Finding Faith, Losing Sleep Podcast
Finding Faith, Losing Sleep Podcast
Episode 35: Faith Through Life's Changes
Change is an inevitable part of life, though many of us resist it because it takes away our feeling of control and disrupts our comfortable routines.
• Exploring why humans naturally resist change and prefer established patterns
• Understanding the psychological change arc when confronting new situations
• Recognizing that significant growth rarely happens within our comfort zones
• How an unwanted job change created divine appointments to help troubled marriages
• Using the book "Who Moved My Cheese" as a framework for adapting positively
• Learning from Paul's candid struggles with change in Romans 7
• Finding comfort in "no condemnation" despite our imperfect responses to change
• Remembering that while God never changes, He often calls us to transform
Email us at findingfaith.losingsleep@gmail.com or send us a text through your listening platform. Please leave a review and share the podcast to help others find us!
Email: findingfaith.losingsleep@gmail.com
Twitter: @FindingFaithPod
It's time to wake up and pray up here. On the Finding Faith and Losing Sleep podcast. I'm Wes Eastman, one of your hosts at Loafin' it over on Twitter. If Twitter is still such a thing anymore, it might be X or whatever it is, and I have with me all the way from up north in Yankee land. It is Pierre and Michelle. How are you two doing today?
Speaker 2:Doing well.
Speaker 1:How are you Doing?
Speaker 2:well Not really Yankee land. It is, pierre and Michelle. How are you two doing today? Doing well. How are you Doing well? Not really Yankee land, like we're not in New York, which is where I think Yankee is, but I get where you're going.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we are.
Speaker 2:I want to go back to, like the Civil War days. Sure.
Speaker 1:We are it's Confederate, it's Confederacy down here.
Speaker 2:I mean that's fair given some things that are taking place in the country, but we won't go there.
Speaker 1:Well, we might have to go there at some point. Hey, I was thinking about this, like I gave out my Twitter handle at lowfimp. Here is at PeeWee31 over on Twitter. Michelle is at GoPackGo911. Is that 411?
Speaker 3:411, yeah.
Speaker 1:At GoPackGo411. I don't know what the Twitter handle is. Pierre, that's your job.
Speaker 2:At FindingFaithPod is the Twitter slash X, x as well. You got to toss an X. It's been X for a little bit now, so Twitter slash X.
Speaker 3:My favorite is when he says X every time he crosses his arms in an X Well, kind of forever, you know how it is.
Speaker 1:What do you guys think of Twitter or X nowadays? I know I still see Pierre on there every so often. I know I'm on there every so often. I think I get my news from there, pierre. It feels like that's how I read a newspaper now, and this is something. By the way, our podcast is about things that keep you up late at night. It involves faith a lot of times, or just our walk in life. The three of us are Christians, not theologians. I guess we are kind of theologians, but very amateurish, is that right? I mean, I could say we haven't been to college to get our theological degrees, but we are theologians.
Speaker 2:Everybody who talks about Christianity or religion is a theologian. Am I right? I don't know, that's a dangerous term. I don't want to give the wrong perception to those listening and tuning in.
Speaker 3:We just have opinions.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay, opinions, opinions about stuff, uh, but, but that is where I get my information from, as far as like newspapers or stuff like that goes. And I I would like to say I use reliable sources, um, and maybe unreliable sources as well, just to see what's out there. But what do you guys think about?
Speaker 2:x I mean I, I honestly mostly use it for sports stuff. Um, so you know, you and I do like a dfs pod as well for daily fantasy sports and like most of the news breaks first on there. So that's that's why I mostly use it is to get news on like lineups and things that are coming out. I don't actually dive into like real world news outside of sports. Um, a lot of ads, it feels like these days, yeah, um, a lot of bots as well. Um, which is kind of you know, shifted where you just get like folks liking or replying that that don't seem to be real people. Um, that's just my experience with it. Michelle, do you really dive into the twitter machines too?
Speaker 3:uh, nope, I never have. Really. Honestly, I'll be on there every once in a while, but I'm still. You know, as olivia would say, I'm old. Um, I still use facebook, but mostly I use facebook just as like my memory, because I like like the memories that come up. So, um, I usually just kind of use it for that and to post like new stuff to come up in my memories next year, the year after. So, unfortunately, I don't use social media like Instagram, twitter, like all of that really very much at all how can people get a hold of you on myspace, michelle?
Speaker 1:how can they shut?
Speaker 3:up wes. No, I okay.
Speaker 2:So here's my space, my eyes was kind of fire too. I'm not gonna lie.
Speaker 1:My space was kind of I used to like switch.
Speaker 2:I used to switch girls in my top 10 just to get reaction I, that is a hundred percent true, I guarantee you we're learning a lot of things about pier tonight.
Speaker 1:Um, there was a talk before the podcast about some things and we're learning a lot about pier hey, I tell people, if you knew me, then you believe me now.
