Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
We are Alyssa and Bri, two sisters who believe God wants more for women than we've been taught. Join us as we dive into the intersection of faith and feminism, learning together as we go.
To the We Are More Pod cast. My name
Speaker 2:is Alyssa. And my name is Bree. We're two sisters passionate about all things faith and feminism. We believe
Speaker 1:that Jesus trusted, respected, and encouraged women to teach and preach his word. And apparently, that's controversial. Get comfy.
Speaker 2:Hello. Welcome to season two. Just kidding.
Speaker 1:No. We don't have seasons.
Speaker 2:We're not organized enough for that. Not yet. And not ever.
Speaker 1:I think this is episode 31. I'm pretty sure. Neither of our ages. No, neither of our ages.
Speaker 2:Because we're both 97. Exactly. We both share the same birth date and we're both the same exact age. You know, that's just twins. Oh.
Speaker 2:We're twins. People would think so. Are we? No, we're You'll never know.
Speaker 1:Most people assume that we are. We're not.
Speaker 2:We look similar ages. It's just secretly we're one person but we have multiple personalities. Or schizophrenia and we think we're talking to another person but really it's just one person talking to themselves for an hour. Wow. What if you're
Speaker 1:a figment of my imagination? That could be a good movie. That two sisters record a podcast and are fools for an hour?
Speaker 2:But we're literally just one insane person.
Speaker 1:Great. Alright. Disney, are you listening?
Speaker 2:Disney. I have an idea. I don't know if Disney would do it, Netflix might.
Speaker 1:Disney's doing all kinds of crap now. They own Hulu. They have ABC. They have they Disney owns the world. I'm pretty Just like girls.
Speaker 1:And also our bank accounts.
Speaker 2:Who runs the world? Disney. Sorry, Beyonce.
Speaker 1:No. I want to run the world. You cut out the girls. How about the girls at Disney? Can they run the world?
Speaker 2:Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh. With a Starbucks in hand. Hey.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Or a Joffrey's, if you're inclined that way. But I really still prefer the Starbucks.
Speaker 2:I do prefer it. I don't prefer to wait in the line.
Speaker 1:No. That's the bad thing. It's, like, there are secret Joffrey's locations. If you don't know, if you haven't been to Disney World, Joffrey's is, like I don't know. Is it located anywhere outside of Disney?
Speaker 1:I've only ever seen it in Disney. Or you can buy, like, the bags of coffee.
Speaker 2:Literally. I have no idea.
Speaker 1:But it that's like a coffee stand that you can find in all the Disney parks or at least in the Walt Disney World parks. It's like there's less of a line than Starbucks. Yeah. There are some people that are like culty about it. Like, they want Joffreys and that's all they ever want.
Speaker 1:But I mean, I don't know.
Speaker 2:I'm I'm a pretty big Starbucks girly so nobody could tell that. Starbucks is We haven't dedicated several a TikTok to it. Hello Starbucks people.
Speaker 1:Shout out to Starbucks people.
Speaker 2:Thank you for Being here today.
Speaker 1:Giving me my coffee. They made a particularly good coffee this morning. It was great.
Speaker 2:I made sad coffee at work. Oh, that's depressing. I know. It made me sad.
Speaker 1:Alright, so I think that we should address the elephant in
Speaker 2:the room. Brie? Thoughts? Indeed, we should. Let's address.
Speaker 1:Alright, addressing. We've addressed. Addressed.
Speaker 2:Alright. Alright. We're moving on. We're gonna say clean cup. Moving on.
Speaker 1:Yep. We're doing our best
Speaker 2:to smile over here. I've been listening to a lot of sad Dolly Parton music.
Speaker 1:You know what I listen to when I'm sad is the fray. And that is the most, like, 90s kid thing I've ever said, I
Speaker 2:don't like that. I listen to Hard Candy Christmas by Dolly That's not depressing. And I cry. It's melancholic. Melancholic?
Speaker 2:Yes. I've decided it's a new word. Okay.
Speaker 1:So if you want more on our thoughts on things, you can head to our socials. We've talked about it a little bit just a ton. On TikTok and Instagram. But I think today we want to clear a space for those of us that are dealing with emotions during this time.
Speaker 2:Yep. Dealing with everybody. Everybody has emotions.
Speaker 1:Everybody that's dealing with particular emotions over the last couple of weeks. And we are gonna talk about the often quoted and often put on Hobby Lobby signs verse. Oh, hooby looby. And that is Psalms forty six ten, which is the be still verse.
Speaker 2:Be still.
Speaker 1:Be
Speaker 2:still. It's not just Hobby Lobby. It's literally everywhere. It's like you walk into a TJ Maxx. You look on a necklace.
Speaker 2:You want, like, a Christian girl t shirt. It's gonna say, be still.
Speaker 1:And I think it's really poignant right now, but it's also kind of like a confusing verse for right now because I don't super want to be still. I kind of super want to scream. So, I've done a little bit of research, but we're also just gonna kinda
Speaker 2:Chat about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, chat about it, see what our feelings and emotions are.
Speaker 2:I think it's funny because when you look at the be still, you know, canvases, shirts, jewelry, all The merch. It's all surrounded by lovely florals. Yeah. It's already still. I think what really stands out to me, and I posted this on the socials yesterday, when everything is storming around you, when your world is falling apart, when you're in a middle of a tsunami.
