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Well, hey, and welcome back to Words of Life. We are currently in the middle of a series with author and podcaster Nicole Yunes. and this series is following along with her latest book, Not What I Signed Up For. In this book, she focuses on how to find the strength, purpose, and faith to get through an unexpected season.
So if this describes where you are today, First of all, we would love to pray for you, so please reach out and tell us how we can. but also just know that you are absolutely not alone. And we just really pray that this series is a blessing to you. If you've missed the announcement, if you do reach out to us, We are currently going to be giving away 25 free copies of this book to the first 25 listeners to reach out. Send us an email.
Hello at WordsofLife Podcast.org. We would just love to hear from you and we would love to know how we can pray for you. And with your permission, we can also get you in contact with your local Salvation Army to see if they can't help you and pray for you in person.
So again, that email is hello at wordsoflifepodcast.org. One of our deepest expressions of faith is trusting God enough to continue moving forward even in circumstances we don't understand.
Okay. Welcome back to Words of Life. I am so excited you've joined us again. This is week four with author, mother, preacher, wife, all of the things. Nicole Eunice, everybody.
Welcome back, Nicole.
So glad to be here. It's been such a good journey. And I hope you guys, if you've been listening, are starting to feel like you wish you knew some of the more details of this Joseph story because they are rich and there's so many opportunities to find yourself and your own story within. That's right.
Now, if you've been paying attention, not only do you know how to get a free copy of Nicole's book, but you know where to catch her on her podcast and how to find her in all of the socials. Nicole, I'll give you 30 seconds to tell us how our listeners can connect with you at the beginning of this episode. I would love to stay connected with you guys. I have a podcast called How to Study the Bible. Easy to find.
My last name is UNICEE. There's not a lot of us out there.
So you can find me online. I do an email newsletter. If you want to come join me on Instagram, if that's not a place that's hard for you, like please come over. And I'm only encouraging on Instagram.
So would love to have you and love to just connect with you guys and continue to help you discover God through his word. At Thrive Ent, planning your finances is bigger than money. It's a way to support the people, causes, and community you love. Because helping you put your faith into action is at the heart of what we do. ThriveEnt, where money means more.
Connect with us at ThriveEnt.com.
Now, this week we're talking specifically about the work of patience. And at my own church, even now, we are going through a series on the Beatitudes in the Bible. If I were to say this, Jesus says in the Beatitudes, Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are the meek. He calls us blessed when we mourn.
But why? Why are we blessed when we go through trials or experience tragedy? Mm.
Well, I mean, it depends on what we call blessing, right? And that's, we sort of talked about that a couple of weeks ago, that one of the things that's very alarming about the Joseph story is it opens with a similar refrain, which is that God was with him and he prospered, that Joseph was considered favored in God's eyes. But if you took that out and you looked at just the circumstances of Joseph's life, nobody would call it favored. Nobody in our culture would call it blessed.
So we've got this weird disconnect between what we might experience as blessing and what God's calling blessing in Joseph and also now in Jesus, right? When we read the Beatitude.
So we have to start to ask ourselves, do we have things upside down? Is it possible that blessing is about this connection to God? When I think about the concept of blessed, are those who mourn? I think that what God is inviting us to is the entire spectrum of the human existence. And for whatever reason, in evangelicalism in the last generation, I feel like we entered into our infomercial era where it feels like I've got to sell Jesus as this experience where I'm going to have nonstop, you know, just blessing, prosper, material blessings.
I'm going to have nonstop peace. I'm never going to have any troubles with my family, with my spouse, with my life. And we all know that's not true. It's also not biblical. There is very, very clearly in scripture times where.
God seems to tarry. He doesn't seem to move quickly. There's times where we feel like God we're suffering and he's not responding. That is the beginning to the end of scripture. All of the Psalms are full of lament.