Speaker 1:I mean that I I never had a myspace thing. Um, I don't, I don't, I don't know about any of that. So where do you guys get news from or headlines from? Where do you guys get that? Because that really is. I mean, twitter is where I get my headlines from, besides the things that are just sent to my phone from some application I have on there that I don't even know that I downloaded, it just was always on my phone, and so it's like Newsbreak or something like that and it just tells me headlines. But it's really, really built upon me. The algorithm has me really dialed in there, and I'm sure Twitter does as well.
Speaker 3:We don't.
Speaker 2:I'll get it from her parents. I don't watch these.
Speaker 1:We're half the oblivious. I thought this show was kind of about current events and stuff, is it not?
Speaker 2:It is, but you catch wind, You're going to hear it, yeah. I don't need a news outlet to know what's going on. People conversate, whether it be at church or in our live groups or again amongst family. They kind of talk about it and then from there you can always just kind of if you're interested enough, google to get a sense of what actually they're discussing or talking about.
Speaker 3:Yeah, if I knew everything that was going on, I'd never sleep, I'm sure, like I sleep very little these days anyway, so that would probably make it worse.
Speaker 1:I think I have this right and you guys can fact check me. You know how we are on this show. You can always just fact check me and see if I'm telling the truth on something or not. But I believe MySpace the day MySpace ended was the next day Facebook started.
Speaker 3:Oh, I don't doubt that.
Speaker 1:I don't think that's true. I do think it's true and that just goes into. Like the CIA or the FBI were doing both of them at some point, you know, just to be able to get more people on to a different platform, because they already had everybody's information on MySpace. It was kind of coming dead, and so they had to do a different one and everybody just rolled into that one. You know, it was all just. It's all about just getting information, is what it's about.
Speaker 3:I do remember rolling over and you know, what's funny is like I don't know. A couple of months ago I actually logged into my MySpace and, lo and behold, it was still there.
Speaker 2:I know that's not true because I had both and it was in college. So when Facebook first started, I want to say it was in 2004,.
Speaker 2:Because I would have been I would have been a junior or senior when Facebook started and it was only for college students. You had to be in a university to even have it and MySpace was still going on. So maybe when they went public and it was more for the general public versus students, that might have been the case, but not the initial launch, because Facebook was students, only for students. That might have been the case, but not the initial launch, because facebook was students only and I believe it initially started at harvard. Um was the first, I think, because I believe if you watch the movie uh, I can't remember what it's called there's a movie about it and I think harvard was the first university and then it kind of branched out to other universities before it actually went public, to those that weren't associated with the university.
Speaker 1:I still have an AOL email address. No, I'm just kidding about that. As we talk about, you know, myspace, facebook and all that, it leads us into our discussion here this evening, or our topic about change. We're going to talk about change tonight, and it's you know, change is one of those things that I don't know. I don't go into them really fast and furious a lot of times. You know, change the definition of it is to make someone or something different, to alter something or to modify it, to replace something with something else, especially something of the same kind that is newer or better, substitute one thing for another. So when I think about change, though it really seems like it's hard for me to change, what do you guys think? Is it hard for you guys to change too, or is it one of those things that you're just like, oh boy, I can't wait to change Because my wife it depends? I really think my wife likes to change. I know she likes to change the furniture around in the house.
Speaker 1:She loves to do that Loves, and I would. I bet you if, if it was up to me, I would have the same chair in the same place my entire life. You know that's just where it goes, but she loves to change that stuff.
Speaker 3:I. I am not the best with change. I don't love it. I. I understand it's mostly inevitable, so I give into it. I. It's not in my nature really. I'm, I'm which is weird because I don't know. I I like change for some things and not for others is probably the best answer I and my daughter are pretty good at changing clothes.
Speaker 2:I can tell you that much um here does the laundry at the house.
Speaker 1:You can tell that I do my own.
Speaker 2:But yeah, change is difficult. Uh, when it comes to things outside of material, like, especially if you're looking at spiritually, I feel, um, physically, you know, even like those that like try to like, exercise, workout it out, it's a lot harder to get in shape versus getting out of shape, and so it's really, it's really, it's really tough, for sure.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, it is, and that's interesting. You say you do your own, I do my own laundry as well, I do. I let I you know the girls can do their laundry or whatever, but I do my own laundry. Just it feels like I've lifted a burden, is what it feels like.
Speaker 2:I lift the burden off myself, because you don't know what to put in the dryer or what to hang up. It becomes stressful, so I'm just going to do my own, and y'all can figure it out for yourself.
Speaker 1:I have no idea how khakis like a khaki pair of pants, a tan pair of pants and red shirts go in the laundry at the same time or the washing machine at the same time.
Speaker 3:I don't understand that they shouldn't they do, they do I was told they do, so maybe that's why they got that little pink I legit do reds, oranges and sometimes dark purples all together as one load.