Speaker 2:Because tsunamis are freaking scary. How do you know? I watched that movie, The Impossible. Okay. Back on track.
Speaker 2:When you're in the middle of a storm, god is saying be still. Right. In the midst of all that, Jesus is sleeping in your boat. You know?
Speaker 1:Alright. So I want to read I'm gonna, throughout the episode, read two different versions of this. But I'm gonna start in the NIV. She knows how to read. She's literate, Proud.
Speaker 1:Okay. So I'm gonna read the whole of Psalm 46. I just think it's really important to give context. Like, you always see this verse, and it's just just be still.
Speaker 2:Just two words.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Or be still and know that I am god. And there's more to it than that. Yeah. It's not necessarily that this one like many verses that are taken that way.
Speaker 1:Mhmm. This one isn't necessarily taken completely out of context. Yeah. But it's important to read the whole thing. So buckle up.
Speaker 1:I've got 11 verses here.
Speaker 2:I hate buckling. Do it. It's for safety. Click it or take it.
Speaker 1:Alright. So this is Psalm 46, and this is the NIV. It says, god is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea. Though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging, There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the most high dwells.
Speaker 1:God is within her. She will not fall. God will help her at break of day. Nations are in uproar. Kingdoms fall.
Speaker 1:He lifts his voice. The earth melts. The almighty is with us. The god of Jacob is our fortress. Come and see what the lord has done, the desolations he has brought on the earth.
Speaker 1:He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear. He burns the shields with fire. He says, be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations.
Speaker 1:I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord Almighty is with us. The god of Jacob is our fortress. So that is a song because it's in Psalms. So it's written
Speaker 2:to be a song. Question. Yeah. Why didn't you sing it?
Speaker 1:That's your job. The bible doesn't necessarily specify what's going on in the world when this psalm is written. It's assumed that there's a war going on. Mhmm. And I believe that I'll get into some of my notes later and talk about I think there's, like, a specific war that they believe it was.
Speaker 1:But like you said, this was not written in a time of peacefulness. And that's really clear based on how the author is talking. Like, the world is crumbling.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:We're all falling to crap. But God is stable. Mhmm. God is still there. Mhmm.
Speaker 1:God has still got things under control even though our world is crumbling around us, and we're watching the things that we love, the things that we built, the things that we want to see in the world.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. Just shattering. I think I relate it back to, like, as as I am old and aged, you know, you're able to look at, like, little kid's problems and be like, it's not that big of a problem. It's okay. Like, he stole your I'm blanking on everything.
Speaker 2:Wow. What are the nouns? Toy? Toy. He stole your toy.
Speaker 2:There you go. And your world is crumbling apart because that is the most important thing to you. Like, as you get older, you can take a step back and say, like, hey, it's not that big of a deal. Think how much bigger god is. Right.
Speaker 2:And how small and insignificant our entire planet is. And
Speaker 1:that's not to minimize what's going on in the world right now.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:But just to say that, like, God is is that much bigger. He's got infinitely more wisdom than we have, and he can see
Speaker 2:so much further. He can see behind, in front, around. He's everywhere. He's all knowing.
Speaker 1:One of the interesting things in this is so the whole psalm is written from the perspective of the writer. Right? So just talking about God. Mhmm. But verse 10, now God is talking.
Speaker 1:So there's there's a quote here. It's be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth. So at the end of it all, God wins.
Speaker 1:Mhmm. And we know that, like, as Christians, as people of faith, like, we know that. Mhmm. I I would assume most of you have even if you're new to Christianity, you've probably heard that, like, God wins in the end.
Speaker 2:He's already won. Right. That's a
Speaker 1:pretty common one to I
Speaker 2:did post about that last night.
Speaker 1:But at the same time, like, I think I don't know that we internalize that because we don't know what that means.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:What does it mean that at the end of it all striving ceases?
Speaker 2:There
Speaker 1:is peace. There will be no more tears. There will be no more pain. Because we have lived in a world that since the moment we were born there was tears and there was pain and there was hurt and there was striving and whatever. Even if you had a lovely childhood.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So what does that look like?
Speaker 2:Yeah. Like, we are in the middle of it. We are in the muck. Mhmm. How can we say that God's already won?
Speaker 2:Right. But he won when Jesus was on the cross. Mhmm. And he made heaven available to us. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah. In church this week, so a bunch of my family came to our church this week.
Speaker 2:Was like What's
Speaker 1:the family? We took up a whole row. It's very proud of us. I felt like remember we talked about in VBS, not VBS, but whatever version of VBS we went to? Bible time boost ers.
Speaker 2:That's it. There it is. Alright. I had to sing this song in my head. I was like, who are, who are, who are we?
Speaker 2:Bible time boosters, can't you see? Wow. That's a throwback. There you go.
Speaker 1:Thank you. But I felt like I I should have earned my little ribbon because I brought people to church. Anyway. So a bunch of our family came to church with us this week because I don't know. We're very popular.
Speaker 1:We we are well loved, probably. Maybe. We're not.
Speaker 2:They came because they needed to go to church.
Speaker 1:They didn't need to go to church.
