THE WORK THAT CHOOSES US

IS THAT LIKE A THING

In this episode of Is That Like a Thing podcast, we’re talking about the “Work that Chooses Us”. These are the things in life we did not choose for ourselves. They run the gamut of experiencing health or medical crises, to infertility, to mental illness, suffering abuse and having people that we care about go through addiction… really any of the things we would never wish for and yet they have become part of our reality. We tell our stories of personally navigating these hard things and how God has formed our hearts inside of it.
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HOSTS / GUESTS
Crystal Yates, Magen Thurman, Becky Leach (feat. Emily Gentiles)
EPISODE NOTES
3:20 - We live in a world where bad things happen to good people and good people make bad choices and that’s the reality; the consequence of the fall. (Becky)
4:20 - We’ve moved from [questioning the Lord] into a sort of redemptive walk of faith with God and chosen to trust that He is exactly who He says He is in Scripture, despite the circumstances in what He has allowed or brought to us in her life. (Becky)
4:50 - I don’t know where culture took this shift, specifically in the Christian culture, where we believe that everything, as we said is a Hallmark movie and it’s all supposed to end like a Hallmark Movie? (Magen)
9:55 - I have to cling to, “What is better is JESUS and belief in Jesus and redemption in sin… …that is the truer miracle, not the healing.” (Magen)
11:45 - “...just because He doesn’t heal doesn’t mean He doesn’t love. That’s just the reality. Just because he allows us to experience tragedy doesn’t mean he doesn’t love. (Magen)
15:50 - It’s necessary to have doubt so that you can have faith. (Magen & Crystal)
22:38 - We can ask God hard questions, like “Where are you?!”. - Pretty much the entire book of Job (Becky)
24:10 - A Note from Emily about her comments, “I stopped asking the question of ‘Why, God?’... and began to ask ‘Who’ instead.” This deeper understanding inside of the chronic grief of infertility really came in response to a blog project led by Emily called “Trying Collective”; specifically this one by Lindsay Schott. The reminder that “Jesus draws near to the brokenhearted” was a picture that her friend Stephanie Cherry beautifully describes in her story.
28:12 - “What is the bigger miracle?” (Emily)
33:33 - “Surrender is actually, sometimes, some days to not think about it and not let it consume my day or my mind.” (Crystal)
42:24 - You can be reconciled and not remain in relationship with somebody.” (Becky)
43:39 - Reconciliation is a 2-way street” (Magen) The 2-way street of reconciliation is modeled by salvation… but does not necessarily take place in a one-sided journey to seek forgiveness or grant forgiveness to or with someone that it’s not possible to reconcile with.
52:30 - “He did not leave his throne when that happened to me.” (Becky)
52:53 - He is sovereign and we get to choose whether to believe that or not. And so I think that’s the hard part of life and the hard part of walking through the work that chooses us is daily recognizing His sovereignty; daily going back to the Scripture and saying I am going to choose to believe this today… (Becky)
Scripture References:
2 Corinthians 1:7; Daniel 2:22; 1 Corinthians 2:10; Hebrews 11:1; Psalm 34:18; Luke 5:17-26; Romans 12:18; Romans 10:9; Matthew 26:39
Resources that have been meaningful to us:
Systematic Theology - Wayne Grudem (all the doctrine you could ask for)
Boundaries - John Townsend
God, Medicine, and Suffering - Stanley Hauerwas