Speaker 1:A change. You may need to change that, michelle, because it's all going to blend together. You're going to have tie-dye. Everything is what you're going to end up having, but that's okay, that's all right, that's okay. Change this is from a. What is this from?
Speaker 1:I was looking at different things about change. This is from a Harvard Business Review all right, harvard Business Review and one of the things that makes me sound smart whenever I say that but I don't understand a word that they say. So I don't know about that. But they say you could kind of blame our history as a species for not liking change and why change is so hard for a lot of people. If you think about what it was like until a couple of past generations, people stayed in the same city. They did the vocation of their parents. Everything just kind of stayed the same. You even inherited like your parents' house. But I don't know that that's necessarily what's in the plans for all of us anymore. It feels like there's more change on the horizon for everybody than what it used to be, and I believe that. I think that that's true. I agree.
Speaker 2:Just think about how much this life is changing. So you look back at like older days. For one, like we just talked about, you know news outlets. There was a time where you didn't have TVs and radios so you wouldn't know what was going on. You look at different ways of like transportation. You wouldn't be able to get to certain places, you know because you know cars were different. You know you maybe weren't able to fly at a certain point in time. And even myself I'm going through a major change with my job and even myself I'm going through a major change with my job. So after 17 years I think it was you know I got let go for technically no reason. They were doing some reductions. I think honestly I made too much compared to some of my peers, but that's a pretty big change when you've been somewhere for 17 years, like I'm looking back at my resume, like the latest resume.
Speaker 2:I had and man, it was so basic, you know, just out of school and not much history at all, and just having to update that and just looking at the differences between kind of the experience that I had then and all the things I've learned over these 17 years with different tools and different technical skills, et cetera, it's a it's a big difference, it's a big change. The, the job like market itself has changed quite a bit. Where it's a little tough right now, honestly, and it's a lot of people you know looking for a small amount of jobs, so you really got to make sure you're standing out. It's weird. It's really weird. It's difficult, but you know, you can look at it from a bright side, which is I'm trying to, as well as sometimes, changes required in order to move forward to your next step in life.
Speaker 3:And I think what we found is that all too often God kind of has to slam that door for you, like, okay, you're taking too long, this isn't the plan, so I got to kick you out of here in order for you to get down the road where you need to be. And I think we're all a little from time to time a little resistant to change. And things can happen and you'll be like I don't know why that had to happen. And then you know that hindsight will give you that answer. Often you'd be like, oh okay, I get it. If that wouldn't have happened, then all of these other things couldn't have happened the way that they did and I wouldn't be where I am. But it's hard to see, and sometimes remember that you're going to have that hindsight at some point, but until you get there, sometimes it can be really challenging.
Speaker 1:If you need to, Pierre, you could throw my name around. That'll help.
Speaker 2:I already threw your name around.
Speaker 1:I'm sure you do. I remember one time when we moved into the house that we're currently in. It was a minute and a half away from work. It was a minute and a half away from work. Oh, wow, oh, wow, wow. You know, and, and my, my entire you know route and everything right here on this side of town, man, I had it made you know it. Just it felt so, everything was just right there and it's how I liked it, it's how I loved it because, uh, you guys know my past and how I moved around from house to house to house, all those things, whenever I was a kid growing up. So now here I am, condensed in this one little area. Everybody knows my name. I can't walk down the road or go outside without people saying hey to me, stuff like that. It really feels good and I really, really like that and that was cool.
Speaker 1:And then work changed. They shut down the warehouse. The closest warehouse that I could do things in was about an hour away. In my brain, an hour is what it was. So I had to drive an hour there. I had to load a truck, drive an hour back, run the route, drive an hour back, unload and drive an hour back home. You went from a three minute commute essentially to a four hour commute.
Speaker 1:Wow, I tell you what. I couldn't get over the hump. I just couldn't figure it out. We're going to talk about that here in a minute. I'm going to tell you something. One book that really helped me out is a little cartoon out there and everything like that. It's kind of in that same facet of life as that Stephen Covey and stuff like that. But this one is Dr Spencer Johnson, who Moved my Cheese is what it's called. Oh yeah, that's such a good book. Oh, it's a cool little book, isn't it? And it's about how different people react different ways. And you got the two different, separate people. Both had two groups in there and one group was like just sitting down, going wait a minute.
Speaker 1:Somebody moved my cheese and they just waited for the cheese to come back. And then you had another group that said, oh, somebody moved my cheese and then they aggressively went out to go find more cheese and it just kind of made it helped me. Somebody gave me that book and had me read it and it really helped me. Just go okay, man, you got to go get your cheese, dog you know, that's how I was thinking about it.
Speaker 2:I've never read that book.
Speaker 3:It's good you would like it.
