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Study Gateway's First Listens: Find your next Bible study! Join host Shelley Leith as she curates first sessions of Bible studies on various themes each season, taught by some of the world’s most influential Christian authors, teachers, and pastors. To learn more, visit https://StudyGateway.com.
First Listens Season 4: Episode 6
When Strivings Cease, by Ruth Chou Simons
Plus interview with Ruth Chou Simons
[MUSIC PLAYING] SHELLEY LEITH: Welcome to Study Gateway’s First Listens where you get first listens to the first sessions on Study Gateway, so you can find your next video Bible study. We're in Season 4 and we're taking our inspiration from Women's History Month and focusing in on women Bible teachers you should know. I'm Shelley Leith, your host, and today, I get to introduce you to an author and Bible teacher who is primarily an artist. Her name is Ruth Chou Simons, author of When Strivings Cease. Ruth, I am so glad to have you here with me today.
RUTH CHOU SIMONS: Thanks for having me. This is good to be able to talk.
SHELLEY: So, Ruth, how would you introduce yourself to someone who has never seen your work or never read one of your books?
RUTH: I would say that I am an Asian American, follower of Jesus who longs to encourage women to find and apply God's grace in their everyday lives, recognizing that everything we need to walk with him he actually provides for us. And so my goal and my desire has always been to enter into the everyday places in women's lives and encourage them to press on to persevere and to find God's grace enough.
SHELLEY: Now I was doing some digging on the internet, and I found a blog post that you wrote last year to commemorate the fifteenth anniversary of you starting your blog. Like to read parts of it back to you and ask you to fill us in on what was behind some of what you said. So here goes.
“Today marks fifteen years since the day I published my first blog post on Gracelaced blog. What an incredible unexpected journey it's been, from a season where I chose to write after my babies were bed, so to a season now where my books reach readers in the aisles of Target. God's faithfulness has been more than I could have asked or imagined. Fifteen years ago…” and then you list some things that were true of you back then. So, “Fifteen years ago, I wondered if my gifts and talents could really serve God.” What were you wondering about back then?
RUTH: Yeah. You know, I was always artistic. I love to write. I didn't necessarily imagine myself as a Bible teacher, but I was a pastor’s wife and I was encouraging women around my kitchen table, but my husband and I dreamt about being overseas and having a huge impact in ministries that would reach unreached people or disciple young people. And here I was picking up Cheerios off the ground and picking up Legos and scrubbing stickiness off the tables. And it didn't really feel like I was using my gifting. At the time, it felt as if the ship was just passing me by, and I was going to miss the opportunity to actually get to do some of the things that I so longed to do with my arts, my artistic skills, and my writing.
SHELLEY: Okay. Here's another one. “Fifteen years ago, I wrestled with limitations. I didn't get to pursue all my dreams the way I wanted it.”
RUTH: Yeah. I mean that's...I think any young mama knows that I had to make some choices. And some of those choices meant that I wanted to be able to invest deeply at home and I couldn't do everything. There's just not enough time to do everything you want to do. And so the limitations with having babies every other year or so meant that I was fully engaged in that and didn't have any opportunity to necessarily go and say, I'm going to go pursue something on my own at the moment. And so that was a season that felt very limited for me.
SHELLEY: Now you have six boys. What are their age ranges now?
RUTH: The oldest is almost 21, and the youngest is 9.
SHELLEY: I oh, my goodness. And so I love your word seasons, because young moms can be frustrated just as you were with the limits of all the young children and them needing your focus. And they often wish that they were in a season that they're not in, or or live like they’re in a season that they're not in at the cost of some of their more important priorities. And so I think that you were facing that and accepting those limitations at that time, would that be fair to say?
RUTH: Yeah. I mean, I wasn't always doing it gracefully, but I think I was work in progress, learning as I was going, but for sure, recognizing day by day that you know, I think that was about the time that I was starting to realize God could call you to a lot of different things and you might be able to do all of those things. You just can't do them all at the same time.
SHELLEY: That's right. Here's another one. “Fifteen years ago, I had a passion, but I did not yet have practice.” Talk about that.
