No Sanity Required
Generate Joy | How to be Content with Amy Davis
How can we be truly content while expecting more from God?
This episode is from Amy Davis’s podcast, Generate Joy. Brody and Amy sit down to talk about contentment and how to be content in Christ. Amy and Brody both share from their personal experiences of learning to be content and satisfied in Christ.
We hope this episode is an encouragement to you!
Resources:
Please leave a review on Apple or Spotify to help improve No Sanity Required and help others grow in their faith.
Click here to get our Colossians Bible study.
How can we be truly content while expecting more from God?
This episode is from Amy Davis’s podcast, Generate Joy. Brody and Amy sit down to talk about contentment and how to be content in Christ. Amy and Brody both share from their personal experiences of learning to be content and satisfied in Christ.
We hope this episode is an encouragement to you!
Resources:
Please leave a review on Apple or Spotify to help improve No Sanity Required and help others grow in their faith.
Click here to get our Colossians Bible study.
I want to intro uh a an episode that we're going to bring you from Amy Davis's podcast. You might know, uh y'all might know, amy. Amy is the wife of Spencer Davis. Both Amy and Spencer serve and work here at SWO in full-time ministry, vital part of our team. I'm really grateful for both of them and their and their investment here and uh and it's it goes back. It goes way back Um.
Speaker 1:Amy has uh a podcast called generate joy and it is uh of a great encouragement to a whole lot of ladies, so many ladies that um are connected to SWO and a lot who aren't. Amy's a hoot to be around. She is so faithful in her labor for the Lord, the way she guides her household, her family, the way she uses her creative giftings. She's so creative and when you come to SWO you will see her hand on a lot of things Um, her artwork, her design work, graphically. She's she's very gifted and she's the person that I prefer to work with because we've been working together now since 2001. So 23 years.
Speaker 1:Anyway, she asked me to be on her podcast we can talk about uh. We talked about um, not just joy, but the name of her podcast is Generate Joy, but we looked specifically at contentment, what it looks like to be content and to be content with Christ, in Christ, what he's given us in terms of relationship and value in that and identity. And it was good, we had a good time, I enjoyed it and uh, so anyway she's. Anytime we can push that towards, uh, push content towards other folks that we recommend you listen to. We want to do that, so we're going to share as a but this has a bonus episode. Here we're going to drop Amy's episode that I, that I was a guest on, and then in the show notes we'll link her actual podcast episode. So hope y'all enjoy this. I had a lot of fun sitting down and doing it and then I pray that it's an encouragement to you as we bring it to you.
Speaker 2:Welcome to no Sanity Required from the Ministry of Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters. A podcast about the Bible, culture and stories from around the globe.
Speaker 3:Welcome Brody Holloway. To Generate Joy. I'm so glad you're here today.
Speaker 1:It's good to be here. I really am glad to be here. I've been wanting to do this for a while.
Speaker 3:Yes, okay, brody is the CEO and lead pastor for Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters, not CEO.
Speaker 1:Well, I guess that is actually my title.
Speaker 3:He's the founder.
Speaker 1:The board of directors said there has to be a CEO. I was like are you serious that's?
Speaker 3:awesome. I'm so glad because I'm always tempted to say that, but I just looked you up online just to make sure that I'm phrasing it correctly. But anyway, he also is my pastor at our church, red Oak Church, but personally he is more like family to me. I've had the privilege of growing up with Brody, both from my 20s till now and also just Christ like spiritually. He's really nurtured me, discipled me, mentored me, and we've spent like basically our whole adult lives together. You married Spence and I yeah and um, you got um. Our kids are are similar in age and you guys are a little farther along this than Spence and I as far as your marriage and stuff. But your wife is one of my best friends and so it's just such an awesome opportunity to have you come on the show and we talk a lot. Well, a lot of the people who've been on my show we've name dropped you because a lot of the connection is through.
Speaker 3:Snowbird and how, and especially you know, with Katie Cousins she and Anna Rose like through Red Oak and through snowbird. And how, and especially you know, with katie cousins, um, she and anna rose like through red oak and through snowbird. So that is how, um, you came to be on this podcast.
Speaker 1:I wanted to interview you. I'm so glad I'm I'm glad to be on the podcast. Finally, we really have been trying to make it happen for a while we're on the same podcast journey you're now.
Speaker 3:well, you kind of inspired me to start a podcast when I was looking into trying to become more of like a life coach for Christian women and just try to help them get goals and habits and things under control, and I was just like, oh, I should start a podcast and try to get that going. And your podcast really inspired me as well.
Speaker 1:That's good. I think we'll probably get into this. You know I'm so. I'm so simple and basic in the way I approach doing mine and I have this sign that I've had hanging up on the wall in my shed, in my man cave, uh, since before I got married. A guy gave it to me, a buddy of mine, he was in my wedding and he said hey, I saw this thought of you here. Here you go, and it says I have one simple philosophy empty what's full, feel what's empty and scratch where it itches. I think I've seen that.
Speaker 1:And and so like. When the, when the media team at SWO came to me in 2019, late 2019, they said we want you to start a podcast, I literally went, okay, I give zero thought to it, you know, and I remember they set the thing up in my shed. Uh, literally, my shed is my spot. It's a teeny little, I mean, it's a tiny space. I've got my reloading bench where I hand load ammunition. None of your listeners are going to know what that means. It's going to sound like a terrorist, some country girls. Well, it's like just like my little man spot. And uh and uh. So I set the little podcast thing that gave me, I set it up, my little podcaster, and I did the first five and took them to the media team and gave them the, the cards, the sd cards, whatever, and they listened to him, said, uh, could you do this all over again? This is really bad nobody's gonna listen nobody's gonna be.