Speaker 2:I don't like many books. I'm that guy when folks are like so has anyone read this book. By the way, like don't look at me, like I'm not going to be the one person in the room that has read the book, so you can just ignore me sitting there. Make eye contact with someone else, can ask them if they read the book.
Speaker 1:Because there's a pretty good chance. I have not read the book. It's a pretty easy book to read. There's a little YouTube like an 80s, early 80s, late 70s cartoon too, Pierre, so I'll send you that a little bit later. I sent it to Josh Larkey the other day Everybody, Josh Larkey so I'll send it to you as well. So there's people like that in the world as far as change goes and how they react to different kinds of change. And in this article, from what did I say? Harvard Business Review. Is that what I said? That is what you said? I'm surprised I could remember, but it's a change arc and, Pierre, I hope that we can put this in the episode description over on the Finding Faith Losing Sleep podcast Twitter handle. What is that? Is that?
Speaker 2:The podcast Twitter handle is at FindingFaithPod.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, that was easy. The change arc, though people want to know, and when they first hear about change happening, whether that's at work, like a boss comes in and says, hey, we got some new policies, hey, we got to change some things up around here, or whether that's a job, calling and saying, hey, you got it, it's, you're no longer employed here, or I think it could be a lot of things. So, like news from the doctor Right, I don't, what are the? What other things kind of change in life, like that news from your children?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that can be a thing. Yeah, that can be a thing. It is a bunch. I mean IRS news, bill collector news, your parents or a good friend, sometimes your pastor, like you, can get news from anywhere, any source and, depending on how it relates to you, can really rock your world. And you see, you can get news that's equally as bad as from someone else that doesn't relate to you and it doesn't shake you as much. But I think when it hits closer to home, that kind of I don't know that determines how you're going to react to the news that you're getting.
Speaker 1:When change is first proposed at the bottom of this arc if you could just see an arc like a half a circle people ask the question what does this change mean to me? Why is this change happening? And then the other question is what will it look like when the change has been made? And we try to gather all that information in order to begin to assess the different reactions that we're going to have or the risk or the difficulty involved in the different changes that's going to need to take place. And so we all just ask those questions, and I think they're good questions to ask. Will it be difficult? Will it be costly? Are things just going to be weird?
Speaker 1:Difficult means that you just don't know how to do things, or how hard is this going to be for me to do? I think is what it is. Costly means what will it take from me in the things that I value? That could mean money, or it can involve different things like invisible valuables, identity, like I talked about here. I was no longer just sitting right here in my little comfort zone at work. I had to travel four hours. Now, power, reputation, relationships, and weird just means you know this is going to be weird. It's unnatural. That ain't how we do it down here. That's what I want to say. Do you think that we're I? That ain't how we do it down here. That's what I want to say.
Speaker 3:Do you do you think that we're? I was just sitting here thinking about this. Do you think that we're resistant to change because it takes our control away?
Speaker 1:definitely we like patterns. I like patterns. I like to just do the same thing. I was going to say the routine I have every day is unbelievably smooth, right, and so when you start throwing different things in the way, I'm like that ain't how I do it around here.
Speaker 2:I think that's kind of why change happens, though I think sometimes's kind of why change happens, though I think sometimes God just wants us to step out a little bit, get out of our comfort zone. A lot of big things don't take place within your comfort zone. You gotta take a chance, you gotta take a risk. I think you see that you know, throughout the Bible you look at Moses and it came to like Pharaoh. He's like no, not me, you just got this wrong. We talked about it Like he'd asked, you know multiple times like wait a minute. So no, because of this, no because of that. And you know, ultimately he was. You know who. God chose to go to Pharaoh and request to let my people go. And there's so many different other scenarios where that was the case, where someone was uncomfortable with something and you know God kind of had to nudge them or reassure them that you know they were called to do what they were called to do, even though it was uncomfortable.
Speaker 1:Yes, I agree, and sometimes we have to do that, and we got to have faith that God is there with us during some of those uncomfortable changes and we just got to know that it's a God that's never changing and it's a God that's always going to be there for us and he's promised that for us. So I think that we can take solace in that.
Speaker 2:It's weird God never changes, but he sometimes makes us change.
Speaker 1:Hopefully for our good and His glory right.
Speaker 2:That's right. He knows the plans he has for us, right Plans to prosper.
Speaker 1:People begin to accept change whenever their mindset kind of changes about those difficulties being costly or weird or it's just going to be just too hard, and start thinking about change being easy and rewarding and normal, once they kind of accept that I got to go find my cheese again. I can't just let somebody steal my cheese and just sit here and not try to go out and find it again, as that book said, and that could take some kind of triggering. It could be a mindset and I want to remind everybody you've changed a million times already in your life. Things have happened. You're no longer the person that you once were.