RUTH: Yeah. I think when you're young and full of energy, you can basically see somebody do anything creative and go...Well, I can do that too, and I want to do that. But I think what we lack in our youth (and use I feel like in my twenties I was still my youth) where I really didn't have experience. I didn't practice my craft. I might have wanted to write a lot more, but those fifteen years of blogging taught me a lot more about writing than just taking one single writing class. And the practice of the very things that I would eventually write about I had a lot of passion then, but I didn't necessarily have the years and the hardships that would put the things that I cared about into practice. And even the skills that I wanted to hone, they weren't practice yet and so I had time to make that happen.
SHELLEY: And then you say, “Thank God for the tediousness of practice—of the roughly 16,425 hours of honing the craft of writing. That's on average three hours each day for the last fifteen years.” And I did the math and that's seven days a week of three hours a day! So after doing all that writing over fifteen years there emerged your Bible study When Strivings Cease. So would you say that this was a theme that was coming up again and again over those fifteen years, or was this study a response to something going on in your life at that moment?
RUTH: The Bible setting When Strivings Cease is based on my trade book called When Strivings Cease. And that is us entirely a book about how the grace of God met me at a time when throughout my life, I was a striver trying all the time to achieve and gain approval and find ways which I could be so amazing that I somehow wouldn't need God's grace to shelter to me. And so it's really my story growing up, feeling not enough all the time, but then recognizing ultimately that not enoughness is exactly what God intended for us to that we would find that he is enough for us. And that our new identities are fully enough in him, not on our own, but in him. And so When Strivings Cease really came at of time when I had already written and painted several other books that did really well and were very special but I had never really told my own personal story. I had written a lot of really beautiful books that helped other people worship, but that maybe didn't actually tell how I came to that understanding of grace. And so When Strivings Cease came about as my fourth major release, if you don't count some other books and Bible studies, and so that one was a very very special one for me.
SHELLEY: Now this shift from the written word and the painted image to teaching on camera, it might be seen as moving from a media where you could control everything to one where some things were out of your control. Were you filming there in Colorado? You you got Colorado behind you in all its beauty. Were you filming there where you live?
RUTH: We were. Yeah. And you know, it's it's tricky to film outside. And I'll just say, first of all, Shelley that as an artist and somebody who creates products and books, that process...you take that through a lot of editors. You mold and play with it. You shift colors, you massage the product until it's perfect, and then you put it out. And I think the difficulty with teaching on camera or on stage or anywhere where you are not perfectly scripted at every moment and you're not perfectly planned out in every moment. It's really humbling. I think it's something where as an artist, I can't just show up and say, tada look at this finished work, I have to say, this is who I really am. I bring everything—all of my imperfections and all the ways in which I may be awkward or uncomfortable and those all have to come with me because that literally was part of the very study of When Strivings Cease. Is it my performance and my perfection that God is after, or is it that he wants me to truly surrender and find him enough? And the answer is yes. He really does. He really does provide the grace of God, which is better than anything that we could achieve on our own. And so when we were filming outside in Colorado for sure the summertime, even though it's warm, it's also windy. And I remember plenty of times where hair is blowing into my mouth and we had to do something. We have to do a take twenty times because some wind would be flapping the fabric or a bird would go through our scene and just lots of lots of nature happening all the time.
SHELLEY: There's a fabric backdrop behind you in all the different locations where you where you stood. And yeah, that must have been crazy with the wind. Oh my goodness. To finish off, do you have any current projects you're working on that you're excited about?
RUTH: Oh, for sure. Always have a current project. I have a full color devotional coming out this fall that I'm about to announce, but it's a beautiful devotional that combines hymns with doctrines about who God is and how he's with us. But with my team at Nelson, I am currently in my next book project, which is also going to be my next Bible study project. And so I am very excited about that. And we’ll for sure share more about it, but you actually, Shelley, gave quite the little hint about the direction I'm taking today in digging up that old blog post in specifically referring to what it is to take lots and lots of small steps towards something that you can't see finished yet in a season where you're not where you want be. So that's my little hint where I'm going in the projects I’m working on.
SHELLEY: That’s a good teaser. I love it. Oh Ruth. It’s been great getting to know you just a little bit and learning about what's inspiring you to be the beautiful artist and author and Bible teacher that you've become. Thank you so much for taking the time to share with us today.
RUTH: Thanks for having me.
SHELLEY: And now I'm so excited to be able to share with our First Listens audience the first session from your study called When Strivings Cease. Let's tune in right now to this session called Favor You Cannot Earn.