Speaker 1:We won't get off the ground with this, so we had to kind of figure out how to get it started and and anyway, yeah, so we've been blessed, it's, it's been very uh, we have, we have a lot. Now, probably, like you, we have so many listeners that are not Snowbird connected.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Like, we get emails.
Speaker 3:I feel like I always have to give the context because I don't want to be like just assuming everybody understands camp ministry, because it kind of can come across like cultish, but it's not at all. Like it's very just parachurch organization, and so it's a very unique life that we get to be a part of.
Speaker 3:I'm super thankful for it, which brings me to our conversation about contentment, because I've been talking on the podcast about Thanksgiving produces contentment, contentment produces joy and I kind of like to use it as a formula almost, because if you can do something and you know it's kind of vague just to be like you need, need, to just be content, it's always just thrown out there like a blanket statement. But you know, thanksgiving is actually something you can list it you can say them off.
Speaker 3:You could, you know I don't know just notice things around, and so it kind of gives you more of something to actually practically do, and that's one thing I love to do on my show is to give my listeners like here are things you can actually start doing and it's not so just vague or theoretical or idealistic, and so being able to talk with you today, it's going to be such a delight because I know you practice contentment.
Speaker 3:It's become a habit, and we've talked a lot about that, and so I want to talk about what are some earliest thoughts Like, what are some like basic things about contentment that you remember growing up with as a kid.
Speaker 1:As a kid. So we grew up I think this is a popular thing to say, but it's so true. I grew up in a poor family. We were legitimately poor by all American standards. Now, we were not poor compared to people in third world countries, but in our society we were at, we were on the bottom rung of the socioeconomic ladder in Appalachia mountains and Southern Appalachia.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And so Appalachian poverty. So it was pretty normal poverty. But at the same time I grew up in a meal town where you know everybody in Canton, north Carolina either worked at the paper meal they ran seven days a week, three shifts, so it ran 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365. And everybody worked at the meal or every business in the small town was supported by the mill. And so I grew up in a town where people actually there was material stability because the mill produced good jobs and people making money. But my dad didn't work at the mill and we had a larger family. My mom stayed home, my folks eventually split up, but in my childhood we didn't have much.
Speaker 1:I think a lot of my, I think contentment for me at an early age was just the simplicity of our lifestyle. And I didn't. We didn't have things, we didn't have TV. So this is going to maybe not translate or transfer to where most people are right now, but just this is where my mindset, where my life, has come from. We didn't have TV. I think we got a TV when I was in the seventh or eighth grade. We just didn't have things and from a very young age I had to work. I had to. You know, my dad made me work a lot and if I wanted something I had to buy it myself and I'm very thankful for that. And I think one of the things that in my life created contentment early is learning to appreciate just little things in life Like and, and. So I'm grateful for my upbringing. I have no grudge against the way I was raised, because we just didn't have much and I think that contentment kind of came. We were just happy with simple things.
Speaker 3:That's interesting that you go to like material things, because I grew up I didn't even know that we didn't have material things until I was in like middle school or so, and the thing that I most had to grow in contentment was people being around people. And the first time I realized that I was alone I was in the woods, down below a cabin my dad had made, and I was down in the woods and I remember just feeling just alone and just kind of being like sad, like not content with being alone, and I just thought, well, I want to sing a song. So I literally was like Dolly Parton, singing songs in the Appalachians.
Speaker 3:We were in the Cumberland Gap singing songs and throwing rocks in the woods and just learning how to be content with being alone, because I always was around people, because my dad was in ministry. We're always at church, so for me the contentment journey, the first thing, was learn how to be by yourself and be happy with that, which is weird how that circled around later in my life with the singleness.
Speaker 3:You know my journey and it was like I just want to get married. It was like that was the lesson that god really, really worked in my heart. I'm just realizing that now, like, oh my gosh, that's like what my tendency is with contentment. Is people not material stuff?
Speaker 1:yeah, yeah. Well, I think I think the two one they they go hand in hand because, like for me as a kid, what I did have was meaningful relationships all around me. You know my papa and my papa, both my granddads I, I really had endearing relationships with those men. And then my mom's sisters, all my aunts, who all live right in the same valley. Oh man, I just I just had good, meaningful relationships, so I think there was no void there. I'm so thankful for that. Like, if you, if I look back at my childhood, we had nothing materially but we had everything relationally through my cousins and my siblings and my, and eventually the wheels fell off of that.
Speaker 3:But I, I was older, I was 18 but as part of like your, you know, foundational like development of like relationships being so important and that transfers, you know, and how we run snowbird here like it's so relational, everything is relationships. I'm super thankful for that. But I was just interested in like your first, because when we had our foster son, I remember that was contentment, was like the biggest thing. He would be like. He would be like what's next? What are we gonna do next? We're gonna do next the.
Speaker 3:What are we going to do next? The windows Up, down, up, down, up, down, up, up, up, up, down, down, down, down. Like he just could not be, just like in the moment, just be here Right here.
Speaker 1:Be here now.
Speaker 3:And so it's just funny how, like people, it's contentment hits people with different areas. You know that they can be practicing in so Kind of like. When he's like you know I've learned to be in whatever season, you know that whole scripture he's like to be content, and that really does speak to a lot of what we're talking about today. Whatever season, wherever you are, like, contentment is very subjective per person, but at the same time it is a requirement for us to be content in Christ.
