Episode #77: Retrospect — Anchoring Your Life in the Word of God

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Grit ‘n’ Grace: Good Girls Breaking Bad Rules

Episode #77: Anchoring Your Life in the Word of God

 

Cheri

Hey, this is Cheri Gregory…

 

Amy

…and I’m Amy Carroll…

 

Cheri

…and you’re listening to “Grit ‘n’ Grace: Good Girls Breaking Bad Rules.” The podcast that helps you lose who you’re not, love who you are, and live your one life well.

 

Amy

We are delighted that you’ve joined us for another installment of our retrospect series as we get intentional about living examined lives, together!

 

Cheri

So, One, two, three, four. This week we’re looking at the fourth statement on our personal manifestos, and I love the way that you have phrased yours, so I’m going to ask you to go first with it.

 

Amy

I point myself and others to Scripture for ultimate solutions. This has been instilled in me, I guess when I first was saved, when I was 10 years old, I was in a very traditional church, and I was brought up to know God and love God, but I didn’t know a lot of Scripture. And when I was 16 I joked that I stalked a boy to a bible study and that was the first time I was around people that, they actually knew Scripture. They knew where to find things. They knew what the Bible said, and I mean, besides pastors. Do you know what I mean?

 

Cheri

Oh, sure.

 

Amy

Like, lay people. All of a sudden, I had really an identity crisis at 16. I had been the very opinionated, very outspoken girl. I would debate you down in a second. I’m telling you. I went from, and I had a mentor in my life then, I have a couple mentors that I want to talk about, but her name was Lane. She just consistently pointed me to Scripture. And all of a sudden, I realized that God’s ways were higher than my ways, that His thoughts were higher than my thoughts, and that my opinion was of very little value.

 

Cheri

What?

 

Amy

I know. I needed to know what God said about things. Suddenly, I went from thinking I knew everything to realizing I knew nothing. It was really, I think of that time as a stripping down. It was a good stripping down. It needed to be done. For me, scripture has become, at that point, became the source of ultimate solutions, but I have to remind myself of that, because my opinion just rears its ugly head on a regular basis. How about you?

 

Cheri

Well, the line that I matched from my personal manifesto, and again, to our listeners, we did not share personal manifestos ahead of time. It was actually pretty cool to see how much they matched up here. The line I put was actually, specifically from a Scripture that God has just had me marinating in for several years. The rhythm of my life is repentance, rest, quietness, and trust. That comes from Isaiah 30:15, which says, “This is what the sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel says, ‘In repentance and rest is your salvation. In quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.

 

That has just been where God has had me camped out. I’ve been studying other Scriptures, but this is where He’s had me camped out. I blogged about it. I’ve spoken about it and really wrestled with the order, I think there’s an intentional sequence, which is why I see it as a rhythm that I’m constantly going through repentance, rest, quietness, and trust, and then I do my own thing. I make poor choices, and I’m back to repentance and especially that rest in quietness or areas I’m wrestling. As I revise my personal manifesto through the years, I’m expecting that this will probably change based on whatever Scripture God has really impressed on me at the time.

 

And so, I think you have stated that Scripture is the source of your ultimate solutions; whereas, mine, in my personal manifesto, is kind of a current example of how I have to keep coming back to it, coming back to it. I’ll be like, “Why am I so tired?” Oh, repentance, rest, quietness, and trust. Why are all my relationships in chaos? Oh, for me, there’s one at a time. I’m still spending time in larger amounts of Scripture, but God is usually speaking to me through one, very specific one. Tell me more about the mentors. You got me curious now.

 

Amy

Yesterday, I was working with a client and she said, she believes women in the church are the sleeper cells of the Christian Kingdom. I was like, “Oh, my gosh. I love that.” She was just talking about, “Hey, let’s not worry about positions and things like that in our church. Let’s go out there to a lost world and win them.”

 

How do we do that? Well, we do that by presenting ultimate solutions. Those ultimate solutions are not my opinion. One of those people that pointed me back to Scripture was Mona, and I’ve talked about Mona. I talk about her a lot even though it’s been years since I’ve even seen her. She had such an impact on me. She was the church secretary at our church, and so she ran the world.

 

Cheri

Of course.

 

Amy

This is the truth. Mona, I would go in, and she was my mentor as I was a women’s ministry leader. And I would go in and talk about situations with Mona, and she would listen. The first thing she would usually say, that just rings in my ears all the time now, she would say, “Beloved, run to Jesus.” Beloved, run to Jesus. So, that would, like, be the first thing, and then she would open her bible, and she always knew what truth to share with me, what ultimate solution. I was, I mean, I’m still not good at that.