So oftentimes, I think that when we are in a season where God maybe is not coming through, quote unquote, or we thought we were about to see a new season, we thought spring was on the horizon, and it's actually a long, dark winter. Is it possible that God is doing something in that season? And I think what God can be doing. is allowing us the spectrum of human existence to actually Experience grief, to know what it means to lament. To be in a tough enough spot, maybe to really want to pour out our hearts before God, to, as the prophet Jeremiah says, to state our case before God.
There's like this picture that Jeremiah sets up: like God is in the judgment seat, and we're appearing before him in court to explain why we're upset, why things don't seem to be going our way, and why is he allowing this? But what the prophet Jeremiah also says is, I rest my case. with you that we can lament before God and leave it with him. We can explain and complain and leave it with him. We can come to him with the full expression of our heart and still move forward and move on and continue to be obedient.
And I think that is actually the greatest measure of our faith: when we can complain. I spent a lot of time with readers before I wrote this book. And one of them said, Well, I just praise him anyway. I just was so clear and so easy. And she's like, I don't know, praise him anyway.
I'm like, yeah, that is a very settled faith that says, I don't praise God because I feel like it. I don't praise him when he shows up the way I want him to, quote unquote. I praise him anyway. Because he's God, and I'm not. And that's just what we do.
And there's something very rooted, and settled, and deep about a person like that. that I think attracts others to the true voice of Christ, who's calling out to his people. to find life in him. Yeah. Man.
At ThriveEnt, planning your finances is bigger than money. It's a way to support the people, causes, and community you love. Because helping you put your faith into action is at the heart of what we do. Thriveent, where money means more. Connect with us at ThriveEnt.com.
There is not enough time on this podcast to get through all of the things that Nicole has been inspired to write. But I do have to ask a couple questions. As a child, was it acceptable to experience negative emotions for you? I think that's a question we should all ask ourselves just to try to understand our relationship with anything less than kind of the American way, or I should say, maybe in my experience, the Army way, as it was called. And we do.
We have this, it is in our DNA, our cultural DNA. And I know there's people listening all around the world. But American cultural DNA is that you pull yourself up by your bootstraps, right? It's a metocracy. If you work hard enough, you'll get ahead.
There's this like spirit of what we would call pioneerism or whatever. And that can actually. Not give us the reality of the fullness of our experience in life. And for many of us, maybe we grew up where our parents didn't know what to do with heart emotion. Or they tried to explain it away, or maybe they even punished it.
And so now we come to be humans, adults, and we're trying to engage with God, and we're in a season where we're feeling loss, or sadness, or anger. And we don't have a playbook. We don't know what to do with that. Maybe it even feels like sin. And yet, here's our emotions telling us something, and we don't want to be governed by our emotions.
They're actually not a good governor. But we do want to be responsive to what might be in there, what our thoughts are, what our beliefs are. And so, I really do think that starting from: wait, is it okay? Is it okay with you to be sad? Is it okay with you to not know?
Is it okay to be angry? And do you know what to do with that? It's welcomed by God. We know that because of scripture. And He welcomes us to it and He welcomes us to move through it, right?
And I love that in the book of Job, just a famous book of suffering. Job has 38 chapters to complain before God is like, are you done now? But I mean, that is a patient God. That is a patient God. And he does answer through the storm, right?
He answers Job strongly, but not until 38 chapters have gone by.
So God is patient with us, and He's patient with our lament and with our anger and with our emotion. Would you say that grief is not an enemy of faith? Absolutely not. Grief is not an enemy. I think grief comes to us all.
Grief isn't just about physical death. Grief is about a loss of anything that's been life-giving to us. And also, I don't believe we were made for grief. You know, in the original design, the original design of humanity and made in the image of God, there is no death, there is no crying, there is no mourning, there is no pain.
So, if you've ever felt, This has been an interesting experience as a pastor. I've learned that no matter how old your parent is, no matter what kind of life they lived, no matter if they're 99 years old. People are still shocked by death. It doesn't matter. They're still shocked.