Speaker 1:Can you speak a little bit to that? Yeah, I think that's the. I think that is where contentment comes from, whether whether you're discontented with your relationships, you're discontented with your material possession, you're discontented with your career, I mean there's the, the contentment discontentment continuum, like we make a list, and there's so many levels that a person might struggle to find contentment in their work, in their relationships, in their singleness, in their sexuality, if that's a struggle in their past, um, with regret. It's hard to be content when you live with a decade worth of regret behind you. You know, contentment is something that you don't put in one little box. It touches every facet of your life. You could be, you know, yesterday I told so I have six children and actually now one grandchild.
Speaker 3:Congratulations. Thank you.
Speaker 1:And I have an 18-year-old daughter. That is, Thank you. And I have an 18-year-old daughter that is she works at Snowbird this summer and she's on a water wreck. You know, she guides canoe trips every day and it's just a rainy week this week, as we're recording this, it's a rainy week, and so I thought you know, what's going to make her life so good is if I'm waiting when she gets off the water today with Burger Basket.
Speaker 3:Oh, that's awesome.
Speaker 1:So I went to burger bar and I told her Monday night, monday night uh. I took, I went to.
Speaker 1:I went to the dollar general market where life happens and I and I and I took a a one small igloo coolers and I put ice in it and I got three or four of her favorite drinks and I put a bag of chocolates in there and a little thing of strawberries she loves strawberries. I picked a, a bunch of fresh blueberries off the vine at the house, put it on the cooler and uh, and I had it waiting on her. I said, all right, every day I'm gonna give you a push, nice. So she was so excited, you know. And then so then Tuesday, um took her her favorite coffee drink between the morning worship service and the breakout. And then so, when I was waiting on her on Wednesday, when she got off the water, I said I got you something.
Speaker 1:Meet me up in front of the coop parking lot. So she comes up there. And I got a burger basket. She got a little teary eyed. She said I'm so happy right now. And so we're sitting there. I've got it for me too. So we're sitting in her car like dumb and dumber, you know, like the world's going. Oh, steamed up, I'm sweating. The world is going. I said turn this thing on, put the air conditioner on. And so we sit there and we eat burger basket, which is a local burger burger joint. It's the best it's. You know it was comfort food, soul food, and I said Laila, you know what we're experiencing right now? She said what I said true contentment.
Speaker 1:You know, and so it's. There's this. When I think of contentment, this, I'll tell you where my mind always goes in the book of Ecclesiastes. The book of Ecclesiastes is a very depressing, it's very discouraging, because it's this guy you know all my life. I thought Solomon wrote it and but I'm not sure he did. I read a book about it at like a commentary, and this guy makes some arguments that it's somebody else, but it doesn't matter. So whoever wrote it, they have, they have. They have everything the world offers, both materially and relationally, surrounded by people and servants. And this person, this guy, has experienced everything the world offers sexually, materially, food and drink. And he said here's what I've learned Life is just.
Speaker 1:And he uses this Hebrew word, and I think this is where my mind goes with contentment the word is hevel, it would be spelled like H-E-V-E-L, but the V has sort of a B sound to it, hevel, and the word. It's hard to translate the word into English, but the best way to illustrate it would be if you take a candle, a big candle, and you blow that candle out, there is a momentary puff-like stream of smoke that comes up from where that wick just went out, went out when the, when the flames there and it's dancing. You don't really. You see a little bit of smoke, but not much. But when you put it out, you take your fingers, you lick the fingertips and touch it and put it out there's a steam like, like a stream of smoke that goes up. That's what Hebel is. You can see it, you can even touch it, but you can't take hold of it and then it's gone in just a few moments. That's how he describes life. He says all of the sexual experiences, all the financial gains, all the material wealth, all the people that gave me accolades, it's, it's Hebel. It's boom, boom gone. It's like smoke. He said and there's this.
Speaker 1:There's this one scene at the end of Ecclesiastes where he says here's what I found. End of Ecclesiastes, where he says here's what I found. Nothing is better than to sit down. And he starts to describe different scenes to have a glass of wine with an ice meal, to sit with a friend and have a conversation, to observe a sunset, to look at a, to look at a Creek or a stream. He says, and I find that in that moment there's meaning, which is the opposite of Hevel. Hevel is translated meaninglessness, oh, wow. So there's a lot of biblical translations that say I have this and I had this, and it was meaninglessness. I had this and I had this, and it was meaning. Some Bible translations say futility, it was pointless. And he says but here's what I found.
Speaker 1:And he starts to describe these simple moments and experiences with people and with with God and with creation, where he says in that moment I had meaning.
Speaker 1:And so I think contentment is found in finding the meaning.
Speaker 1:And so, to answer your question, when, when we say, um, what is content?
Speaker 1:What does contentment mean for me? This, this, if you're 14 years old, if you're 54 years old, contentment for the believer is found in recognizing what you've received in Christ. And so what we've received is sonship with the Father, adoption. We've received an inheritance, we've received a stabilizing peace that goes beyond the understanding that the world can have. And no matter what I deal with, when Paul says I found, in whatever state I'm in, to be content, it's because in whatever state I'm in, I have peace, I have hope, I have confidence, the words that he uses.