Speaker 2:But They came for God,
Speaker 1:not you. We started a new series. And one of the things the pastor said that was really impactful to me was he said that he was going through a really hard time, and he called his mom. Mhmm. And she said to him, this is not heaven.
Speaker 1:Yeah. The earth where we are right now, this is not heaven. Mhmm. It's not perfect. It's not exactly what God wants it to be.
Speaker 1:People aren't exactly who God wants them to be. Mhmm. There's gonna be sin. There's gonna be pain. There's gonna be death because this is not heaven.
Speaker 1:However, this is also not hell. Yeah. And that hit me really hard because sometimes it feels like that.
Speaker 2:I totally agree with you. I got goosebumps when he said that. Yeah. So I was like, oh, it feels like that sometimes. I was feeling it in that moment.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. Like, this is the worst.
Speaker 1:Yeah. It can't it literally can't get worse than what we're feeling right And yet he's up there saying, but this isn't hell either. Mhmm. Which, what does that mean? Because if we look at hell as and I know there's a lot of, like, different theological discussions about hell but if we look at hell as kind of the end point for sin Mhmm.
Speaker 1:There's no there's nothing you can do to make it better. Right? There's there's no striving that that's gonna make the sinners more godlike. Like, there's I don't know how to explain it, but there's nothing you can do.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. Your arms are tied. Your legs are tied.
Speaker 1:Right. There's no more work to be done. But that's not where we are either. Mhmm. People are not what God wants them to be, but we can work to help them be there.
Speaker 1:We can work to help ourselves get closer, and we can stand up and try and make the world more of what we believe God wants it to be. Mhmm. Which is a huge part of the reason we do this podcast. Yeah. Oh, yeah.
Speaker 1:And honestly, like, the last couple of weeks, it's kind of felt like, my gosh, why are we bothering? Like, what's the point?
Speaker 2:I've been the worst since last, what was it, Tuesday? I've just felt so defeated and so exhausted. Exhausted. That's absolutely exhausted. Like, we are fighting, and now we have to keep fighting.
Speaker 2:My gosh. But maybe God's saying, like, you can still keep fighting. But God's already won.
Speaker 1:And I think it's like the world feels like when you're learning to do something new, you take a couple steps forward. Mhmm. And then you try and add on another skill, maybe. I'm gonna use crocheting because I like to crochet, and that makes sense in Alyssa's brain. So you start to crochet, and you learn how to to chain out just a line.
Speaker 1:Right?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And you're like, I'm doing great. Like, 20 steps forward. Right? I'm gonna I'm gonna make a blanket before the day is out. And then you realize that you have to learn a double crochet stitch, which is a little bit more complicated.
Speaker 1:And that feels like 20 steps back.
Speaker 2:Like, ugh. Mhmm.
Speaker 1:Now I gotta do this crap. Yeah. This is annoying. And then if you wanna do a more complicated stitch, you've gotta learn that one. And and it's 10 steps forward, 20 steps backward, and five steps forward, and four steps backward.
Speaker 1:And it just feels like chaos. But I think the important thing to remember is we can take steps forward.
Speaker 2:Yeah. We talked about this at work the other day. Like, imagine you're climbing a mountain. Like, your life and all of women's history is a mountain. And each little move you make does not feel very significant.
Speaker 2:But when you look down and you see how far we've come, and the very fact that we can sit here and record a podcast together talking about this freely, that is progress. Right.
Speaker 1:So back to be still. No. We've gone off a little bit. But one thing I wanted to talk about was how to know when to be still.
Speaker 2:And when to shake your boot.
Speaker 1:Because I think it's a little bit you see Christians be like, well, I'm just waiting on God. And then they they sit there and do nothing. They're frozen.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yes. They don't move forward. They don't move backward because they're so desperately waiting on God to move. Mhmm. And I'm not saying that God will never move in those situations.
Speaker 1:God is God and can do whatever he wants. However, I also think that God expects us to do something.
Speaker 2:Even a miracle needs a hand.
Speaker 1:We have to have quoted that 25 times That's not a new one. But how do you know when to fight and when to strive and when to try to push forward versus when to be still.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:And I think there's two different pieces of that. Mhmm. So the first one is externally versus internally. Throughout this passage, when we look at it, God never says externally, be still. Sit your butt down, do nothing.
Speaker 1:Deep thoughts. Right? I mean, like, these people are at war. He's not gonna tell them, just sit. Just sit where you are and do nothing.
Speaker 1:Cease striving. That doesn't make sense within this context, even when god you know, in the walls of Jericho. And really, the only reason that I recall that story particularly well is
Speaker 2:VeggieTales. The purple slushies.
Speaker 1:But those people are at war also, right? And even when God gives them very direct instructions, he does not tell them, Just be still, I'll take care of this. He tells them, Go walk around the city a whole bunch of times. Which, can you imagine how annoying? Quite.
Speaker 1:Like, not even just for the people in the city. Like, they're irritated too, but, like, you have to march around the city, like, what is it, like, 12 times?
Speaker 2:Yeah. Something crazy. It's like being on a treadmill, you know? I've seen that tree before. Like, I'm exhausted with this.
Speaker 1:It's dumb. And you're sitting there like, what's the point, god? You could just, like, snap your fingers and Yeah. The walls will come crumbling down. But the point is that they had to put some effort in.