Speaker 1:At some point you were a little baby and everything and things have changed over your life. And whenever you get put in an obstacle in your routine, when an obstacle gets put there, just remember there was an obstacle put there not too long ago and today is still going on. You know you can. You can look at it like I've already overcome so many hurdles. I know I can overcome this one too, especially if God is there as your strength.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely I think. I think it can be tough, though, depending on that change, and I don't know like it's hard to. It's hard to think about because you never know what's going to happen, but certain changes I think are are easier to come by, depending on where you're at in life, if that makes sense. So things, things that I go through now as an adult, you know, in my 40s, I have enough hindsight I can look back on to find peace and know and trust that things are going to be okay, whereas you know, things that took place when I was young, you know, in my 20s, I probably blew out of proportion. They probably weren't as overwhelming as I thought they were, but in my time and how seasoned I was then or non-season, I guess you could say it changed the way my reaction was Perspective yeah, correct, perspective is a good word for it and I think that's going to happen with many people.
Speaker 2:Depending on where you're at in life, what you've gone through is going to depend on how you're going to react, so certain people can still be in the same situation. Age doesn't necessarily matter how life has kind of helped you to grow throughout or if you even chose to grow and change in the first place is really going to have an impact on how things continue to happen, because we know in this world there's going to be trouble. Right, we were told that that's a definite. With that trouble, how are you going to react? Are you going to continue to have perhaps the same behavior that you had as a teen or as a young adult, or are you going to grow from the troubles that took place to handle those circumstances better as you've gotten older?
Speaker 1:I said this to somebody. They were in my way. I'm just going to be honest with you. They were in my way. I couldn't work. They were in my way and I was just standing there and I was just piddling and I was waiting for them to finish because they were pointing in the direction that I needed to go.
Speaker 1:The lady turned around. She's like oh, I'm sorry, was I in your way? How long were you waiting? Said, ah, no big deal, as long as I got my computer here. I always got something to do.
Speaker 1:She said well, next time just tell me. And I said, ah, I look at it the way I've looked at it like this the Lord will put me where he needs me, for whatever reason. And so I'll just wait. I'm just waiting for him to move you. Just wait, I'm just waiting for him to move you. That's what I said. But it it opened up a conversation and we'll continue that conversation, uh, whenever I see her. But it just opened up a conversation for that. And I remember, whenever this warehouse closed and I had to do that whole four hour commute thing, uh, I, I didn't know why and, to be honest with you, I was flabbergasted. I just like I said it knocked me down, knocked me down. I was having to wake up really early in the morning and just never getting home at night. It was just, it was really weird. And then I got to know some of the guys at this new warehouse right and Wes is always be.
Speaker 1:Wes where I'm, I always got an evangelistic mindset. It's just the gift that god has given me. I don't I reminisce with people I don't even know and I I never meet a stranger kind of a person, right and uh. So I was talking to these guys, develop a relationship. There were and this is all god's doing, not my doing, but it was these couple of people that I'm particularly thinking about are yoked, pierre. Yoked, okay, yoked is very strong is what they were.
Speaker 3:They go to the gym.
Speaker 1:Yeah, jacked, jacked, I am not Okay, I'm just not. And I'm sure I was grumpy because, as you could tell, I had to get up early, not a lot of sleep, stuff like that. And this one guy, he was telling me about his marriage and that he's just going to get a divorce. I said, what, are you a wimp? That's what I said. That's what I said. I don't know if I was relying on the strength of God or the stupidity.
Speaker 2:You did. Your whole life flashed in front of you.
Speaker 1:No, not when I said it, but when he turned around and said what I said. Well, I don't understand why you would do that. You're such a big tough guy and yet you're going to take the easy way out of this. You know, just something like that. I don't know, don't quote me, okay, but it was something like that. I don't know, don't quote me, ok, but it was something like that. Then the other guy, at a different point, he kind of said the same thing and I said you're scared, aren't you? He said scared of what I said. You're just scared, big old tough guy like you, sitting there, scared of everything, and you're just going to sit there and take this easy way out again.
Speaker 1:Both of those marriages I don't know that they're still going on today, but they were going on when I left there, because they both reunited with their wives and stuff like that and I was like and and and, honestly, I was like that's why you sent me here. Okay, all right, I get it now. Fine, I get it now. Can we please get the warehouse back towards the other side of town?
Speaker 2:Mission accomplished, we'll be back.
Speaker 1:But you know, the point is we don't know the reasons why, but we still have to use the talents and gifts that God has given us, no matter where we're being sent, no matter what we're doing. And look, I know that's hard, sometimes it could be a lot, it could be easier said than done. I know that's hard, sometimes it could be a lot, it could be easier said than done. I share that story with you, not to brag on myself, but just to share it with you, that if you're in that same kind of circumstance out there, that maybe trying to figure out where you can get more cheese, where you can get it, or trying to figure out how this could be a positive, I didn't know and I didn't know at the time that this was going to happen. And whenever I said those things I certainly didn't know what I was saying. But I was in the right place at the right time for God's purpose.