Speaker 1:So contentment comes from recognizing who you are in Christ a and what you have in Christ the, who I am in Christ, my identity, what I have in Christ B, who I am in Christ, my identity, what I have in Christ, what he's granted me and given me, and that's where contentment lies that's super important because in this generation everything is pointing to gratitude, mindfulness, which are all great skills you know for your mind, for your you know inner thoughts and you know we do need to be mindful, we do need to be where we are and and all those things.
Speaker 3:But it's, it's like you said, it is empty, it is meaningless, apart from christ, because it's just satisfying like a human condition and not like an eternal, like purpose, just kind of like spinning your wheels, I feel, like pretending that you're content, but you don't really understand what contentment is because you don't have Christ. So I think that was really well said.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't think you can ever find true contentment apart from Christ, because I think it was Pascal I don't know who Pascal was, I ain't trying to come on here and sound smart. There's smart people around here. I know he's a guy that said it. I don't know if he was like a scientist or an artist. I don't know if he painted stuff or if he made.
Speaker 3:I don't know either, Brody, All right Well he was smart.
Speaker 1:I know that he might have made stuff he's quotable and he said. He said there's a God-sized void in everyone's heart.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 1:That's the guy that, I think, said that and what he's saying is you want to know where contentment lies? Letting Jesus fill that void. You know that, which is what salvation when we receive Christ, he fills what's empty in us. Yes, when I think of contentment in that lane, like of just being filled with christ, I always think of. I get so tickled when little comes to bed wearing my t-shirts and my socks and when she and I'm I'm six, three for people and we're not, nobody can see me. I'm six three, I'm 225 pounds, I'm a larger dude and she's I call her little yeah, she's tiny little thing.
Speaker 1:And she'll come wearing my double xl t-shirt and my socks and my and my the heel of my sock will be up at the bottom of her calf, you know, and I think that, and every time I see that it's a and and then my shirt's hanging to her knees, and she'll come over there and crawl into bed and I'll just chuckle, like a lot of nights, just as I'm drifting off. I'll chuckle and I'll think that's what it is to try to take anything in this world and feel what's empty inside of you. It's just a bunch of open, sloppy space and Christ fills us up and he fills in the cracks and he and that's where contentment comes from to just let Jesus feel the empty spaces, you know.
Speaker 3:So how do you practice that daily?
Speaker 1:What are?
Speaker 3:some things that you do.
Speaker 1:I'm glad you asked that, Cause that sounds really nice to say. Let.
Speaker 3:Jesus, fill him spaces Right.
Speaker 1:And then it's true but most people are going to go uh okay, what's that mean? So I think the first important thing is what you said Thanksgiving. It really does produce joy, and so I think giving thanks every day will generate contentment and joy in our lives. And so giving thanks and I mean I'm talking about giving thanks for every little thing that makes your life that you can recognize as a blessing, but also giving thanks for things that are difficult, because you're going to grow in that Thank you, lord, that you've. Thank you, lord, that you've taken me through this and that I've learned how to endure, you know, but just being thankful. And then, I think, committing to be content. You can commit to it. I think the Lord produces it in us when we give thanks and when we worship and when we obey and when we surrender. But you can commit that I'm going to be content, you're not going to like.
Speaker 1:I have a personal mantra, kind of like you can't make me complain, you will not make me complain. Like I try to live by that. Personally, I don't always do it to perfection, but refusing to complain and being determined to be content. I think my answers here are probably going to be so simple. People are going to be disappointed here are probably going to be so simple. People are going to be disappointed. But I have found that if every day I start my day spending time with the Lord in meditation on his word, reflecting on his goodness, telling him what I think about him, listening to what he thinks about me, so every day start today. I tell Jesus what I think about him, I listen to what he thinks about me, and that primarily comes through his word and in meditation. I then pray for other people, obviously every day, the people in my inner circle that I care most about in this world my family, my closest friends.
Speaker 3:If you'll do that little list of things, you will be content yes, I think it has a lot to do with perspective, you know, because when we're praying it, it gets the focus off of ourselves and on to other people. I tell my kids that whenever they're just complaining a lot and they're just like, oh, I have to go over to camp and walk through the field to go eat the free lunch that's being prepared for me with all of my friends and you know, and it's just like what are you even talking?
Speaker 1:about in my mind. I'm thinking you little and ungrateful sucker ungrateful.
Speaker 3:Yes, it's the opposite of like contentment and so just being able to remind ourselves of like it is a perspective shift and our mindset and I think that's where the world will try to go with this topic is just like oh well, you just choose not to complain because you can do that as a nonbeliever Right, but without that foundation of who we are in Christ and without every day, like you said, like starting off praying, starting off talking with the Lord, telling him, having a conversation, connecting with him, all those things like really does build up contentment and satisfaction and where we are in the moment, and I think that's a really great way to think about it too.
Speaker 1:And I think, uh, I think recognizing there we're all wired differently and there are things that fill you up. You know like for some people, music really fills you up. You know like, for some people, music really fills you up. For some people, artistic expression, that definitely for you, that's a lane that when you get in it you find like energy and joy. And, um, some people love to read, some people enjoy working in the garden or running, running, yeah, running yeah, go running.
Speaker 1:I ain't like I'd rather take a whooping, I'd rather take an absolute beating and run anywhere you know. But I like to get my truck and drive down the road. I like to get on a lawnmower lawnmower, don't talk back. The grass don't complain, and it looks real good when you're done. You know like finding finding those places where you just have simple contentment in a moment.