Speaker 1:God was going take care of it. He told them he was going to take care of it just like he's told us he's going to take care of it. But they had to put some effort in. Yeah. So externally you have to put in the effort.
Speaker 1:Internally is different. Yeah. I think that's what's being talked about here is to learn. And look, I'm not judging anybody because let me tell you, I'm the least likely person on the face of the earth to internally be still.
Speaker 2:Girl. Externally, I'm still. Internally, I'm crazy. Like, even
Speaker 1:just to be very open and honest here Mhmm. I deal with a lot of anxiety issues. Particularly lately, I've been having a lot of problems with it. Not just, like, because of the situation right now, but over the last month as I've been sick and work has been changing for me. Like, I've been dealing with a ton of anxiety problems.
Speaker 1:And so I'm not I'm not good at this, boys and girls. Like, this is not my strong suit. But I think that's what god is saying here is internally, I need you to trust me. Yeah. I need you to stop all the panic and stop all the everything.
Speaker 1:And I know that some of us even have, you know, medical issues where this is gonna require more than just reading verses and having faith. This may require doctor's visits and therapy and things like that. And so I hope that you use that as part of your toolkit to be still. But also, I think faith and trust is a big piece of it. Pixie dust.
Speaker 2:I didn't see that verse in there. Not in this bible. Oh, right.
Speaker 1:It's in the message. Think
Speaker 2:Bible jokes. A big part of knowing when to be still internally, externally is prayer. Mhmm. And I do struggle with that. Like, just remembering to close my eyes and just be in constant conversation with God.
Speaker 2:Because it is supposed to be a relationship. Right. And he does speak to you. But I think, especially I do this, I kind of write it off as like, Oh, those are just my thoughts. Oh, that's just me saying those things when really God is like whispering in your ear saying, Do this.
Speaker 2:Keep going. Keep fighting. Or, Chill the heck out. It'll be okay. But the more you practice that prayer, I think the easier it gets.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And the louder, maybe, he speaks.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So, resource that I found. And it says, how to know when God is telling you to be still. And this was I I don't necessarily agree with everything on this website, so I'm not gonna, like, shout it out. It's a little bit
Speaker 2:shout, shout, let it all out.
Speaker 1:Thank you.
Speaker 2:I'm full of songs today. You're always full of songs. So
Speaker 1:how do you know? How do you know when God is physically telling you to shut it down?
Speaker 2:I almost had another song there.
Speaker 1:Because there are times when you do have to fight, whether it's for yourself or others. Mhmm. There are times where it's important to stand up and make the argument.
Speaker 2:There are times when it's not optional.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So when is God telling you to be still is a question. So that this doesn't just become a sign that you put in your house. It has to mean more. Right?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So this person says, you know that God is telling you to be still when your effort fails, even though you did what was required of you. Or when you get to the end of yourself, when you've done everything that you possibly could, you've tried everything God has asked, and you've seen no fruit. Nothing has come of it. Other people have tried, and nothing has come of what they've done.
Speaker 1:You're frustrated. You're weary. You're at the end of what you can do. Then God is telling you to be still. So I think that's really interesting.
Speaker 1:Because, again, you look at God still asking something of you. So whatever you're dealing with, whatever you're going through, what is god asking of you? Because even if at the end of it, he says, be still and just sit there for a minute Mhmm. You might still have had to do a bunch of stuff to get to the be still point.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Like, even and I know we talk about we use the podcast as an example all the time, but we've been working really hard on it. Yeah. And, you know, I got hit with pneumonia, and we've both been hit with work a lot. And it's just been it's been busy, and it's been striving.
Speaker 1:Mhmm. It's been weariness. It's been whatever. And we kind of hit a wall this week where we're struggling with some of our back office systems, and it's like, I've done everything I can do. Mhmm.
Speaker 1:So I have two options after I've done everything that Alyssa can do and Brianna has done everything that Brianna can do. Either give up, say, well, 30 episodes and we're out. That's enough.
Speaker 2:See you, bye. Drop the mic. We've said enough. We have said a lot. Thirty one hours worth essentially give or take.
Speaker 2:That's a lot of hours. Honestly we've can you imagine if we did a marathon where we just heard our voices for
Speaker 1:over a day someday, when we start actually, like, filming this and you can see beautiful faces. We both look particularly beautiful right now.
Speaker 2:We do look good. We
Speaker 1:both are at least tried today. We tried. I had therapy today, so I had to. And I have yoga later. When we do that, we should probably do a twenty four hour react to our own podcast and then just lose our minds entirely.
Speaker 2:Like, I've said a lot of stupid stuff. Like, a lot of brilliant things too, obviously. But a lot of inappropriate things. Quite a few. Yes.
Speaker 1:So someday. Someday, guys. Look forward to that one. But anyway, so our option's either to just quit or to say, I've done what you've asked of me. Mhmm.
Speaker 1:So now you have to take it. You have to take it from here because I can't do anything else.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:However, I've done thirty one hours worth of stuff. Like.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:And I mean, it's guys, it's a lot more than thirty one hours worth of work. But it's I've done all of this stuff leading up, and now perhaps is the moment to be still.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:So what are your things? Like, what what are your steps? What can you do in a world that feels confusing? Even if it's not
Speaker 2:a full step. Like, even if it's driving to the gym. You know, you don't have to go in. Yeah. But you drove there.