[MUSIC PLAYING] RUTH CHOU SIMONS: - There's a still and quiet place we all long to know. It feels peaceful and grounded, kind of like the way the earth seems extra vibrant, strong, and full of hope after a summer's rain. There, we don't wonder if we belong, we don't clamor for approval, we don't fret about disappointing others, we don't live in fear of failure. There is a place where duty is replaced by the light, performance is replaced with presence, self-improvement is replaced by transformation, and fear is erased with favor. I know this sounds like a faraway land, much too idyllic for the harsh realities of the demands, pressures, insecurities, and expectations you face day by day. "Be more, do more, be amazing," you hear from all sides. It's exhausting. And even now, the question lingers, what does it take to not miss my purpose, my potential to be enough in this one precious life I've been given? The picture of achievement, arrival, and assurance so consumes your view that you're almost unable to clearly see the way home through the fog of confusion, to this place, this place where you no longer ask, "Am I enough?" But rather declare God certainly is.
We discovered this place when strivings cease. I was recently a part of a project between songwriters, authors, and musicians. As an author and artist, it was a dream come true to collaborate with some of my favorite peers and creatives. To celebrate the conclusion of the project, we put on a livestream concert, and I was invited to complete a large painting, from start to finish, in front of a live audience of these respected peers and before the cameras that would then broadcast my process to all who tune in. As a professional artist, you'd think this would have felt natural, putting my strengths on display. Truth is I felt anxious, wrapped up in one six-hour professional live recording where all my long time anxieties and pressures to perform. I thought, "What if I'm disappointing and paint terribly? What if I completely fail like that one time I messed up on stage? Will my peers like my work? Will they like me? Am I enough for the task? Did they pick the wrong girl?" I didn't have to try very hard to have these thoughts fill my mind. These longings to belong, to be affirmed, to achieve, and to ultimately be loved. I mean, isn't that what all these longings are really about?
My guess is that many of you also know these thoughts well. Our natural bent is to be impressive, exceed expectations, and cause everyone to like us. I so wanted to show up with a completed painting that day, having done all the messy trial and error, lack of polish behind the curtain, and show up with a masterpiece. In that moment, I had to recall what I pray will be your takeaway from this study. God's grace replaces my striving, and all that I long to attain through my own efforts.
Our innate desire to strive to gain the approval and favor we want isn't life-giving. It's exhausting if we're honest. But we seem to play into this popular cultural obsession with self-improvement even in the church. I'm sure you've seen all the books that line the shelves at bookstores touting the latest strategies for self-care, achieving your dreams, creating the life you want, and having the influence you deserve. We have so many resources for self-improvement that it leaves me asking, if we, as believers, chase and run after what we believe is most satisfying, most valuable and most life-changing, then shouldn't we be wholeheartedly pursuing the word of God and Christ likeness through the gospel?
Instead, so often we flippantly say that Jesus is all we need, but go on to live worn out and fearful lives, believing we don't measure up, and as if the gospel is enough to save us, but not enough to sustain us. We say that we trust that Jesus is enough, but we spend our lives trying to prove that we are instead. Could it be that we're missing the powerful transformation promised to us in our Christian life because we've subscribed to a Christ-less view of redeeming grace?
Here's the truth and why this message has changed my entire life. The weariest, most powerless times of my life have not been because I didn't have enough books or podcasts or Christian resources to turn to, but rather because resources that make me, make us the center of the solution, and try to get us to become more amazing versions of ourselves will only leave us exhausted. They will not transform us. Try as we might. We don't have enough resources within ourselves to truly address the problems we face within. If we are to discover what it means to cease striving, we must recognize why we strive first place. Listen, we can't prescribe the right solution if we I don't know what our real problem is. And guess what, our problem isn't that we need a better life strategy, friends. It's that we need a biblical lens shift.
This is not a call to get busy. It's a call to get discerning. Striving is the hamster wheel of human effort that seeks to achieve or arrive at obtaining something we really desire. Simply put, it's straining to get what we want. And at the root of all our striving, from the beginning of time and with the fall, was always a desire to gain what we don't fully trust God to provide. Struggling to find your identity? You'll strive if you don't find your identity in Christ. Straining for financial ease and security? You'll strive if you don't trust God to give you all that you need. Working hard to control all your circumstances? You'll strive if you don't believe God is good and in control.