Speaker 3:All right, okay, all right. Brody, one of the main reasons why I wanted to have you on the show is to ask you about something I know I struggle with, like as a creative even like making this podcast and staying on task with different things is how do you balance, um, like contentment with expecting more of god? How do you pray like hannah, continue to go and ask god, like the annoying neighbor that jesus talks about in the parable, who's like? I got a visitor, I need some bread. You just being persistent? How do you balance that with contentment?
Speaker 1:I remember one of the first books.
Speaker 1:I read as a Christian was called the Dangerous Duty of Delight. Dangerous Duty of Delight and it was basically like the Cliff Notes version of a bigger book of delight. And it was basically like the cliff notes version of a bigger book. And but there was a phrase that the that was used in that book and the phrase was dissatisfied contentment. Dissatisfied contentment.
Speaker 1:The way that phrase is broken down is it's like I'm content to receive what the Lord has for me In sickness and in health, in wealth or poverty, in need or want, because we're made to have desires. It's not wrong to have desires. I think it's important to go. It's not wrong to want a husband. It's not wrong to desire your own home, like those are. Those are the desire. Like somebody that rents or lives in a trailer park, where they rent a trailer and their neighbors are smashing it on both sides of them. It's like I just man, I want to be able to have a garden in my own house and I don't want much, I just want. You know, whatever that desire looks like, that's not a bad desire. That doesn't mean you're discontented.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 1:A person that says I'm wrestling with my singleness, I just want to be married. That 25, 28-year-old girl or 19-year-old girl, whatever that's saying, I just want a husband. It's not wrong, that's not unbiblical discontentment. You can be satisfied, you, I'm sorry. You can be content in in the state that you're in, but still experience some dissatisfied, dissatisfied moments, like there's something more that God has for me, because what contentment is not is. It's not saying I'm going to plop down right here and just this is where we, this is where it all stops. I'm going to be happy with what I've got. You know, there there's. God made us to desire more.
Speaker 1:That's the same mechanism that makes us want more of Jesus, the reason the reason I'm I'm, the reason I want more of Jesus right now than I did when I was 30, is because he's infinite in what he can give and provide and where he can take me. So if you're 30, don't think that when you're 50, you'll have got all of Jesus you can handle and you won't want no more. You're always going to desire more. So the mechanism, the human mechanism that's put in us to always be desiring more, it also fleshes itself out. And I want a deeper, more meaningful relationship, or I want my marriage to be more than what it is, or there's desires for more that are not sinful.
Speaker 3:Yes, that's a good phrasing Sin versus healthy.
Speaker 1:Dissatisfied contentment. I'm not completely satisfied. I'm content with where God's got me, but I'm not content to stay right here. I can be content in my singleness, but I can still desire a spouse. Now what has to happen is I cannot be controlled by that desire. So I put that desire in front of me and I say okay, I see you, you're here. This thing, it's part of who I am. I desire more Vocationally. For example, god gave us a vision for Snowbird.
Speaker 1:I was 23 years old and I can remember desiring for students to come and it was just me and Little living here in her grandma's old cabin, charlene's cabin, on the side of McClellan Creek up in the mountains of North Carolina, and there ain't no kids coming. Nobody even knows who I am. They don't know what snowbird is. We didn't have. If they would have wanted to come, I wouldn't know where to stay. And then my buddy, rob Hester, brought a bunch of kids and they tent camp. And we had we all tent camp. It was like a camp out. That's where it started. I wanted a hundred kids on. I wanted to run a camp with a hundred kids. It took us three years to get there. I wasn't discontented when we had our first week of camp ever and there were 54 kids that showed up. But I had set a goal. There's nothing wrong. Goal setting is biblical. It doesn't mean you're not content.
Speaker 3:Oh, that's good to hear.
Speaker 1:And so God has made us to be driven and to be creative and to explore. God has put in the heart and mind of his creatures, who are created in his image, an exploratory like. Like drive. I want to explore and adventure and experience new heights. And listen, day one in heaven is not going to look like day 1 million in heaven.
Speaker 1:We're always going to be exploring and gaining and experiencing new things, because, if so, only God is infinitely omnipresent, omniscient, omnipowerful. We, I'm not there's. There's not a point in heaven where I'm going to know as much as God, because he's, he knows everything, and I'm going to constantly be going deeper into my knowledge of him, my experiences with him. And so the Christian experience of contentment doesn't mean I'm not going to desire more or set goals or move forward. It means I'm not going to be controlled by those desires. I'm going to be. And so when we talk about living in a specific moment, right where I'm at, where my feet are planted, and experiencing God in this moment, and experiencing the sunset or a sunrise, or a good meal or a conversation with a friend, or the first time I hear a song from my favorite band or a new movie that I've been looking forward to, a sequel to my favorite movie is coming out, and I'm so excited and I sit there in the movie theater with a butterfly excitement in my chest. That's a good, that's a gift from the Lord. He wired us that way.
Speaker 1:That's part of that creative experience that God made us to desire new and great things, and adventure and experience when I get, when I, when I've got a day off and we're going to go over to the water park and Sevierville and ride those rides, and I'm excited on the drive over. God made me that way. If, if the fact that last week I was looking forward to this doesn't mean I wasn't content last week to be at work I got vacation coming next week it's not discontentment to be longing and looking forward to my vacation trip. God made me that way. So to you know, I think it's important that we, that we, so you know, I think it's important that we, that we don't, that we keep this idea of contentment in a biblical context. We are creatures created by God to be creative, to be driven, to be goal setters, to climb mountains, you know yeah, I love that.