Speaker 2:Yeah. You know, just making small efforts every day. And then maybe God is gonna say, that's enough effort.
Speaker 1:Or even being bold enough to, like, have a conversation. Mhmm. Or, you know, there was a topic that came up in conversation this week with someone for me. And normally, I kind of shy away from I'm I'm really I know it sounds like it, but I am not a particularly aggressive or confrontational person. Like, I know that it sounds like I am.
Speaker 2:It sounds like you should be.
Speaker 1:Yeah. But I'm really like, in real life, I'm really not.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And a topic came up with someone this week that I felt was very important. And the topic has come up in the past, and I've just kind of like breezed on by, you know, whatever. But this time, I just felt that it was important that I I say the things that I believe to be true. And so I said
Speaker 2:them. Mhmm.
Speaker 1:And it was a little uncomfy. It wasn't, like, world ending, but it was a little uncomfy. But I do think that was an important, like, half step, you know, in having bigger conversations with that person about things that I really truly believe are important.
Speaker 2:And also think about with that particular issue, with you not saying what you truly believe and kind of holding in a little bit of not resentment, but disagreement between the two of you, that takes away from the relationship that you could have. Very true.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah. Eat the frog, boys
Speaker 2:and girls. Eat the frog. I've been saying that so much.
Speaker 1:Alright. So I wanted to also read this verse in a different version. So I'm gonna read it out of the message because and I know I know it's not a translation, boys and girls.
Speaker 2:I know. You know that I'm not telling the truth.
Speaker 1:So one of the things that I like about the NIV version, and this is in most of the translations, is that verse that says, and God is with her. Mhmm. Because and I recognize that it's not necessarily talking about a woman. Like, it's talking about, I believe, a city, and just using feminine pronouns. But we've said this before, because women are so rarely mentioned Mhmm.
Speaker 1:From the pulpit, in the Bible and not that there aren't women in the Bible, but remember, it was written by men in a patriarchal society.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:So we're primarily hearing from men. We're primarily hearing about men. Mhmm. Because men were considered more important at the time. So we're mostly hearing from and about men.
Speaker 1:In church, in the Bible, in our faith. So to hear, yeah. So to hear, she, her, said in the bible. I really like that. So that's why I wanted to read the NIV.
Speaker 1:Now the message, which is not officially a translation because it's paraphrased.
Speaker 2:Right. It's not, like, verse for verse.
Speaker 1:Right. So they'll group verses together. So instead of having like verse one, this section has verses one through three, and they kind of combine them and pull together all those verses to get to the base message of them. Mhmm. So this one does not have the section that says she and her.
Speaker 1:So that's why I wanted to read the NIV first. But I think this one is cool because it it's a little bit more understandable. It's a little bit more in modern day language. Mhmm. Again, this is Psalms 46, and that's verses one through 11.
Speaker 1:So it's a whole chapter. God is a safe place to hide, ready to help when we need him. We stand fearless at the cliff edge of doom, courageous in sea storm and earthquake, before the rush and roar of oceans, the tremors that shift mountains. Jacob wrestling god fights for us. God of angel armies protects us.
Speaker 1:River fountains splash joy, cooling god's city. This sacred haunt of the most high. God lives here. The streets are safe. God at your service from crack of dawn.
Speaker 1:Godless nations rant and rave. Kings and kingdoms threaten, but earth does anything he says. Jacob wrestling god fights for us. God of angel armies protects us. Remember, it's
Speaker 2:a song, so there's a reprise.
Speaker 1:Attention all. See the marvels of god. He plants flowers and trees all over the earth. Bands war from pole to pole. Breaks all the weapons across his knee.
Speaker 1:Step out of the traffic. Take a long loving look at me, your high god, above politics, above everything. Jacob wrestling god fights for us. God of angel armies protects us. So if there has ever been a better section of the Bible for right now, I don't know
Speaker 2:what it is. So I think a couple of different people on TikTok have said this. I know that there's past a pastor question mark that did like a a sermon on this, but this says from Barbara Brown Taylor. Don't quote me on that. But quote this.
Speaker 2:It says, The only clear line I draw these days is this: When my religion tries to come between me and my neighbor, I will choose my neighbor. Jesus never commands me to love my religion. There's another song that I was listening to last night from Lauren Daigle called Losing My Religion.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that one. And I
Speaker 2:think it ties into what you were saying there. Like, forget about religion. All of the rules and regulations and grandeur of religion and just rest in God. Mhmm. Because he's Big old pillow.
Speaker 1:Well, I liked a couple of the things that that version said, the way that it said it. So one of them was in segment four through six. It's really weird to read the message and not have, like, distinct verses, but I do understand why they did it. It says God lives here. The streets are safe.
Speaker 1:And I think as women in the climate we're in right now, the streets don't always feel safe. And I mean that metaphorically and practically. Mhmm. And that's not even just a right now thing. That's an always thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah. The streets don't always feel safe. They're not always safe Mhmm. For us. Practically, women have to walk around with pepper spray.
Speaker 1:Mhmm. Or depending on the state you're in, those little tiny tasers. And, you know, I watch this woman on TikTok all the time, and she packs women's self defense. Like, she sells women's self defense kits. And it's wild, the things that she's sending out.
