I know. My kids don't even want to talk to me.

That's the only positive. But I especially love the part at the end that says, mine angels round about you to bear you up because at the very end of the allegory, they do consider, That it's a lost cause, but they decide that they were going to try one more time and it says, and the Lord of the vineyard said unto them, go to and labor in the vineyard with your might.

For behold, this is the last time that I shall nourish my vineyard for the end is nigh at hand and the season speedily cometh. And if you labor with your might with me. Ye shall have joy in the fruit which I shall lay up unto myself against the time which will soon come. And then what happens is they actually call in more servants.

And I think that's so important to tie this together because they say, this is our last good run. Let's do this, but we need help. And he calls in more servants and they all work and they [00:27:00] bring it back to life. So I love that they didn't give up, but I love that they called in servants. And so it ties in together with that.

There will be angels to bear us up because there's servants or angels here on earth. And those that we cannot see that are going to help us. Through our veneered experience

Sher: I love that thought of the Lord will send in help. so in the allegory at the end when it's talking about, again, gathering Israel and sending out his servants, the missionaries, to say, Hey, this is the last call. Everyone jump on board. He means everybody. All of us here. Everyone on the other side. This is it. We're working together and it's the last call and I do love the idea of Angels and helping us in those emergency situations as you were talking about this guy Falling I actually had a similar experience happen when I was in college I went rappelling with some friends and I am absolutely petrified of heights.

So they kept [00:28:00] asking me, Hey, do you want to go repelling? And I always came up with an excuse. and I couldn't get out of this one, but there was a big, Big, huge group of us going. So I was like, okay, I'm just gonna, kind of dodge and dodge and dodge.

'cause you know, I didn't want everyone to think I was a wuss, right? No, definitely not. Right. So I just let everyone else go and go and go. And I thought this is gonna work out because it's gonna get dark and then we'll leave. And then I went, but then I didn't actually have to go.

So that was my plan. But then as we were getting ready to leave, unfortunately I came with the. group that brought all the repelling equipment. they were getting ready to leave and I was all excited and getting ready to help them carry stuff to the car. And then one of them was like, Hey, did you go?

And I was like, Oh no, it's okay, it's getting dark, it's fine. And they're like, No, no, no, there's enough time, we can go. one of the reasons that they convinced me that I should go is because it was one of those nights that was stunningly beautiful. This beautiful little breeze.

It was a summer night and a big full moon, the sun was [00:29:00] just barely setting, but the moon was out. So, you could still see quite well, even though it was getting a little dark. . I didn't want to, but I went and I shouldn't have, and I was scared to death.

And we started rappelling down this cliff and the person helping me was Lance but then I completely Just stop paying attention to him because I was noticing how beautiful the canyon was and it was like all of a sudden I wasn't afraid anymore I was just looking out across the canyon and there was like this little beautiful stream and the big full moon and a slight little breeze and it was just gorgeous.

But in doing that, I turned my head. Now, when you go repelling, you should always pull all of your hair back, but I didn't. I only pulled like part of it. back. So when I turned, the back part of my hair that I had not pulled back, got caught in the carabiner.

Oh no. So when I started to slide, my head got pulled right into that carabiner. That carabiner looks like a figure eight, and it pulled my hair right into it.

At first I didn't want to say anything, cause you know, , look at how I'm not afraid. [00:30:00] Everything's good. And so I tried to pull my hair out, but apparently I'm too big of a baby to rip my hair out. I couldn't do it.

 So, I said in a very nice voice, Lance my hair's caught. And he was like, you've gotta be kidding me. He had gone down the mountain, so he was trying to get back up to me, but it wasn't working. so he said, I'm going to go down and come back and get you.

So I was just, hanging out on the mountain and I had a safety person holding me and everything was good. But one of the guys Sean who was with us, he was like, what's going on? What's taking so long? And I told him my hair was stuck. And he's like, well, we got an extra rope.

And he threw it down, and he asked the person at the bottom if she had the extra rope, and she said yes. So he came down to get me because he thought it would be faster, which he was correct. Well, what he didn't know after he sliced my hair I had a rooster tell for a while.

Yeah, it looked great. But anyway, as we started to go back down the cliff, everything was fine until, remember, it's at night and she didn't have the right rope. And his rope didn't reach the bottom and Sean fell about, 60 feet [00:31:00] on the cliff, he just dropped.

I remember when he fell, cause he was actually pretty close to me when he started to fall. I remember trying to grab him yeah. Right. And he just fell into the darkness. And I remember thinking, Oh my gosh, I have just killed Sean. It was the most horrible feeling I heard yelling, screaming.

It wasn't a calm, peaceful, like his fall was a few swear words. And then it was just silent. Nobody dared to say anything no one said a word. And then finally I said with a question mark, Sean, and I didn't hear anything. And I was like, Oh my gosh, Sean is dead. And I said it again.

And I heard this, what? And it was so angry. And I would have never been so grateful to be yelled at in all of my life. what had happened is he fell. He flung around backwards and his. Wrist got tangled up in my rope and so that slowed him down just enough His back was completely just thrashed from sliding down the cliff He had some really bad rope burns it wasn't pretty [00:32:00] but nothing was broken and he didn't die I'm not kidding.