Speaker 1:And if change has come to you and it's out of your control and you've done everything you know you can possibly do to keep that routine, then it's not you changing it, it's something else changing it, it's an outside source. And if we believe that God is in control of everything. And if we're going to trust that God has our best interests at heart, then let's just go ahead and say God, put me where you need me at the right place at the right time for your glory. Put me where you need me at the right place at the right time for your glory. It makes life a lot easier for me. Now, it doesn't mean I always remember it whenever I'm sitting in a hospital room or something like that. You know, with the different things that we've just been through as a family here recently doesn't mean I always remember that and it's a lot easier said than applied.
Speaker 2:But it's still something that needs to, that I need to have my mindset on. Yep, that's a good word. Um, I agree, I agree and again, like you say, though, it's really tough in certain moments. Um, hospital rooms is definitely a big one. Um, it's just people's sorrow and um, I know, like I went, there's like a lot of folks that stand by, like our, our local stores, and they have like different signs. You know that they're in need, they're in need of help. And I want to say it was glorify, the glorify app, maybe a week ago or so. It touched on like compassion versus pity and really made me think. Like how many times, like you, you go past someone clearly struggling, no idea why they're struggling, but your, your initial thought is more of a pity standpoint you just kind of feel sorry for them and don't do anything about it versus having a compassion, you know, like jesus did, and seems you're did, and doing something like some type of action based off that compassion that you have.
Speaker 2:It doesn't necessarily mean giving them money. Sometimes you're giving them time and having a conversation, learning their story, how they got there, et cetera. Sometimes it is, you know, giving them. You know something that you're hoping that can help, but oftentimes you don't know the end result. So, like you got to witness, you know, at least for a little bit. You know those marriages reconnect and continue. There's also going to be times where you're put in situations where you don't know what the end result is going to be, but you still are in that situation to maybe plant a seed or to bring hope. You know personally to that individual or to that situation that maybe you're the one shot that person has in the hope. Maybe other people are going to drive by or walk by and ignore that situation, but you know God has you there in hopes that you're the one that's going to.
Speaker 3:You know, intervene and and try to change the situation some and show compassion versus pity well and I might get this wrong, but I I heard on k love um that there was this, this guy. It's kind of like listening to the holy spirit now, that nudge like sometimes, where you just have a feeling like you need to go do something. And this guy was talking about um. He was at work and his boss was an atheist and he had that nudge to go invite him to church and everything in him said this why, like, he's not going? Um, you know he's an atheist, I might get fired if I go and invite him to church. But he did it and the boss turned him down and he didn't understand it.
Speaker 3:And fast forward like a few years and he is preaching and after his sermon a guy comes up and he introduces himself and he's like you know you don't know me, but I need to tell you my story because you're the reason I'm here and he was like, excuse me, and he was like something along the lines of he was looking for work and somebody asked him if he'd ever laid tile and he was like you know, I did my bathroom once.
Speaker 3:Sure, I could use the money. Yeah, I could, I can lay some tile. So they had him go to this man's office and he's like you came in and I was behind the desk laying tile when you came in and invited your boss to church and he turned it down. But I went and it's because of what you said to him. That is the reason that I'm here. And so, if something along those lines and it was just super powerful, because you don't always know why god's having you do something like he thought, clearly it was that he was supposed to invite his boss to church, but his boss had absolutely nothing to do with it. It was the man behind the desk that he couldn't see. So sometimes, even when we think it's a failure, when god's leading us a certain way, it could be that we just didn't have the right perspective, so you never know who's watching or who's listening.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I like that. That was a good one, michelle, it was good on Caleb. That's true, but yeah, no, that is good, Pierre. If we had a commercial break like right now, I think would be a great commercial break, and then we would come back and kind of wrap the show up.
Speaker 2:We don't have a commercial break.
Speaker 1:It was a dramatic pause.
Speaker 2:But we can plug, you know. You can email us at findinglosingsleep at gmailcom. You can leave a review, if you like, over on any of the listening platforms. We're on Apple Podcasts, we're on Spotify, iheartradio, you name them. There's a few others I think I'm missing, but we're out there. So thanks for listening. If you want to show your support, leave a review, slap us five stars if you don't mind. And again, email at findingfaithlosingasleep at Gmail. You can also text us through one of the listening platforms. You know, when you go into the summary of the show or the episode, it gives you an option to send us a text If you'd like to do that as well. Now back to our regular program.
Speaker 3:That's a change in our podcast.
Speaker 1:A change. Yeah, hey, and I read up about people leaving reviews and everything. First of all, it only takes like a minute, not even that. If you have it just right there on your iPhone or anything, you can just next time you stop it for a little bit, I was going to say stop at a red light, don't do it. Then Keep driving Both eyes on the wheel, both hands on the wheel, but next time you stop, just hit a review. You know just real quick you can do that in just a matter of minutes.