Speaker 1:And it's not weapons necessarily, but just all kinds of stuff that I don't think I can name.
Speaker 2:Or even, like, girls are having to get creative because maybe carrying pepper spray isn't allowed where you're at. So they carry, like, a giant lock on a scarf so that it's easy to swing around I saw
Speaker 1:that on TikTok. I mean, are taking or having to take and and again, this is not new, but having to take self defense classes, having their daughters take self defense classes, making sure that their friends are taking self defense classes, etcetera, etcetera. And so for us and to to the women in our audience, like, I'm speaking to the choir here. Mhmm. To the men in our audience, if if you're out there, men, I want you to hear this because it's really important.
Speaker 1:The streets aren't safe for
Speaker 2:us. Mhmm.
Speaker 1:However, also, emotionally, the streets aren't always safe for us because of things being said, whether it's online, whether it's in person, whether it's in our churches, the streets aren't safe.
Speaker 2:And if that's too broad for you, think like Texas University right now. There are people walking around with signs saying, Your body, my choice. Right. And it's all over the Internet. Women are not feeling safe.
Speaker 1:Mhmm. There's a a statista report. I use that for work all the time. And they said that the occurrence of essentially tweets, sexist tweets and other social media posts is up like 600% or something like that. So I want you to understand the hurt and the pain of that.
Speaker 1:If if this doesn't affect you, I want you to hear and empathize with the hurt and the pain of that because it is our reality.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:So, again, this isn't heaven. Mhmm. This is not our heaven. For some groups right now, this might feel like you're heaven. But for us, this is not our heaven.
Speaker 1:Mhmm. However, just like in that verse, this isn't our hell either. And even though God lives in heaven, God also lives in us. Yeah. And so in God, we're safe.
Speaker 1:In God, the streets can be safe, even if in the world they're not.
Speaker 2:Would you say that this right now, the world that we live depiction of how Christ loved the church.
Speaker 1:I would say that. So I really liked the way that the message worded that verse just because and I'm sure they didn't even have that in mind No. When they were writing that, but that just hit me Mhmm. As part of it. And you'll notice that this version does not say be still.
Speaker 1:What it instead says,
Speaker 2:and I think it's hilarious. Does it say chill the heck out?
Speaker 1:It says step out of the traffic.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah. I did notice that. Step out of the traffic.
Speaker 1:But what an interesting way to say it.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Because, like, be still. Okay. It sounds very poetic and beautiful, and I like it. Mhmm. But practically, you're in the middle of the road in New York City, and 7,000 cars are coming at you.
Speaker 1:Mhmm. And they're not stopping. Mhmm. Get out of the road.
Speaker 2:Get out of the road.
Speaker 1:And I think
Speaker 2:that Get off the grass. There's something about popping up and all of you.
Speaker 1:You've done that before too.
Speaker 2:You're welcome.
Speaker 1:I think that one gives you a little bit more of a practical viewpoint of it because what I mean, you know, we can dive into what be still means, and obviously we have and you can too. But when it says you're actively putting yourself in massive harm, in really obvious massive harm Yes.
Speaker 2:Get out of the road, you moron. Maybe not you moron.
Speaker 1:I don't think the bible would say that, but I have added.
Speaker 2:And I'm not just talking to you. The message, plus Alyssa. We should write that.
Speaker 1:That's good. I'll make a commentary. It only says study notes. But when it says that, I just feel like that gives you more of a a practical way to see it. Mhmm.
Speaker 1:And then so that's part of the quote. Remember, there's that's where God is speaking. Mhmm. And again, this is not I I don't think god directly told the writer step out of traffic. But because I don't think it would have made sense at that point.
Speaker 1:There weren't so many cars back then. But then the next part of that quote is take a long loving look at me your high god above politics above everything. I don't even know how to like when I read this version because I originally, I just read the NIV. Read the NLT. Those are kind of my two go tos.
Speaker 1:Mhmm. And I I wasn't even necessarily gonna go to the message. And then I did. And it just felt like, oh, hello. You've picked exactly what I wanted you to talk about today.
Speaker 1:Mhmm. Wherever you are, what and I know some of our listeners are not in The US, so this may not be quite as poignant for you, this piece of things. I'm sure you still need moments to be still and you need to step out of the traffic. Mhmm. But for those of us in The US and if your country is dealing with other political issues, which many around the world are, to remember that God is above politics, that our moment in history, even though everything is important to God, your life is so critically important to God, he knows the hairs on your head.
Speaker 1:He knows exactly everything about you. Does he
Speaker 2:know the hairs on my chin?
Speaker 1:Your chinny chin chin? Probably. And it's a lot.
Speaker 2:He's like, woah, Brie. Take care of that. Here's some tweezers. May the lord be with you.
Speaker 1:But I think just to look at that and say, even though, yes, we are so important to god Mhmm. We are everything to god. We are his children. He adores us. This blip in history, even though it feels so big, and I don't wanna minimize it because I'm feeling it too.
Speaker 1:Mhmm. But if I can step out of my own way for a minute, our blip in history is just a blip. Even if it's an important blip, even if it's a historically significant blip, it's still just a blip. Mhmm. And I hope it's a fast one, but our politics in the grand scheme of eternity won't be as significant as we think they are.