It's just so. abrupt And I really believe that my life of walking with people I feel very strong conviction that we are literally not wired for death. We're not wired for loss because that's not our original design, which is why it's so shocking. And so strange and so hard to walk with. But I don't think that grief is the enemy of faith.
I think grief is part of the human existence. And we know that Jesus was a man of many sorrows, acquainted with much grief.
So obviously, grief is not a sin. It's a part of our experience. I think our hearts have to break open in order to expand. And God uses broken hearts to expand our hearts for His love for the world and His love for the brokenness of the world and how we engage with the brokenness in us and around us. That's good.
I think you've inspired our engineer because I see notes feverishly being written, which is great. Nicole, I'm so grateful for your, not just your intellect, but your willingness to share in a very real way. Hmm. I cannot encourage our listeners enough to check out her book, Not What I Signed Up For, to check out your book. Not what I signed up for.
Thanks, Bernie. Um I think we can all identify that we are going to go through. Trials while we're on this earth. The earth is a fallen place. It is what it is.
But people are searching. And we are not alone. God is with us and he doesn't want us to go through this on our own. In fact, he's just waiting for you. to surrender to him.
If I could be so bold, if you don't know him. And you are interested in having a relationship with Jesus Christ. Reach out to us. Let us know if there's some way we can help you. We've got all of the resources in the world.
that we can share with you. And I would want you to write to us at hello. At wordsoflife podcast.org. If there's a way that we can pray for you or encourage you into a right relationship with Jesus Christ, let us know and we will do that. In fact, I'm gonna ask Nicole to pray with us just now.
And invite you back for week five of this incredible series with Nicole Yunis. Father in heaven, we come before you and we choose with our mind and our will to say, Lord, we know that you understand what grief feels like, and we take a moment and allow ourselves to be sad in your presence. Because often, when we are close and honest with where we are, you meet us with your comfort. And so we thank you that you are the God of all comfort. And that you use these hard times and hard things in our lives in order to open and expand our hearts.
so that we might have growing compassion and mercy and grace. For ourselves and for those around us. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.
Well, again, I pray this series has been a blessing to you. How great is Nicole? We absolutely have to have her back on the show. Again, if you missed the announcement at the beginning of this episode, we are currently giving away 25 free copies of this book to the first 25 listeners to reach out. And so please reach out to us, let us know what you think of the show, and let us know how we can pray for you.
Send us an email, hello at wordsoflifepodcast.org. And don't forget to check out the show notes for this episode. We'll have links to Nicole's website as well as her podcast, How to Study the Bible. And if you wouldn't mind leaving us a rating and a review on whatever platform you're listening, that's a huge help to us as well. Thanks again so much for listening.
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Okay. These are the words. These are the words of life. These are the words. These are the words.
These are the words of life. Thanks so much for listening to Words of Life. We want to thank the team at Life Audio for their partnership with us on the show. Visit lifeaudio.com where you'll find dozens of other faith-centered podcasts in their network. They have shows about prayer, Bible studying, parenting, and more.
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Well, the physician comes in and says, tells this lovely couple: hey, your son's not going to make it. But There's a young girl here in the hospital who Just delivered a baby girl and she's giving her up. She's gonna leave her here. Do you want her instead? That was chart topper Ryan Stevenson sharing a personal testimony on the walk, a podcast for worshipers.
Join us weekly to hear artists, songwriters, worship leaders, filmmakers, and other creatives tell their stories in the form of a devotional. The walk can be found on lifeaudio.com or your favorite podcast platform. The Historical Jesus Podcast is the sweeping saga of the life and times of Galilean Jesus of Nazareth, as well as the faith, religion, and church founded to honor and disseminate his acts and teachings. Join me, Mark Vinette, on this fascinating journey through time, exploring the many great works of Christian theology, literature, architecture, music, and art inspired by the words and deeds of Jesus Christ.