Speaker 3:I think that is such a great way to say it, because when I find myself being discontent, I just immediately attach oh gosh, I'm living in sin, I am just going down a bad path, and I just like heap all this extra on me when really it's just a couple thoughts. I got a tweak of just like hey, god's got this, enjoy the moment, and he's going to give me creativity when it is the right time. I know for myself, like I'll definitely go back and forth of like just the difference between letting your mind spin out of control to despair versus spinning out of control to create and make. And you know, like you say, like adventure and to dream and to set goals. You know there's just two different mindsets. It's so good I'm glad that you clarified that, because I couldn't articulate it and I'm like I don't I don't know how to reconcile this because you want to be able to especially be a model to your kids. It's like I'm happy to be in my home, but I don't want to just sit here and clean all day.
Speaker 3:I've got at some point get a popsicle and sit on the front porch and just be, you know, and have conversation and and be content. And so I think sometimes we can get so overly like work mode in our daily lives between, like school or, um, just going to our jobs or getting into the mundane. You know that we get so we long for that adventure because I think I get in my head way too much because I'm like, well, I'm not content and so that must mean that I'm something deep down is wrong with me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, when it could be that that lack of contentment is something that God's doing to to spur you on to creativity and new, new ideas. And don't get, don't, because there's also, there's also a side of this where it's like, hey, don't get, don't, don't get too comfortable, and we can confuse that with contentment. You just get comfortable yes and compromise, and yeah, live in compromise where you're like you're not. You're no longer striving to be the best version of who god created you to be yes, yes, that's so good.
Speaker 1:And you said something a while ago that I think is really important. Um, what happens is if we, if we, if we aren't careful, then we can become bitter because life isn't working out the way I want it to work out. Life isn't what I imagined it would be. I think the opposite of contentment is bitterness, jealousy, anger, hypocrisy. The opposite of contentment are the things that drive me away from Christ. You know what I mean. So, uh, desiring something that is not sinful, that is not innately sinful, um doesn't mean I'm not content, just like. Just like there's something that maybe is not sinful, but it's not what God has for me right now. Like when the devil comes up to Jesus and says hey, turn this stone into bread. You hungry. You ain't ate nothing in six weeks. So I got to try to remember to use good grammar. It's fine, I'm sure your people don't care. The devil did not say you ain't ate nothing. What he said was probably more proper than that.
Speaker 3:I don't know the devil might have. He might talk Southern Appalachian.
Speaker 1:Yeah. But the devil comes up. Jesus says are you hungry? Of course you're hungry. Then turn these stones into bread.
Speaker 1:Well, let's be clear. There ain't nothing wrong with eating bread, and there would have been nothing innately wrong if jesus is out there all by himself and god, the father, said hey, you can break your fast. Why was jesus fasting? He was fasting out of obedience to the father. If he had said, if god would have said to jesus okay, my son, you can break the fast. And he said that through the leading of the holy spirit, because the holy spirit led jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil and Jesus goes okay, well, there's no food around here. I'm going to turn this rock into a loaf of bread, I'm going to eat it and I'm going to walk home. That wouldn't have been wrong in and of itself. What was wrong was the devil was telling Jesus to do something that was out of the will of God for Jesus in that moment, and so it's not wrong to.
Speaker 1:I'm going to use the, I'm going to use the idea of back to the person. You know the, the young mom who's living in a one bedroom apartment with a, with a bass and a packing place slammed into you and your husband's uh bedroom and another kid sleeping in a pallet, and the little teeny living room where the kitchen flows into it and he's working a job in the morning so that he can finish school in the evening. And it's not wrong to have a desire to. Okay, one day we're going to have a house, each kid's going to have a room and I'm going to have some space and I'm going to plant a garden and we're going to have a porch we can sit on where. Right now I don't have a porch, but if I did, I wouldn't want to sit out there because I'm in the hood, you know, or whatever.
Speaker 1:And that's not discontentment, unless it is, unless, unless you let it become the controlling thing that robs you of your joy. Which goes back to where this conversation started. If I get on my knees every morning, I say, Lord, thank you that in this season of life, I got, I got a baby, I got two little ones and and we're, we're learning how to live in dependence on you and it's, it's kind of tough, but I'm learning a lot that I wouldn't be learning.
Speaker 3:Yeah, cause sometimes you can get in that season where you're like, okay, well, if I can just be content, then God will reward me for my contentment.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 3:And that's where I know for myself, like as a married woman, the word submission is a trigger word for a lot of married ladies, right, and I think contentment is that same type of trigger word for single women, like if I can just be content, then God will reward me with what I really want to begin with. And so you go back and forth with this half openness with the Lord, even because you're trying to hide back, like your true thoughts and your true emotions and your true battle, instead of inviting God into that and being able to be like God, whatever, whenever.
Speaker 3:However, you are all I seek. You are what satisfies you, are what I want to be content in. Show me how to do that and even listening to the podcast, getting a mentor, getting a lady in your church to disciple you to walk through those seasons when discontentment can just feel so ravenous on your soul, and get some community around you because everybody deals with it yeah, they do, everybody does but god uses that, I think, to produce maturity and and closeness in our relationship with him that you wouldn't experience if you walked, if you had everything you wanted, every every time you needed something right we're gonna just not not kind of like downplay it to god.
Speaker 3:You know, try to be more spiritual than we we are and try to pray those prayers. You know, like the skit we used to do here.