Speaker 1:Mhmm. It's not that they don't hurt right now. It's not that they can't cause damage and pain. And, again, I really, really don't wanna minimize this because Brie and I have been obsessing for a while now. So many graders.
Speaker 1:I mean, you can go check out our TikTok for some of that. I don't know that you want to. It might be a little depressing. But but it's not it's not the end of us. Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's not the end of our podcast. It's not the end of us as people. It's not the end of our mission. It's not I mean, God has yet to ask me to stop. Mhmm.
Speaker 2:I think it's funny that you and I someone told us that we were on mission
Speaker 1:the other day.
Speaker 2:And I never thought of it that way. I was like, well, listen, I was just doing our thing. We're just making our podcast. We have loud mouths. We do.
Speaker 2:We do have that. But we are. Through some weird chain of events, you and I are on mission for Christ.
Speaker 1:It is a weird chain of events. Okay. We we should do an episode
Speaker 2:on the history of the pod.
Speaker 1:How did we get here?
Speaker 2:How did we get here? And where are we going? And who are we?
Speaker 1:And what have we done?
Speaker 2:And what are those? And where am I? And when am I? I know. Are you good?
Speaker 2:You done? Yeah.
Speaker 1:Alright. Yeah, that one hit me too. Just to think that, like, that this is maybe what we're supposed to do right now in this period of time. And maybe God was gearing us up for it. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah. It's always amazing to look back on your life, and I hope that for many of us, many of those of you out there, many of us sitting here in this room Mhmm. That we will look back on these times and be proud of the work that we do. Yeah. Because God, at least for Brie and I, I can look at the last gosh.
Speaker 1:We our first episode, I think, was in March.
Speaker 2:Was it March or was it January?
Speaker 1:We started planning and having meetings in January. Our episode premiered in March. And
Speaker 2:Which is so bizarre. Like, why then? Why then? Like, we said we were fed up then. We've been fed up for a while.
Speaker 2:And felt like we couldn't stay silent anymore, but like now it's blaringly obvious. I don't think we could have made it if we just started just now. No. Think could be too overwhelmed. Think we would Yeah.
Speaker 1:But here we are and we've done we've done the thing. We've been striving. Mhmm. You know?
Speaker 2:We've been striving.
Speaker 1:And how many I don't know how many times how many more times we gotta walk around Jericho. I don't know. I don't know. I'm tooting the the trumpet. I'm trying.
Speaker 1:I'm doing my best.
Speaker 2:She'd be tooting. I'll tell you that much.
Speaker 1:But I don't know how many more times we gotta walk around before god says, alright, that's enough. I've I've got
Speaker 2:it now. Let me tumble those walls.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I don't know. Mhmm. I hope that we can keep going. Mhmm.
Speaker 1:That you guys can keep going.
Speaker 2:That together That we can be maybe the stars in the darkness.
Speaker 1:Oh, I love it. That was a long pause. I thought you were just saying we should be stars. No. I didn't mean that.
Speaker 1:I'm not super up for that.
Speaker 2:No. I meant, like, the bright spots. Okay.
Speaker 1:Throughout the darkness. So then if we go back I'm gonna go back to the NIV real quick. Real quick. Are you guys if we go back to the NIV, the first part is be still, and we've gone through that. What does it look like to be still?
Speaker 1:What is god asking of us? Do we always be still? How do we know when to be still? But there's a second part of the verse. And the second part informs the first part.
Speaker 1:Right? And know that I am God. Mhmm. And that one is maybe just as hard. Like, be still is hard to tell your mind to stop racing.
Speaker 1:I was asking my husband Nathan today. I was like, can you turn your brain off? Because people always say about men, like and this is such a stereotype.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:But someone said this week, men have a nothing box. They have a nothing box in their brain where they can just go to their nothing box and there's they're just they can kind of sit there and zone and be blank. And I I do think that's a little bit sexist. Yeah. But I asked him.
Speaker 1:I was like, do you is that the case for you? Like, do you have a a moment where you can just be in nothingness? Mhmm. And he's like, nope. Not really.
Speaker 1:He said I his mind isn't always racing.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:But he's always, you know, thinking on something. There's there's always those thoughts going just like because here's the thing. We want to think men and women are so different. We are so obsessed with thinking men and women are so different. They're not.
Speaker 1:We're the same. People are people.
Speaker 2:Creating the differences. Right. We're creating the divide. Right. Instead of talking about the similarities.
Speaker 2:Like that episode of frickin' Dairy Girls. Oh my goodness. Let me go off on my sofa. Oh, it's okay. They had the Catholics and they had the Protestants and they brought them all into a room and they had two chalkboards and they said, Write down similarities between the two of you.
Speaker 2:And they just could not. None of them could think of any similarities between the two groups of people. They could only think of differences. And I feel like that's our society.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a really good comparison. I remember that episode. I saw that one.
Speaker 2:You're welcome. It's a good show. But
Speaker 1:we are all struggling to be still, right? Like, that's hard. It's real hard to just stop and say, all right, God, I'm handing this all to you. Because even in sermons, you'll hear people be like, Okay, well, you got to give it to God, and then you might have to give it to God again. And then you might have to give it to him again.
Speaker 2:You just keep give it. Give it. Give it.