I have never felt angels like that in my entire life. I just wanted to get off that cliff. And when I got down, there was me and Sean and Holly was the one holding our ropes. We were all just hugging each other. And we said a prayer of gratitude.

And we walked up to the top and we were all hugging each other. All of us were so grateful. We are so grateful that the Lord sent his angels. to be on that adventure with us. And that is a feeling that I have never forgotten. And the Lord is there for all of us. He is working so hard in the vineyard that when we call out to him, and trust me, Sean was calling out to him as he was falling. God will be there and he will answer your prayers. It might not be always the same. You might not get healed.

You might get the hand sanitizer instead. But he is going to be there and he will help you feel that peace and that calm on your journey. 

Cydni: Our hope from this episode is we all consider that when we are called to an adventure and when it is [00:33:00] hazardous, that we understand that we are not alone, that we are going through a trusted process to help us become the most Productive and fruitful version of ourself that is possible and C. S. Lewis, he said, Christ says, give me all. I don't want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work. I want you. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half measures are any good. I don't want to cut off a branch here or a branch there.

I want to have the whole tree down, hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked. The whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you myself. my own will shall become yours. When I read this, I thought to myself that the Lord in the vineyard, He knew what He was doing. He knew what the purpose was, and He knew the process to help get it there. And He was willing to get in and to do the work.

And we also must [00:34:00] trust the process, knowing that we have signed up. For this walk through life that it is going to be difficult that, hey, listen, you're going to fall, but I'm here with you and angels around about you, angels here on this earth angels that you cannot see, but you can feel

Sher: our final thoughts. Life is an adventure, but. The Lord is working His guts out in the vineyard to help us get home. He has so much patience. He doesn't want to give up on us. He's going to try again and again and again to help us get home. He's never going to give up on us, and He's never going to give on His vineyard.

He wants us to blossom, and He wants us to bear fruit. We don't need to be afraid. We don't need to worry that if somebody like my parents pass away, we don't need to fear God's still there. He's not going anywhere. And we can always call on him because he wants to go with us. He wants to go on that road trip. he has done the process already, and he knows how to do the work. If we [00:35:00] trust him, he will help us to get home. 

Cydni: Our challenge this week is for you to look for and recognize the Lord in the vineyard with you, whether it's times of plenty or whether it's time of complete regrowth.

We challenge you to pray and to be aware of God's hand there with you and to recognize that the Lord is truly in the vineyard This is our prayer from Cydni and Cher. 

Sher: You really do look terrible. 

Cydni: Thank you. I feel 

Sher: horrible. 

Cydni: looks so bad. It looks so bad. It aged me 90 years, so I really appreciated it. Will you please tell me if I get snot all over my face?

Please. I can't see that far. Okay. It's just like a blur, like a blanket over my eyes. [00:36:00] Great. 

Sher: He just gave me a stink. He did. I saw it. 

Cydni: I have a stink. I do. 

Sher: Dunging. Which, I love that word. .

Dunging. you're just throwing poop around. 

Cydni: That's true. . 

Sher: . singular, singular, singularly, who is so singular, singularly. How do you say it?

I don't know. 

Cydni: Thanks For sharing, sure. You're welcome. I feel so ridiculous right now. Deep down beneath the eyeball of swallowing. Okay. Are we going to start? Oh, we are. We've started. Okay. Are you nervous about me talking right now? Me either. All right. had a whole conversation with 

Sher: like four people. All in your head. 

Cydni: I'm never alone. I am so lost in my head Sher. I'm struggling today. 

We're capable at some things. 

Capable at ordering a pizza right now and going to bed the rest of the day.

That's what I want to do. I don't even want pizza, but I'd eat it. I don't feel like eating pizza, but I'm in the mood that whatever, I'd eat it. I always want pizza. I'm lying. don't know. I'm depressed. I don't want pizza. What's wrong with me? 

Sher: Let me listen to this quote. Yes. Okay. 

Cydni: Allegory Allegory it's like my brain only saw the first and the last letters and everything in [00:37:00] the middle doesn't matter to me 

Sher: Okay, I just turned into a muppet voice 

Cydni: Okay I had a thought about, oh, the allegory, the allegory, allegory. Allegory. I give uppery. Okay It's not you. It's my eyeball. It's like, feels like it's gonna, I'd rather pull it out of my face.

Which is violent. And no violence today. had a few thoughts while you were talking and one is that the idea that you didn't feel like you fit what a Christian woman would be like and My thought with that is that in the allegory they do pruning. They try to save the old tree. 

Sher: Is that what you're saying is if I don't fit into the traditional box, you need to prune me? 

Cydni: I'm not calling you an old tree. That's what you're saying that's what you just said. You're not, an old tree. That is what you just said.

No. Everyone heard it, Cydni. You didn't tell me this conversation was being recorded. Ben and I have been talking a lot, and I can't even say it, so we've been talking a lot about something that I can't even say. Now you don't believe me, but we have. It's like all the words [00:38:00] and feelings are within myself, but then they're just like coming out like diarrhea 

Sher: Have a great week.