Speaker 3:Somebody posted that on facebook this week about my enemies with the utmost smittenosity you know we used to do funny things like that, but we get too spiritual and we kind of over spiritualize like our walk with christ as being like we should be professional christians and it's like we're all on this journey. We're all failing, stumbling forward sometimes, but we're all also being just conformed to the image of christ and the work that he's doing in his timing, when we are just persistent and faithful and enduring, and it's just been really neat to watch that even in our own family.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm, uh, listening to you describe that reminded me I remember this is years ago. I don't know if it was a coffee mug or t-shirt or, but it was like, uh, you know how people will put a poster up on a on a light pole where they're looking for their dog that's missing, Missing Cocker Spaniel. It goes by the name of Foo Foo or whatever, coco, but it was like it was a missing poster for a dog and it was like missing two legs, blind, in one eye, his tongue is stuck hanging out, he don't have any teeth, he's got the mange and his tail got bobbed off when he got run over by a car. If you see him, he goes by the name of Lucky, you know, and I always, I remember I used to think when I was a kid I thought that was really funny. But like that's the Christian life, it's like it don't matter what happened. That's why Paul said whatever state I'm in, I'm going to be content, because this ain't permanent, this world is not my home.
Speaker 3:That is awesome.
Speaker 1:I love that.
Speaker 3:Okay, that's a great way to kind of wrap up this episode. I have to ask you one question that I ask all of my guests that I have on here is what is one thing in your life that is like a surprising joy? I'll give you an example while you think about it. For me this week, one of the surprising joys that I had was walking out to the girls night and you know, developing the stage and going through all the things like the pink lights was just one of my goals. Like I love it. Every Wednesday night they turn the big B lights on to be pink. All the girls have caught wind. Now it's like week eight or nine that you wear pink and purple girls night and I walk out there and they've got a bubble gun and it's like one of those bubbles like going everywhere and the big fans are going, they're blowing bubbles everywhere and it is literally like bubbles in pink and the snowbird pink lit sign.
Speaker 3:And I was just like I got teary eyed. I was just like thank you, lord. This is just such a surprising joy, like I just walked around the corner and it's just like, oh, this is what I envisioned, you know, for girls night was so wonderful. I just loved it so much, and god gives us those little joys me personally all the time and so, and then one might um trigger another thought.
Speaker 3:like I was doing dishes and I was kind of like this is pretty lame, and I accidentally squeezed, like the dawn soap, and I'll only get the dawn and spencer makes fun of me Cause it has a little duck on it, you know, and they clean the little commercials, I love it. So I like picked up the Dawn detergent and we're just soap and a couple of the bubbles just like go up in the air. And I just started laughing and my kids were like what are you laughing at? And I was like, oh gosh, the bubble thing. And they were like oh my gosh.
Speaker 3:And then, I got to say, but it reminded me of being at camp last night with the girl night.
Speaker 1:That's so cool.
Speaker 3:So things like that. What's something not bubbles? Obviously you're very like. I mean, bubbles might be the thing for you, but probably not.
Speaker 1:Nope, bubbles don't really do it. I think let me think about this.
Speaker 1:I will be honest, surprising joys for me are often associated with the sensation of taste and food and drink, and so I have a couple thoughts. And so I have a couple thoughts. My first one is when I'm surprised with a meal or a food that I was not expecting. Okay, so like I come in one night last week and there was a cheesecake in the top shelf of the refrigerator that Jenna Rouleau had made, I had no idea. And did I tell you what the sign says in my shed? Was that in this episode?
Speaker 1:yes, I think so yes so just, I love spontaneity and I love, I love not doing the same thing twice. 95 of people will order the same dish every time they go to a restaurant. 5% of us will order something different every time.
Speaker 3:Yes, I got a strong head nod going on over here. Yes, I got you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I like to do things different. I like to just to a fault. I like to do something different, just to do it different. But I come in the house that next night after y'all had gone on your excursion. I had no idea Jenna had made this cheesecake. Well, cheesecake's one of my favorite things. I love cheesecake, buttermilk pie, flan, anything from custard to cheesecake, that's the realm of dessert I love. I mean, this is one of those cheesecakes like you could buy at a store for 50 bucks.
Speaker 3:Okay, full disclosure.
Speaker 1:I saw her bring it in the house. I know 100 what it looks like it was heavy, like when I picked it up I was like what?
Speaker 3:in the world is this solid one foot tall?
Speaker 1:it was so thick and dense, yeah, and I walked in. I came in the next night it's like one in the morning or something and I opened my and and opened the fridge and there's a big old cheesecake sitting there. Okay, surprise, enjoy. So I pull it out and, I kid you not, I ate one quarter of that cheesecake and drunk a quart of whole milk.
Speaker 1:Okay, and then went to bed and slept like a daggum baby, meaning I woke up crying and crapped myself. Not really, I had thrush and colic and so I slept so hard and I woke up so happy. In the morning and we go down, we're standing in the kitchen and little says oh my gosh, did you eat this cheesecake? And I said yes. She said it ain't been cooked. Oh gosh, no. And I said what? Do you mean I?
Speaker 1:know you have to cook cheesecake. What do you mean? It's supposed to be cold. So apparently Jenna had done about 70% of the work. She brought it to the house and told Little, you're going to need to finish this out, it's got eggs in it.
Speaker 3:It's got you know whatever. Is that for fit for finish friday? Finish strong friday.
Speaker 1:So she was made, so she had she. That was going to be for finish strong friday. They they're supposed to finish the cheesecake and I ate a quarter of it in one sitting. I'm talking people. I'm talking about it was enough cheesecake. It would have fed six people, six grown men dessert. And I drunk a quart of milk and I ate raw cheesecake and I was so happy. I have zero regrets. I have no regrets about it.