Speaker 1:Because because we don't know how. We don't know how to just hit over their brains and not be in control for a minute. Like, as human beings to just not need control, to just say, I trust you, god. Now, I'm not saying trust human beings. I'm saying trust your one and only god.
Speaker 1:Okay? Perfect god. Yes. It's not confuse things. But the second part of that verse is, and know that I am god.
Speaker 1:Mhmm. And know that I am god. Mhmm. What does it mean to know something? Like, if I was to say, I know Brianna.
Speaker 2:Do you? Yeah. I really, really do.
Speaker 1:What I mean in that is that I know quite literally every tiny thing about her. I may know how many hairs are on her chin. How many?
Speaker 2:Can you tell me?
Speaker 1:73. I have grown up with her. We have been together since I was two and a half. Like Mhmm. Every moment, pretty much of every day
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:We are together. And so I know Mhmm. Brie. And she knows me. If I was to find someone on the street, I could say, I met this person.
Speaker 1:Mhmm. And you might colloquially You
Speaker 2:know what? Pick a different word. Nobody knows what it means.
Speaker 1:Might casually say, I know this person. But the reality is, do you know them? Do you really intensely know who they are as a person?
Speaker 2:Do you know who you are? The muffin man. I was quoting Juana. I was going trick.
Speaker 1:And so who is God? And when you need to be still and you need to trust God in something, the only way to do that, the only way to hand him something is to know that he can take it. Right? Mhmm. Cause if you don't know that he can handle it,
Speaker 2:you can't give it to him. Yeah. I would say if you're looking for a song to go along with this episode, look at Peace Be Still by The Belonging Co, I guess. I love it. The chorus goes, Peace Be Still, say the word and I will I'm about to sing it.
Speaker 2:Set my feet upon the sea till I'm dancing in the deep. Peace Be Still, you are here, so would as well. Even when my eyes can't see, I will trust the voice that speaks.
Speaker 1:Mhmm. So good. I think you should have sang it, and frankly, I'm disappointed that you didn't.
Speaker 2:Peace be. I'm done. Don't think it's I
Speaker 1:think we destroy people's ears.
Speaker 2:Sorry headphones. They're listening to it in headphones. Maybe we should put a warning?
Speaker 1:Headphones not recommended. Anyway, I think it's important to create the relationship with God. And this was another thing in church this last week. He said, you know, you train for war in times of peace. Mhmm.
Speaker 1:So you train for strong faith in times when it's not that hard. Mhmm.
Speaker 2:So you
Speaker 1:create your relationship with god in times when it's not that hard, and then it gets tested, and then maybe your training wasn't as good as you thought. Yeah. But either way, train that relationship with God. Have that relationship with God. Keep reading.
Speaker 1:Keep researching. Keep listening to whatever podcasts you're listening to or watching whatever sermons you're watching.
Speaker 2:And don't wait. Don't wait until tomorrow or put anything off. Just eat the frog and start it now.
Speaker 1:Because when you you come to a point where you have to be still, that point is, it's emotionally be still or whether it is eventually the physical just be still, just sit still, you gotta have something to fall back on. If you have hope. If you have no relationship with God, you can't be still and know that he's God. No. You can't do that.
Speaker 2:Because you don't know.
Speaker 1:Right. And that's what I don't like about some of the signs and some of the posters that literally just say be still. Because it's like giving someone Half the truth. Half the instructions. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Be still. Okay, well well, what happens while I'm being still?
Speaker 2:Right. How long do I have
Speaker 1:to be still I have to know that in the background, God is doing what he's supposed to be doing. Mhmm. God is still taking care of the things that I was trying to take care of and I couldn't do on my own. Mhmm. I have to know that.
Speaker 1:And if I don't know God, I don't know that. Mhmm. So be still. Preach. But also know that he's god.
Speaker 1:Mhmm. It's a two parter. And also read the whole section because it's really good. Mhmm. It's a really good psalm.
Speaker 2:It's very good. Tattoo it on yourselves and then send us a picture. Oh, would love that. But not with, like, a flower.
Speaker 1:No. Something hardcore. A tornado?
Speaker 2:Is that hardcore? I don't know. A flying cow?
Speaker 1:A flying cow. I love it.
Speaker 2:I'll chat you over the flying cow. Be still. Don't try and rescue your cow. It's too late. Alright.
Speaker 2:Don't try. Don't even try. Okay, boys and girls.
Speaker 1:I have a class to go to. So thank you guys so much for hanging out with us and listening.
Speaker 2:So next week Next week, we're eating a Thanksgiving pie that was really too dry. Perhaps we'll die.
Speaker 1:Oh, good.
Speaker 2:Then we're talking about being thankful. Yeah. We'll talk a little bit about
Speaker 1:I mean, we're gonna Is it next week? It's not next week, but
Speaker 2:We could do a multiple parter. A two parter on
Speaker 1:Thank you.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Okay. We'll see you for a Thanksgiving episode. Hey. If you know anybody who came over on the Mayflower, please share it with share this podcast with them and say thank you.
Speaker 1:I don't think we should say thank you to the people who came over on
Speaker 2:the Mayflower.
Speaker 1:Didn't do like that. You have any tea?
Speaker 2:That's a whole different time period. Say, do you have scurvy? Okay. Share the podcast with them. We've lost our minds.
Speaker 2:We'll see you next week. Love you. Bye.