Speaker 1:And what it does is it helps get the podcast out there to other people. And we've said it many times, we don't collect any money for this or anything. We actually pay money to be able to have this go out to the world or wherever, just because we want to be able to do our part, to be able to help change people's lives, and so that's how it goes out there, and so if you could just leave a review, let us know. We would love to hear from you too. Just hey, you guys are doing a good job. That'd be great, that'd be great. But it helps get the podcast out there in front of more eyes or in more ears and if it's helped you, hopefully it can help somebody else as well. I think about Paul and his idea of change, and what was Paul before he became a Christian? Do you guys know Saul? He was Saul, and what did he do for a living?
Speaker 2:He was persecuting.
Speaker 3:Christians honestly.
Speaker 1:So, you know, here's one of the weird things about Paul that I've often wrestled with at night, which is what this podcast is about. He, you know, he was doing God's will in his mind beforehand, and he probably was doing God's will for a long time in his life and at some point maybe he started denying what his heart was feeling. I don't know, I don't know why he continued to do the things he did, other than he was very comfortable in his skin and he knew what his routine was and he knew what the right thing to do was, and that was to arrest Christians, persecute Christians, to quit letting this Christianity spread. That was his job as a what was he? A Jewish Pharisee kind of guy, you know, a Roman kind of Jewish Pharisee guy. That's what his job was, and it doesn't feel like he liked change all that much, you know, true.
Speaker 1:And then he got hit on the road to Damascus with that big, bright light and his, his life changed and Jesus spoke to him, saw, saw. Why are you persecuting me? You know those kind of things and you could read that in the book of acts. But I just think about him wrestling now with Christianity and with his old self and all the things that he knew was right. I think about how hard it was for me to walk in the faith after all the old habits that I used to have walking in this world so hard. And it's hard for people to come out of the world into faith. But you know, there are some people who struggle with different religions too. Maybe they were raised.
Speaker 1:I don't know, mormon Catholic. Maybe they were raised Christian. They're going to something. Maybe they were raised Muslim and there's all these different, you know, habits that people have and now they're starting to find out something new and that's hard to do. That's really hard and I think about Paul doing that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's hard for anyone and you have it. Like you mentioned, you have it in different religions. You have some Christians that change you know where. They don't believe because something took place in their lives. You have some that were atheists or agn now do believe because something changed in your life, and so I think that's a good reminder to just be careful. I guess I'm not sure if be careful is what I'm looking for, but just be cautious that life doesn't toss you lemons to the point where you're trying to make apple juice. It's going to be tough. Everyone goes through things. We've all gone through things, from health-wise to death, to job stuff and financial obligation. We've all gone through things.
Speaker 2:But don't let it change you for the for the worst, I guess would be the thing, because sometimes that happens, like you let tragedy, um, or something awful just change you completely to where you're. You're unidentifiable as the person you used to be, and it's not for the good. Um, it's different to be changed for the good and you know, be the light, you know and be love versus changing and becoming that darkness and that hate. I think that's a good decipheral and kind of the changes in our opinion from God versus not from God. So if you feel yourself changing, you know for the worse that change may not be a change from God and I recommend you pray about it, get into your word, get into your Bible or get into folks you trust. Sometimes it's those trusted voices that can help you out of situations as well. But don't let change ruin your goodness, your light, your joy and things along those lines. Easier said than done, I'm sure, in certain situations, but everyone's been through those valley-type moments, so make sure you're changing for the good.
Speaker 3:Sometimes we like to hold on to things, sometimes just because it's our comfort zone, it's what we know. The fear of the unknown sticks in there and it's a lot easier to just stay with what you know versus jumping out and taking the chance and changing, even though it could be so much better. We like to stay stuck sometimes.
Speaker 1:I think it's just human nature and don't get down on yourself either human nature and don't get down on yourself either If you fail at continuing to carry your joy with you when things change or you're trying to make and create new habits. Don't get down on yourself if you fail once or twice. I'm not saying to continue to try to fail or that you want to fail, but don't be too hard on yourself either to the point to where you stop trying to change or you stop trying to continue being your old self into this different environment that you're having to go into.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I agree and I think, like you mentioned, with the conversation you had with the gentleman and divorce, like sometimes things are going to be hard, it doesn't mean you give up, it doesn't mean you quit on things that get difficult, so just keep that in mind as well. But I also wonder, like what if one of them was supposed to change Wes and you came in and you, I won't go down that road, I won't?
Speaker 1:go down that road. See when you got that thought seriously, while you were talking about what you were saying, I was like, just think if one of those wives had prayed for their husband and the divorce and everything. And then I come walking into the picture.
Speaker 3:West said, not today.