Speaker 1:That was when I opened that fridge up and that was sitting there. That was a surprising joy. I usually this type of thing is connected to my taste buds.
Speaker 3:Oh, that is. That's so good though, because you know, with my smell thing you know that my nose doesn't work. I don't have that, and so it's pretty crazy that I'm always interested in that. It's wonderful, and you love ice cream, I love ice cream, I love ice cream.
Speaker 1:I do, I love it, yeah, and then another be anything as a parent, anything related to my kids. Oh yeah, yesterday morning I had it. So so I want to say this I know we're done and our time's up, but I wanted to say one thing. I'm glad this, I just remember this. I was thinking this when you're talking a while ago and I'll tie this to my last. My second surprise and joy um, I've, you know, I have a granddaughter.
Speaker 1:Her name's Alma Ruth, and my oldest daughter, kilby, lives in East Africa. They do missionary work, really gritty, gritty, gritty, dirty rough in some rough places and in villages, and it's a hard life, you know. And so Kilby, from the time she was a little girl, wanted to be a missionary, and so people will often and so like for family vacations. Multiple times we went on mission trips, you know we went and saw missionaries in other places, and we spent a couple weeks with Lena Goff, one time in Mumbai, india. We spent you know Lord knows how many weeks at Orphanage Manual in Honduras, you know. You know we went. We spent three months in Uganda, and so she grew up getting those experiences and I always knew she was one day going to going to be a missionary and I prayed to that end that God would give her a husband that had that call on his life, cause I had a cousin that grew up the same way and all she ever wanted to do is be a missionary and she married a good old boy from mountains here, awesome dude, they loved the lord. But then she, she, you know she just settled into a different life and and I and I, so I prayed for kilby as a, as a dad should. I prayed that the lord would work through that calling and those desires, and and so then he, when he was faithful of that, to give her a husband, and and and they had a call in together and they moved to the other side of the world and I knew, and she, I mean she's 19. She got married and at 20, she's gone, they're gone. And then. So then they had this baby babies now a month and a half old.
Speaker 1:I've still not held her, met her, seen her in person. And someone asked me what are you? I get it all the time when someone will say something like how hard is it, you know, or is that so difficult? And I remember something Jackie Leggett. Jackie Leggett wrote a book. Jackie Leggett's, a lady who is a close friend of ours, and her husband was martyred. He was killed by Al Qaeda. They were missionaries in Mauritania. He was killed by Al Qaeda and she later wrote a book.
Speaker 1:The title of the book was we died before we came here, and the premise was when that day came and he was killed as hard as it was, they had prepared their hearts for that, and as much as you can prepare your heart and that same thing goes into as as hard as it is to not have seen my granddaughter yet and not have held her, I I accepted this when Kilby was about nine years old and I and I lived it out in my imagination and my prayer life through all of her growing up years. So when the day came for her to move overseas and for me to know I'm going to see her about once every two years, when the day came that she was pregnant and we rejoiced because it took her three years to get pregnant she didn't think she's going to be able to we rejoiced when the day came for the baby to be born and I'm in North Carolina and she's on the other side of the world. We rejoice because we accepted this, and so yesterday morning I woke up, wide awake at about five in the morning, having just had about a nine second dream where I was holding my granddaughter and I was looking at her and she was smiling at me. And I woke up and my heart was so full of joy and I just got up and started my day. I was like why would I go back to sleep? I'm so full right now, from a from a few seconds, of holding a child that I've never held.
Speaker 1:And she's looking at me and in the dream she was wearing a hat ever held. And she's looking at me and in the dream she was wearing a hat. Um, even though she's six weeks old, she had this little hat on that. Kilby wears this hat. That has like a little, you know, this style hat has a little bitty brim and a big poofy oh yeah, it's kind of poofy up on top big puffy hat with a little bitty brim. My grandmother, who you knew, dinky, wore hats like that and kilby got a couple of her hats and in the dream, alma Ruth was wearing that hat.
Speaker 1:That's really sweet and I just woke up happy and I was happy all day. You couldn't have made me mad for nothing.
Speaker 3:You know, that's a surprising joy for sure those little treats the Lord gives us, just because he knows all of us is so individually and uniquely and just so special. That's really special. Thanks for sharing that. Well, brody, thanks for being on my show today. This is really fun that you're on Generate Joy. I really enjoyed it.
Speaker 1:Thank you for having me. I'm sure you don't have a lot of dudes on here, so it's an honor and I hope people are encouraged yeah, it's going to be awesome.
Speaker 3:And, um, yeah, spencer's going to be on here. Uh, this fall we're going to do a marriage series, we're going to do some things like that. He's actually really excited about it. Cool, it's gonna be fun.
Speaker 1:So, um, thanks that's it okay, go check amy uh, check amy's podcast out. Generate joy wherever you get your podcasts, and I think you'll be encouraged week to week. She puts out good content. I've had a chance to go and listen to several of her episodes and she does a great job. So anytime we can share like-minded content, especially that's connected to this ministry, we want to do it. So thanks, amy, for having me and thank you all for listening. We'll see you next time.
Speaker 2:Thanks for listening to no Sanity Required. Please take a moment to subscribe and leave a rating. It really helps. Visit us at SWOutfitterscom to see all of our programming and resources, and we'll see you next week on no Sanity Required.