You see, when Adam and Eve at the opening chapters of God's relationship with them doubted that God's instructions were for their good and chose to believe Satan and provide for themselves instead, their sin resulted in the striving that would continue on hence forth to cover up humanity's brokenness. The enemy who said in Genesis 3, "You'll not surely die for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil," is the same enemy that knows if we follow the formula of doubting God and trusting our own efforts more than his provision we'll eventually replace the true good news of Jesus Christ, the good news that God's Son took on flesh to bridge the relational chasm sin caused between us and God to live a sinless life that we cannot, and to die on a brutal cross as a sacrifice of love to pay the debt we owed for our sin that we might be adopted as sons and daughters of God, sealed by the holy spirit and made alive in Christ, redeemed and restored to relationship with our Creator and Father. Friends, this is a good news. The enemy knows that if we believe that we, not God, are the solutions to our problems, we'll eventually replace that whole good news of the gospel with our own man-centered gospel of self-improvement.
While the culture around us eagerly instructs us that we get what we deserve both for achievers and under achievers alike, God's grace is just the opposite. Grace. What thoughts or images come to mind when you hear that word? Yes, it's written on lots of pretty plaques at Hobby Lobby. It can refer to that period of time when your credit card company won't charge you a late fee. You can be part of a kitschy slogan on a mug, fueled by coffee and grace. After our time together during the study, here's what I hope will pop to your mind whenever you hear the word grace, the generous, unmerited favor of God. Grace is favor, a gift of welcome, blessing, forgiveness, and nearness from God to us, given not because of our merit, but because of His mercy. Don't think of merit as simply referring to scout badges or awards, and exclude yourself from the society of overachievers. Think of it biblically. Merit is every thought, action, or attitude that we think makes us more presentable to God. Apart from Christ, our generosity, our volunteerism, our study of God's word, our hospitality, our likability—the Bible tells us that apart from surrender to God's grace in Christ, none of it brings us any closer to a restored relationship with God.
[MUSIC PLAYING] SHELLEY: Wow. As an incurable over-achiever, this teaching is hitting me right between the eyes. You’re listening to the first session of When Strivings Cease, by Ruth Chou Simons, published by HarperChristian Resources and streaming on Study Gateway. Study Gateway is a streaming video service, and we’re the only one that has a subscription plan especially for small groups. For our First Listens listeners, we offer you an exclusive rate on our small group plan. When you use the promo code FIRST at studygateway.com, you’ll get 20% off of small group plan for up to 20 people. And, for a complete experience with When Strivings Cease, take advantage of our publisher-direct pricing on the essential Bible study guide designed to be used with the videos. You’ll get the group discussion questions and leader materials, the Scripture text and key ideas, and personal Bible study and reflection exercises to do between sessions. Get all the details at Studygateway.com.
Okay, Ruth Chou Simons has just unpacked what the word Grace means. Now, she turns her attention to the next important term for those of us who are addicted to striving.
[MUSIC PLAYING] RUTH: And what about mercy? Well, mercy, that's what Romans 5:8 illustrates for us. "But God shows his love for us, and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." God's mercy equals God's extravagant, self-sacrificing love. So our merit, it's inconsequential. His mercy, beyond measure. Writing to the church at Ephesus, the apostle Paul reminds us in Ephesians 2:1-10 that we were dead, completely unable to save ourselves, following our flesh, and doing whatever came naturally. We were rebels, living in disobedience. We were worthy of God's wrath.
Paul was careful to remind us how stuck we were before the good news of the gospel came to free us. That's why the hinge of hope rests on these two words, but God. Here's how verses 4 through 10 read. "But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved and raised up with Him and seated with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages, He might show the unmeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace, you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."
Grace, undeserved restoration, unearned welcome, that's what it means to have unmerited favor, based not at all on how captivating we are. We don't have to be interesting. We don't have to be impressive. We don't have to produce our way to God. We don't have to rely on our own efforts and abilities. We receive grace according to Paul's writing through God's word by trusting Jesus and not ourselves in an act of faith and then by his power made alive from our helpless state.
Just previous to this passage we've just read, Paul says this, "In Him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth." Are you starting to see it? It's all about Jesus and how he accomplishes what we cannot.