 

That’s the woman I want to be, is the woman who opens her bible and says, “There’s a solution here for that.” It is the ultimate solution, because I think about 2 Timothy 3:16, and we, lots of us know this, “All Scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training, and righteousness.” Then, I think, well, the opposite’s true. My opinion is not God breathed. It’s not useful for teaching. It’s not useful for rebuking, not useful for correcting, or training, and righteousness. My friend Ann-

 

Cheri

Well, when you put it that way.

 

Amy

My friend Ann, who is another mentor of mine, years ago, she said, God whispered to her heart in her quiet time one time, “Ann, your opinion blocks my revelation.”

 

Cheri

Oh.

 

Amy

Oh!

 

Cheri

Oh, no kidding! Clearly that was from God.

 

Amy

So many times after a conversation I’m going back and thinking about what I added, and I’m like, “Amy, your opinion blocks God’s revelation.” That kind of goes back to your listening. I think sometimes it’s not even opening our bibles. It’s just listening and letting God reveal Himself in a situation.

 

Cheri

I love how you shared how Mona was very personal. Obviously, you had an ongoing relationship with her, “Beloved, run to Jesus.” Was that it?

 

Amy

Yes.

 

Cheri

Run to Jesus, and then opening the bible, because it sounds like this was not a cliché. It sounds like she wasn’t just busy typing. She didn’t just throw a quick bible verse at you and go back to what was really important in her life, but it sounds like she engaged. It sounds like she was delightful!

 

Amy

She was.

 

Cheri

And then, she demonstrated what run to Jesus looks like. She invited you to run to Jesus, reminded you to run to Jesus. And then, by opening the bible, this is what it means. This is what it looks like. It sounds like she knew Scripture well enough that she wasn’t just throwing a pat answer to make you go away.

 

Amy

Right.

 

Cheri

Which is, I know what a lot of us can feel like when people. I’ll just speak for myself. When I have thrown Scripture at people, it’s generally to make them go away, because I feel insecure. I feel inadequate, like I can’t answer their questions. I can’t solve their problems, so I’m going to slap on a Band-Aid of a single Scripture, and maybe we can be done. I can go back to doing something I feel good at doing. The way you’re describing this, it’s not about me at all.

 

Amy

Yes. I think that’s an important difference that you just talked about. We had a little conversation via Facebook in our intern team the other day that was so good about, like, how do you feel when somebody just throws a Scripture at you? It can feel rotten, is the truth. We have to be careful with that. I was seeking out Mona’s advice. She wasn’t just throwing stuff at me. I would say, “Hey, I’ve got this situation. What do you think?” In response, she would say, “Let’s run to Jesus,” and she’d open her Scripture. It was always helpful. So, yeah, there is a difference between throwing Scripture at people and opening it for people.

 

Cheri

And I think we can tell when somebody, when somebody’s life is grounded in Scripture, and they’re immersed in Scripture for their own life vs. here’s my bumper sticker approach to Scripture. And for our listeners to encourage that, we don’t have to be experts. We don’t have to know the Hebrew and the Greek, but to be able to say, “Let’s open the Word, and see what we can find together.”

 

It takes more time. It takes more vulnerability, more authenticity. But, it’s a very welcoming, a very inviting approach, in which, like you said, our opinion isn’t leading, neither is our ability to fix or be the source of solutions. Which, I think for those of us who are recovering perfectionists and people pleasers, but especially the perfectionists, we think we have to have all the answers. And we don’t. We don’t have to have all the answers.

 

I know for myself, I have hesitated opening Scriptures with others, because I don’t know where it’s going to lead. I don’t know the outcome. I think that’s why I love what Mona said, “Beloved, run to Jesus.” I don’t have to have answers. I have the Person of Jesus Christ that we can go to together and totally trust that He’s going to take us from there.

 

Amy

Exactly. And I’ve been reluctant to do it, because I often don’t know the address. I kind of know what the Scripture says, but where is it? I think to let ourselves off the hook in that way, to say to somebody, “You know, I’m thinking that there’s a Scripture that speaks to this, but can I get back to you on that?” I think that’s okay, too. Yeah!

 

Cheri

Scripture as the source of ultimate solutions, not us.

 

Amy

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

 

Cheri

Head on over to GritNGraceGirls.com and click on new episode.

 

Amy

There you’ll find the transcript, and a free download that you can use as you pray-cess today’s episode for yourself.

 

Cheri

Come on over and find our Facebook group also. We’ll be doing some fun Facebook lives. Just go on Facebook and search for Grit n Grace Girls. You’ll find our page and our group as well.

 

Amy

Join us next week for another retrospect conversation, because an examined life is a better life.

 

Cheri

For today: grow your grit … embrace God’s grace … and when you run across a bad rule, you know what to do: go right on ahead and…

 

Amy ‘n’ Cheri

 

BREAK IT!!!