Speaker 1:And once again, that is not to brag on anything about me, not one bit, and I hope our listeners know that. Thinking back to Paul and I don't know that there was a tougher dude on himself than Paul was, and I'm so glad that he was an open book and in Romans 7, he just talks about his old self wrestling with the law and all the different things that were in the law the Old Testament, I guess we could say and trying to figure out this new way of life. And he was doing this so people would understand his struggles and not beat themselves up if they were struggling themselves with making changes. Right, yeah? And he says in verse 14, for we know that the law or the old way is spiritual, but I am of the flesh sold into bondage to sin.
Speaker 1:For that which I am doing, I don't understand. I'm not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate to do. But if I do the very thing I do not wish to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate to do. But if I do the very thing I do not wish to do, I agree with the law, confessing that it is good. So now no longer am I the one doing it, but sin that dwells in me, isn't that weird. Like he says, I ain't even doing it, it's just an old habit. It's just sin dwelling in me doing it. I can't stop it. It just feels like he's just so frustrated. Right, for I know that nothing good dwells in me that is in my flesh, for the wishing is present in me, but the doing of good is not. What a guy he knew.
Speaker 2:I mean, and there's people right now, like you know how many years ago this was that Paul wrote this to the Romans there's people today 2025, that are facing those same struggles, like they're doing things they do not want to do and it feels uncontrollable, controllable. So just note that. You know these types of struggles have happened, you know along the way, and I think recognizing that is a good first step, right Like recognizing I don't want to do this. You know, I got to figure out a way to no longer do it because I don't want to do it, so that's a good first step.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's not in denial, he's past the denial step. You know he understands what he's doing. Verse 19, that's Romans, chapter 7, verse 19. For the good that I wish, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not wish. But if I'm doing the very thing I do not wish, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin that dwells in me. I find, then, the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wishes to do good, for I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am, who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So then, on the one hand, I myself, with my mind, am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh, the law of sin.
Speaker 1:Boy Paul, you just quit beating yourself up. And then he focuses right there in chapter 8, verse 1, the very next verse. There is now, therefore, no condemnation for those who are in Christ. Jesus Isn't that beautiful.
Speaker 1:He just gets done beating himself up over and over again, talking about he's just a sinful man, a wretched man that I am, and he just feels so bad about himself standing before God and doing the things he doesn't want to do, and then he reminds everybody who's reading this that there is no condemnation for people who have clothed themselves with Christ, and that's our eternal only hope.
Speaker 1:And that's what we really have to remember is there are some people that are struggling with so many things out there that don't want to, that just don't want to. They don't have that hope, and for me to give them that hope is my job, and that's what we come here to this podcast for, that's what we walk around in our shoes for, that's what we live our lives for, and I hope that those are encouraging words, not from me, but from Paul, the Apostle, paul, who desires all men everywhere to hear these words, and they can know that struggle that he had. And if we call him an apostle, if we say he's Paul and we hold him in high esteem, then you should hold yourself in high esteem too, because if he can struggle with things, you can too, as long as you're trying to do the right thing, like he was, yeah.
Speaker 2:I can, I do. It's a good reminder. I mean all Paul's letters and I won't go through it all, but I even wrote like AI is pretty big right now, I'm sure you know that, but I think it was yesterday Like I just typed in AI like what would a letter from Paul? So it's crazy, we're talking about Paul today what would a letter from Paul to the world today look like? And it came, yeah, a pretty, pretty long thing. I'll send it to you and it's pretty neat. It's kind of you kind of use some of the same terminology that you know. Ai tried to fit it into what Paul would say and I can actually, you know, picture that being in the Bible. To some extent. It's pretty cool. I know it's not, it's not in the Bible, it's just AI, but just the thought process of it. It still resonates, you know, with what happens today. The thought process of it. It still resonates with what happens today.
Speaker 1:That was my closing thought. Do you guys have anything else to add? Or is that putting a nice little bow on things?
Speaker 2:It was good to get back behind the mic. I know we've been out for a bit.
Speaker 2:Again a lot of change has been taking place in our household. Good to get back. Hopefully you know these are listening. Thanks for listening. Yes, we got a bunch of recent German listeners, so thank you to Germany. If you leave a review, maybe try to translate it in English because I probably won't be able to read it in German, but thanks to those listening anywhere, in your cars, in your homes, at work, we truly appreciate you allowing us into your lives a little bit. Obviously, we just pray and hope that it's helpful as we talk through some of our own struggles, opportunities, joys, wins, changes in our lives that you can also see in yourself.
Speaker 3:We've got a lot going on outside right now.
Speaker 1:Hey, I can hear it and we will go ahead and we will wrap it up on the sirens in the background. They're coming after you guys.
Speaker 3:We had somebody standing outside of our house a second ago, so it was a little unsettling, but I don't know what's going on. We live in a great neighborhood so it was highly unusual.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, okay. Well, we'll let you guys check that out and I'll just remind the listeners to pray for us, just like we pray for you.