I don't know if you remember being 12, chatting incessantly after dinner about the activities of your day at school. Do you remember middle school? So much drama, and every day felt monumental and earth-shattering in consequence. One particular memory stands out as being significant in my understanding and misunderstanding about how God measured me. I remember one such post dinner brain dump of all the happenings of my day, I stood at the sink, lingering over the details of my middle school life. Sure that my dad who was sitting at the table was listening to my story with bated breath about who said what about whom, who did what to whom, how so-and-so got in trouble for saying and doing those things. They were details I cared about. I wanted my dad to care too. At some point, I came up for air during that captivating retelling and noticed that my dad wasn't captivated at all. Was he even listening to me? Did he even know that I was in the room? My dad was never a man of many words, and this was not the first time I felt unnoticed, but this felt, well, really unfair, considering how intentional I was in including him in my life. I couldn't help but confront him that day and said, "Why don't you ever respond when I talk to you?" I heard myself all but shout. I stared at with an indignant look in my eyes and waited for what felt like an eternity for his response. And his response stopped me in my tracks. "You have not finished the dishes." Listen, I'm a mama to six boys now, some of whom are in those chatty years themselves. I get how weary some kids can be sometimes and how much we mamas want them to just get those chores done. But what he said that day came out of a framework deeply ingrained through a cultural paradigm of earning favor, as in you reap what you sow. It's what my dad knew then prior to knowing Christ. It's what made sense to him at the time. What I heard through those simple words, "You haven't finished the dishes," were what you accomplish is more important than who you are. You're not worthy of my attention unless you're deserving.
We don't have to try very hard to have an inadequate, incomplete view of God. That's what idolatry actually is. Not just when we worship an object, but when we worship our less than true idea of God and what he desires from us. This interaction and many like this grew to inform my perception of the Lord, my Heavenly Father. Internally, I imagined him saying, You haven't read your Bible. Don't come to me until you do. You haven't made the best decisions. Don't ask me for help until you clean up your life. You haven't served me with your time. I don't have time for your requests. Do you see how our striving for God's favor stems from disbelief, doubt of God's character, or believing wrongly about who God is and what he desires for and from us?
Acceptance, invitation assurance, God's extravagant love, these are ours, more than I knew then, and more than you and I know now in our everyday lives. Hebrews 4:16 says, "Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." We get to draw near to God because of his character, not because of our merit. The throne of grace is just that, the place where grace reigns, the place where you cannot earn God's love, the place where you step off the hamster wheel of performance to accept the unmerited gift of God through Christ. It's the place where strivings cease.
[MUSIC PLAYING] SHELLEY: Are you ready to step off the hamster wheel of performance with me? Wasn’t that such a great session by Ruth Chou Simons. And I have to tell you, this session is one of my favorites to watch on video, because Ruth is standing outside of a horse stable, and there are two horses meandering around behind her the whole time. We have unlocked Session One of When Strivings Cease on Study Gateway, so you can go there and watch the entire first session with Ruth and the horses for free! When Strivings Cease is a video Bible study published by HarperChristian Resources and streaming on Study Gateway. Here at Study Gateway you can find your favorite authors, pastors and Bible teachers, all in one place. We’re the only streaming video subscription service that offers a small group-sized plan, AND has user-based pricing for churches, no matter what the size. And don’t forget, you can use the promo code FIRST to get a 20% savings on a small group plan, and that discounted rate lasts as long as you keep your subscription!
With Study Gateway, you also get a direct link to our store, where you get publisher-direct pricing on the essential Bible study guide When Strivings Cease . The study guide gives you everything you need to have a great discussion with your group, and then go deeper into your personal study of the Scriptures and applying it to your life between sessions. Is When Strivings Cease going to be your next study? Get started right now by going to studygateway.com, click start free trial, choose the monthly small group plan, and use the promo code FIRST for your 20% discount.
Make sure you rate and review this podcast so other people can find this show too. And you won’t want to miss next week’s episode of Women Bible Teachers You Should Know. We will be meeting our most unlikely Bible teacher, Candace Payne, who got discovered by HarperChristian Resources after her video of trying on a Chewbacca mask and hysterically laughing at herself for 4 minutes went viral, setting a world record for most views that still stands 7 years later. You’ll hear in the interview how she went from Chewbacca to beloved Bible teacher, and then we’ll hear a session from her latest study, You Belong.
See you next time on Study Gateway’s First Listens.